News Mon/Tues/Wed/Thurs/Fri/Sat/Sun

  

Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.

__________________________ 

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. 

__________________________

And we've been in the mountain of indifference too long and ultimately we must be concerned about the  least of these; we must be concerned about the poverty-stricken because our destinies are tied together.  And somehow in the final analysis, as long as there is poverty in the world, nobody can be totally rich.  We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. And what  affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until  you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.  John Donne caught it years ago and placed it in graphic terms, "No man is an island entire of itself; every  man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." And he goes on toward the end to say, "Any man's  death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never sin to know for whom the  bell tolls, it tolls for thee." And when we see this, we will move out of the mountain of indifference  concerning poverty.

There are certain technical words within every academic discipline which soon become stereotypes and  clichés. Every academic discipline has its technical nomenclature. Modern psychology has a word that  is probably used more than any other word in psychology. It is the word "maladjusted." Certainly we all  want to live the well adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic and schizophrenic personalities. But I must  honestly say to you tonight my friends that there are some things in our world, there are some things in  our nation to which I'm proud to be maladjusted, to which I call upon all men of goodwill to be  maladjusted until the good society is realized. I must honestly say to you that I never intend to adjust  myself to segregation and discrimination. I never intend to become adjusted to religious bigotry. I never  intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to  the few. I never intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism and the self defeating effects of  physical violence.
__________________________

Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice  everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.  Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow,  provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an  outsider anywhere within its bounds.
__________________________

Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man's tragic  separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness?
__________________________

Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that  hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist  for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream." Was not  Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the L-rd Jesus." Was not  Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me G-d." And John Bunyan: "I  will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham  Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these  truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal . . ." So the question is not whether we will be  extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we  be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on  Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same  crime--the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their  environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose  above his environment.  

__________________________
__________________________
__________________________   

All Donald Trump has to do to prevent further political violence is say one sentence: "The election was not stolen, Biden really won all those states and the electoral college and popular vote."

If the Republicans in Congress tweeting MLK quotes today real cared about his legacy, they'd have already passed the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

No statement yet from Ted Cruz on The New Yorker video showing one of the Trump supporters who broke into the Capitol saying, "I think [Ted] Cruz would want us to do this, so I think we're good."

Hawaii Proud Boy Nick Ochs used a Christian website to bankroll both his trip for Jan. 6 assault of the Capitol AND his legal fund after his arrest. He was  working for an outlet called "Murder the Media."
https://washingtonpost.com/investigations/a-place-to-fund-hope-how-proud-boys-and-other-fringe-groups-found-refuge-on-a-christian-fundraising-website/2021/01/18/14a536ee-574b-11eb-a08b-f1381ef3d207_story.html

The Saints closed out a 4-year span where they won 49 regular season games. That's the most wins in a 4-year span by a team that failed to reach a Super Bowl
https://twitter.com/ESPNStatsInfo/status/1351167466051780608

Bruce Arians: Patriots did not allow Tom Brady to coach, I do | "Consummate leader," Arians said, via NBC Sports' Peter King. "Has been all year. Got the air of confidence that permeates through our team every day. I allow him to be himself. Like, New England didn't allow him to coach. I allow him to coach. I just sit back sometimes and watch." | "Few weeks ago, I was kinda upset I didn't make the Pro Bowl. He's like, 'D, there's a bigger bowl I'm chasing. We're all chasing it. C'mon.' I just thought, man, it's a blessing to hear that. I need to hear that. This thing's about us. He's still chasing those bowls in his forties. I am just so grateful to be able to spend this time with him." | This week will be Brady's 14th conference championship, which is pretty remarkable considering he's been a starting quarterback for 20 seasons.
https://www.radio.com/weei/sports/patriots/bruce-arians-patriots-did-not-allow-tom-brady-to-coach

I'm sure the twittersphere will only have kind things to say about this gesture. Everybody gets a high five!
https://twitter.com/TomBrady/status/1351181065289949184

Cavaliers expected to trade or release Kevin Porter Jr. after outburst
https://twitter.com/joevardon/status/1351201183067758593

Kevin Porter Jr grew angry when he entered the locker room and realized the team gave his old locker to Taurean Prince, who was acquired in a trade. Porter, whose locker was moved to the wall where the younger, end-of-bench players reside, began yelling and at one point threw food (Porter, 20, who has not played this season due to personal issues)
https://theathletic.com/2329971/2021/01/18/kevin-porter-jr-cleveland-cavaliers-trade-release?source=user-shared-article

KPJs 20-21 year:
- Punched a woman
- Arrested in Mahoning County (LOL) with a firearm and drugs
- Threw food and had a temper tantrum because his locker was moved
He's not going to be in the NBA until he figures out how to pretend to be an adult

Nikola Jokic puts the Jazz on a swivel with multiple fake water polo passes
https://streamable.com/kgyboo

New day, newly unsealed charging docs from the Capitol insurrection: Texas man ID'd as a member of a militia extremist group allegedly threatened to murder his children if they turned him in
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20458351/1-16-21-us-v-guy-reffitt-complaint-affidavit.pdf

Rep. Steve Cohen Says He Saw Lauren Boebert Giving Tour Before Capitol Riot Day | Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) said Monday that he saw QAnon-curious freshman Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (R-CO) leading a "large group" through a tour of the Capitol in the days before the riots. Cohen said he does not know whether anyone in the crowd later took part in the violent Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Democrats have alleged that a GOP colleague gave a "reconnaissance" tour of the Capitol the day before the mob stormed the building. Over the weekend, Boebert denied she was the member - even though no one had accused her by name - saying she did not guide "any outside groups of 'insurrectionists.'"
https://www.thedailybeast.com/rep-steve-cohen-says-he-saw-rep-lauren-boebert-giving-tour-before-capitol-riot-day

Boebert's mother - also a QAnon terrorist - said her daughter gave herself and other people "detailed tours" of the Capitol prior to the terrorist attack.
https://coloradosun.com/2021/01/14/lauren-boebert-first-week-in-congress/

Biden Climate Team Says It Underestimated Trump's Damage. Agency reviews have found greater budget cuts, staff losses and elimination of climate programs than initially thought
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/biden-climate-team-says-it-underestimated-trumps-damage/

A Washington Post review found that Proud Boys and other fringe groups raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for body armor, weapons, travel expenses, medical costs and legal funds for the Jan. 6 rally via the Christian fundraising website GiveSendGo.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/a-place-to-fund-hope-how-proud-boys-and-other-fringe-groups-found-refuge-on-a-christian-fundraising-website/2021/01/18/14a536ee-574b-11eb-a08b-f1381ef3d207_story.html

State Republican leaders chasing out those members who served honorably is quite a sight: Michigan Republicans seek to replace Republican canvasser who certified election
https://detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/18/michigan-republicans-seek-replace-canvasser-who-certified-election/4202195001/ 

Bernie Sanders mural defaced in DC; police investigating as hate crime.     Between Dec. 15 and Jan. 14, police say someone painted an image of Pepe the Frog on the Sanders mural on a concrete wall under the Interstate 395 overpass in the 100 Block of H Street SE.    The Pepe the Frog meme, which started as an innocuous cartoon online, has been repurposed by white nationalists and anti-Semites. The Anti-Defamation League declared the frog a hate symbol five years ago.
https://wtop.com/dc/2021/01/bernie-sanders-mural-defaced-in-dc-police-investigating-as-hate-crime/
https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/pepe-the-frog

Trump signed an order honoring Woody Guthrie, who once wrote a song about Trump's racist father
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_Trump
https://twitter.com/Bencjacobs/status/1351225229843050496

Pelosi Sends Letter to Acting Defense Secretary Miller Demanding Halt to Attempts to Install Unqualified NSA General Counsel Candidate
https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/11821-0

Patrick passed all of his tests last night. He didn't actually hit his head, there was a nerve in his neck that got tweaked that made him out of it. He's getting testing done on his neck/nerve today but did clear all tests last night.
https://twitter.com/cdotharrison/status/1351207913629560842

#Chiefs S Daniel Sorensen won't be suspended for spearing #Browns WR Rashard Higgins on Sunday, I'm told. The play will be reviewed for a possible fine, which is standard. No flag was thrown and the hit caused a critical fumble and touchback in Kansas City's win.
https://twitter.com/tompelissero/status/1351226675233775620

Bruce Arians says Antonio Brown is getting an MRI today on his injured knee.
https://twitter.com/gregauman/status/1351216765422940166

It weird how little attention Antonio Brown has received since he returned to playing. Evans, G/dwin, Johnson, Miller, Gronk, Brate, McCoy, Rojo, Fournette, Hudson (but rarely used)...so many weapons even without an injured Brown.

Drew Brees is a big reason for the Saints playoff failures the last 4 years
2017 - threw 2 INT in the first half to go down 17-0 to the Vikings. Brought his team back only to lose to the Minny Miracle. Still though, Brees was average this game, above average at best. Great second half, but that's only half of the game.
2018 - absolutely wrecked on the no PI call, but what everyone forgets is that Brees threw an INT in overtime to hand the game to the Rams on a platter. And th  player who caught the pick was already laying on the ground lol
2019 - was just straight up bad against the Vikings and threw 2 really bad INTs. Outplayed by Taysom Hill
2020 - played awful against the Bucs and couldn't throw it passed 20 yards down the field. Threw 3 INTs
In all those games except the minny miracle the Saints defense did its job. Held the opposing team to 20 points or under but Brees' bad turnovers played a big part in losing the game. He's the NFL's Clayton Kershaw. Dynamite in the regular season, but often struggles in the playoffs (granted some of Kershaw's struggles may have been related to some trash cans in Houston). 

This new White House order on statues is a master class in trolling. It cites the razing of the White House in 1812, the assassinations of Lincoln and MLK, and even 9/11. It presents the National Garden as a response to an attack of similar scale: toppled monuments. Here's the full rundown of the Social Studies Hall of Fame:
https://whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-building-national-garden-american-heroes/

Trump's Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham is stepping down on Jan. 20, months before the end of his term, after whistleblowers complained he was pushing for statistically indefensible data.
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/18/957302276/trumps-census-director-to-quit-after-trying-to-rush-out-indefensible-report

It's pretty wild to see people who tried to disenfranchise millions of black voters and decried Raphael Warnock as a "radical marxist/socialist"...two weeks ago...posting MLK quotes today. So many posting about him fondly today oppose everything he stood for and are fighting to undo what he accomplished and what has been accomplished after him and would be his sworn enemies were he alive today.

It's good to hear that the fire that led to a Capitol lockdown appears to be out. Hopefully no one was hurt. But maybe you shouldn't be making fun of people for being on edge after they had to hide in the Capitol as rioters stormed it less than two weeks ago.

"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

MyPillow soon to be Dominion Sleep Systems: Dominion sends a legal letter to Mike Lindell, the latest in a series to people like Powell and Giuliani over their false claims about the machines
https://nytimes.com/live/2021/01/18/us/inauguration-day-biden/mike-lindell-mypillow-dominion-voting
https://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/1351275158938513412

Malik Beasley imitates Trae Young's foul drawing techniques after being called for the personal
https://streamable.com/gmpw0a

Down by 11 with 6 seconds left, D'Angelo Russell tries to take the ball away from Hunter and forces a jump ball. During the jump ball, he doesn't bother jumping or trying to get the ball
https://streamable.com/3058k6

A seventh Wizards player and a staff member test positive for the coronavirus
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1351306929767915549

YOU WANT THE NBA? VACCINATE THE TEAMS ALREADY.

Army reservist with secret-level security clearance among the latest charged in connection with pro-Trump terrorist attack on Capitol. Federal investigators said the Army reservist — Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, of Colts Neck, New Jersey — was described by an informant as "an avowed White supremacist and Nazi sympathizer." According to court documents, in a phone call with the informant on Thursday that was recorded by law enforcement, Hale-Cusanelli can be heard saying that he encouraged members of the mob to "advance" through the Capitol and gave directions "via both voice and hand signals." It's not clear if he's been arrested.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/17/politics/capitol-riot-latest-charged-army-reservist/index.html

Trump promoted N.M. official's comment that 'the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.' Now the man is arrested in the Capitol riot.

Andrew Wiggins is quietly averaging close to 20 ppg on 37% 3P shooting with lockdown defense for the Golden State Warriors

The San Diego Padres are in agreement on a deal to acquire right-hander Joe Musgrove from the Pittsburgh Pirates
https://twitter.com/jeffpassan/status/1351307345448546308

Darvish, Snell, Clevinger, Lamet, Musgrove, Paddack, Gore, Weathers, Morejon. That's not just five deep.....

The Ravens announce they've waived QB Robert Griffin III and WR De'Anthony Harris. CB Davontae Harris and CB Tramon Williams also released.
https://twitter.com/jonas_shaffer/status/1351290960299352064

Asked a source at Dominion Voting Systems if the company is satisfied with the walk-backs by media outlets who received litigation warnings: "Dominion found the clarifications from Fox News and NewsMax bizarre and wholly unsatisfying. And OAN has done nothing."
https://twitter.com/johnkruzel/status/1351336078461034497

Rep. James Clyburn on CNN: "When [Biden] lays out his agenda and invites participation from the other side, if they're going to be recalcitrant, if they're going to throw up roadblocks, go on without them. Use your executive authority if they refuse to cooperate.'"
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1351343619098099713

Kevin Durant points out Bobby Portis violating the three second violation and gets the call
https://streamable.com/xc98go

Lowry yeets the 3
https://streamable.com/mb5ef5

Plumlee, Mason YAMS it home on Bam
https://streamable.com/cfykjv

Harden directs his team with a 4D chess pass
https://streamable.com/er2ph8

Kevin Durant shoves Giannis
https://streamable.com/6l7i0j

Devin Booker struggles in a narrow loss to the Grizzlies: 12 points, 5-21 from the field, and a couple missed layups in 35 minutes

Left-handed starter Jon Lester and the Washington Nationals are in agreement on a one-year deal with a mutual option, pending physical, sources familiar with the contract told ESPN. After a phenomenal six years in Chicago, Lester off to D.C. to join Scherzer, Strasburg, Corbin.
https://twitter.com/jeffpassan/status/1351336523258425344

The Democrat's incoming White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: "With the pandemic worsening, and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel.  On the advice of our medical team, the Administration does not intend to lift these restrictions on 1/26. In fact, we plan to strengthen public health measures around international travel in order to further mitigate the spread of Covid-19."
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-us-travel-ban-covid-uk-europe-biden-brazil-b1789169.html

Former attorney general Bill Barr tells ITV that questioning the legitimacy of the US presidential election precipitated the Jan 6 US Capitol terrorist attack
https://twitter.com/i/status/1351278022834462726
https://itv.com/news/2021-01-18/former-us-attorney-general-william-barr-tells-itv-news-questioning-election-legitimacy-precipitated-capitol-riots

Senior Pentagon officials denied an early December request by 2021 inauguration event planners to vaccinate the National Guard troops tapped to secure Washington during the inauguration, according to two officials familiar with the matter.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/pentagon-denied-request-to-give-covid-19-vaccine-to-national-guard-troops-before-inauguration 

The Golden State Warriors (7-6) defeat the Los Angeles Lakers (11-4) 115-113, led by 26 points from Steph Curry

Giannis Antetokounmpo puts up 34 points 12 rebounds and 7 assist despite the 123-125 loss against the Brooklyn Nets

Curry stepsback and hits the deep 3 in AD's face
https://streamable.com/zhqidb

LeBron can't get the game winner to fall and the Warriors win
https://streamable.com/4xp5gr

Harden slaps the Ref's ass
https://streamable.com/e8e655

The Brooklyn Nets (9-6) defeat the Milwaukee Bucks (9-5) 125-123 as James Harden and Kevin Durant combine for 64 points

Victor Oladipo in his Rockets debut: 32pts | 5reb | 9ast |2stl

Draymond coaching Wiseman to always have eyes on the ball
https://streamable.com/te2luh

Kelly Oubre gets a technical for blowing a kiss for Montrezl
https://streamable.com/fwmu0u

Warriors now have a 22-point comeback vs Clippers and a 19-point comeback vs. Lakers

Giannis in another "lackluster" 4th quarter had 11pts on 5/6 shooting from the field.

Giannis pulls up from deep
https://streamable.com/brcrvs

Harden finds Durant for the open 3 to give the Nets the lead
https://streamable.com/6aiz61

James Harden on KD: "I know what type of player Kevin Durant is. He's one of the best players to ever touch a basketball. It's G/d-given, 7-foot, and can basically do everything. For me, it's not trying to compete with that. It's allowing Kevin to be the best Kevin he can be."

Sigh.....Trail Blazers star CJ McCollum has a fractured left foot and will miss an extended period of time
https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1351426461996118016

LeBron gets called for a travel in the last 2 mins
https://streamable.com/3obh51

Draymond lays it in to give the Warriors their first lead of the game
https://streamable.com/47a6k6

Schröder's flop causes a wide open Curry 3 followed by a technical, giving Warriors life
https://streamable.com/aqpj77

The Toronto Raptors (5-8) defeat the Dallas Mavericks (6-7) 116-93, behind Kyle Lowry's 23/9/7

127 Republicans Who Voted To Overturn The Election Results To Keep Racist Trump As President Are Now Praising MLK
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/republicans-electoral-college-martin-luther-king-jr-day_n_60062d47c5b62c0057bf9937

Chris Boucher ends the game with 21 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 blocks in 27 minutes

Awkward moment during Harden's postgame interview as he's not really sure whether the interview has ended
https://streamable.com/ms3fpt

Lebron gets locked up by Wanamaker and airballs the mid range jumper
https://streamable.com/bcw504

Durant drops the ball and the refs take their time calling the timeout for the Bucks
https://streamable.com/eq19iy

Wiseman upset with himself after picking up his 5th foul, punches a cooler.
https://streamable.com/hln74z

Harden scores on the fast-break 4 on 1
https://streamable.com/iftdep

Tim Hardaway Jr. tonight: 0-12, 5 rebounds, 2 turnovers, 1 assist, 0 points (self.nba)

Lakers leave Wiggins wide open again and he makes them pay with another 3
https://streamable.com/c20dd0

Lebron furious at KCP for passing up the shot
https://streamable.com/1opfw3

The Chicago Bulls (6-8) Defeat the Houston Rockets (4-8), 125-120 Behind Zach Lavine 33/7/4

Luka Dončić throws frustrated elbow to the jaw of Stanley Johnson
https://streamable.com/6wgv90

Curry hits a difficult 1st quarter buzzer beater over LeBron and Caruso
https://streamable.com/u6hyok

Adebayo denies Grant in the clutch
https://streamable.com/dgin6k

Oubre bullies his way through Kuzma for 2 and flexes on him
https://streamable.com/np7vzs

Steph with the sweet hesitation move followed by a no look pass to a cutting Oubre for the slam
https://streamable.com/5z89lt

Paschall's got one of the nastiest bully ball games in the league. Every time he gets down low he's throwing guys around. He's about as heavy as LeBron but with a lower center of gravity, very Barkley like

18-7 run by the Warriors to end it. The Lakers made 1 field goal in the final 8 minutes

Biden to ban special bonuses for appointees, expand lobbying prohibitions in new ethics rules
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-ethics-administration/2021/01/18/56a9a97a-59bd-11eb-a976-bad6431e03e2_story.html

The UK will introduce a new visa at the end of January that will give 5.4 million Hong Kong residents - a staggering 70% of the territory's population - the right to come and live in the UK
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-55357495

Parler partially reappears with support from Russian technology firm
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-parler-russia/parler-partially-reappears-with-support-from-russian-technology-firm-idUSKBN29N23N

Giuliani used provisional ballot to vote in 2020 election, same method he disparaged in fighting to overturn results
https://thehill.com/homenews/news/534723-giuliani-used-provisional-ballot-to-vote-in-2020-election-same-method-he

_____________________

https://apnews.com/article/biden-inauguration-joe-biden-donald-trump-biden-cabinet-cabinets-db6342bc476d181e471c9672f2c10ea5

Biden's national security Cabinet nominees face Senate tests beginning today

President-elect Joe Biden's national security Cabinet may be bare on Day One of his presidency, but an inauguration eve spurt of Senate confirmation hearings suggests that won't be the case for long.

While the nominees to head the State Department, the Pentagon, Homeland Security and the intelligence community are unlikely to be confirmed by the time Biden takes the oath of office at noon Wednesday, some could be in place within days.

The Senate typically confirms some nominees, particularly the secretaries of defense, on Inauguration Day, though raw feelings about President Donald Trump four years ago led to Democratic-caused delays, except for James Mattis at the Pentagon. This year, the tension is heightened by Trump's impeachment and an extraordinary military presence in Washington because of fears of extremist violence.

Putting his national security team in place quickly is a high priority for Biden, not only because of his hopes for reversing or modifying Trump administration policy shifts but also because of diplomatic, military and intelligence problems around the world that may create challenges early in his tenure.

The most controversial of the group may be Lloyd Austin, the recently retired Army general whom Biden selected to lead the Pentagon. Austin will need not only a favorable confirmation vote in the Senate but also a waiver by both the House and the Senate because he has been out of uniform only four years.

The last time a new president did not have his secretary of defense confirmed by Inauguration Day was in 1989. President George H.W. Bush's nominee, John Tower, had run into opposition and ended up rejected by the Senate several weeks later.

Also up for confirmation are Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden's nominee for secretary of the Department of Homeland Security; Biden confidant Antony Blinken to lead the State Department; Avril Haines to be the first woman to serve as director of national intelligence; and Janet Yellen as treasury secretary, another first for a woman.

Austin is testifying Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, but the panel will not be in position to vote until he gets the waiver. Republicans are expected to broadly support the Austin nomination, as are Democrats.

Biden's emerging Cabinet marks a return to a more traditional approach to governing, relying on veteran policymakers with deep expertise and strong relationships in Washington and global capitals. Austin is something of an exception in that only twice in history has a recently retired general served as defense secretary — most recently Mattis.

Austin, who would be the first Black secretary of defense, retired from the military as a four-star general in 2016. The law requires a minimum seven-year waiting period.

Doubts about the wisdom of having a recently retired officer running the Pentagon are rooted in an American tradition of protecting against excessive military influence by ensuring that civilians are in control. When he announced Austin as his pick in December, Biden insisted he is "uniquely suited" for the job.

Lindsay P. Cohn, an expert on civil-military relations and an associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College, said at a Senate hearing on the subject last week that an Austin waiver raises worrying risks.

"Choosing a recently retired general officer and arguing that he is uniquely qualified for the current challenges furthers the narrative that military officers are better at things and more reliable or trustworthy than civil servants or other civilians," she said. "This is hugely problematic at a time when one of the biggest challenges facing the country is the need to restore trust and faith in the political system. Implying that only a military officer can do this job at this time is counterproductive to that goal."

Some Democrats have already said they will oppose a waiver. They argue that granting it for two administrations in a row makes the exception more like a rule. Even so, a favorable vote seems likely.

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., on Friday introduced waiver legislation for Austin.

Blinken, Biden's nominee to be America's top diplomat, said he is ready to confront challenges posed by China, Iran, North Korea and Russia and is committed to rebuilding the State Department after four years of atrophy under the Trump administration,

Blinken will tell the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that he sees a world of rising nationalism and receding democracy. In remarks prepared for his confirmation hearing, Blinken will say that mounting threats from authoritarian states are reshaping all aspects of human lives, particularly in cyberspace. He'll say that American global leadership still matters and without it rivals will either step in to fill the vacuum or there will be chaos — and neither is a palatable choice.

Blinken also promises to bring Congress in as a full foreign policy partner, a subtle jab at the Trump administration and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who routinely ignored or bypassed lawmakers in policy-making. He called the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill "senseless and searing" and pledged to work with Congress.

Mayorkas, Biden's nominee for secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, would be the first Latino and first immigrant to lead the agency. That's notable because DHS oversees border enforcement and the immigration services agency in addition to missions that include overseeing cybersecurity for critical infrastructure and civilian federal agencies.

Haines, a former CIA deputy director and former deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration, was to have appeared Friday before the Senate intelligence committee, but the hearing for her confirmation to be director of national intelligence, or DNI, was postponed until Tuesday. She is expected to promise to keep politics out of the intelligence community, a departure from a Trump administration that saw repeated pressure on intelligence officials to shape intelligence to the Republican president's liking.

"To be effective, the DNI must never shy away from speaking truth to power — even, especially, when doing so may be inconvenient or difficult," Haines will say, according to excerpts of her prepared remarks.

Yellen, the nominee for treasury secretary, is certain to be quizzed by the Senate Finance Committee about the details of Biden's proposed $1.9 trillion emergency relief plan announced last week.

"Without further action, we risk a longer, more painful recession now — and long-term scarring of the economy later," Yellen says in prepared testimony. She adds that "right now, with interest rates at historic lows, the smartest thing we can do is act big," saying that in the long run "the benefits will far outweigh the costs."
_____________________ 

Baltimore is releasing veteran RB Mark Ingram on Tuesday, per league sources. The move will save the Ravens $5 million against the 2021 cap and allow Ingram to get an early jump on free agency. Ingram is healthy and believes he has plenty to offer for 2021.
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1351353534898442241

Chiefs QB Mahomes remains in concussion protocol
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-football-nfl-kc-mahomes-idUSKBN29N1X0

Tom Brady has won 8 straight games against Mike Pettine coached defenses with 15 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. Pettine is currently defense coordinator for Green Bay Packers, who will host Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccanneers Sunday.

Saints' WR Michael Thomas is likely to have surgeries on both the torn deltoid and other injured ligaments in his high ankle this offseason, per source. He knew it was likely Drew Brees' last year and didn't want to miss out trying win a Super Bowl with him.
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1351559395516276738

Update on Delonte West: West now has a job at the Rebound therapy center in Florida, which is the rehab facility he attended. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban reunited West with his mother in September and has stayed in close contact.
https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1351541383706927108

The Republican-controlled Senate held 12 confirmation hearings before the Trump inaugural in 2017.  This year, the Republican-controlled Senate (two Georgia-Elect Senators not yet certified) will hold only 5 hearings, all on the last possible day, with almost all the Republicans on record opposing the 5 nominees.

10 am: Treasury (Yellen), DHS (Mayorkas), DNI (Haines).
2 pm: State (Blinken)
3 pm: Defense (Austin)

Wow, cabinet nominees that can actually answer questions posed to them. This is so different than 4 years ago.

Senator Cornyn has apparently developed a newfound concern for the tax-returns of public servants...
Previously..."John Cornyn says President Trump's tax returns are not within legitimate scope of congressional oversight."
https://sports.yahoo.com/sen-john-cornyn-says-president-043217786.html

Does Lankford understand that traveling by plane isn't the only legal way to enter the US? You can walk, drive, ride a bike, pogo stick, skate board, and even moonwalk up to the US border and ask for asylum. That's all legal.

You'd Think They Would Shut Down Their Social Media Accounts And Cut Ties. Nope: Two National Guardsmen Pulled From Biden Inauguration Security For Far-Right Militia Ties
https://www.thedailybeast.com/two-national-guard-members-reassigned-from-biden-inauguration-for-far-right-militia-ties-ap-reports

Rare black seal pups spotted at Blakeney Point nature reserve
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-55705288

Trump Abandons Attempts to Rush Census and Use Citizenship Data Improperly - In a lawsuit challenging plans aimed at undercounting communities of color, the administration agreed not to send data to the White House before Biden is inaugurated
https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/trump-abandons-attempts-rush-census-and-use-citizenship-data-improperly

Josh Groban, Patti LaBelle to perform at virtual inaugural prayer service
https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/534766-josh-groban-patti-labelle-to-perform-at-virtual-inaugural

Cruz is presiding over the Senate and Hawkey hovering to the side as McConnell makes this comment: Mitch McConnell on the rioters who invaded the Capitol on Jan 6: "The mob was fed lies...they were provoked by the President and other powerful people, and they tried to use fear and violence to stop a specific proceeding of the first branch of the federal government which they did not like."
https://twitter.com/i/status/1351578782826721283
https://twitter.com/cspan/status/1351578782826721283

He was the powerful person spreading lies for decades. He's a pure evil terrorist.

This is huge: Incoming DNI, Avril Haines, just committed to releasing an unclassified report on the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi. For two years, I've been fighting for transparency and accountability for those responsible. We are closer than ever to getting #JusticeForJamal.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1351579605568786434
https://twitter.com/RonWyden/status/1351579605568786434
https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1351568901075841029

One of Kamala Harris' first official acts tomorrow will be to swear in the three new Democratic senators - two from Ga, the other replacing her from CA. Iit's expected around 4p tomorrow at the moment.

Pacers center Myles Turner has a slight fracture in his right hand and will be re-evaluated in the coming days. Turner is the NBA leader in blocked shots (4.2 per game).News (twitter.com)
https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1351564389359431682

Georgia certifies Ossoff, Warnock victories, paving way for Democratic control of Senate (
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/georgia-certifies-ossoff-warnock-victories-paving-way-for-democratic-control-of-senate/2021/01/19/8b9cf672-5a59-11eb-a976-bad6431e03e2_story.html

Republican Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene referred to Parkland school shooting as 'false flag' event on Facebook
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/534833-gop-rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-referred-to-parkland-school-shooting-as-false
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-believes-parkland-shooting-was-hoax-11812031

Fired Florida data scientist Rebekah Jones turns herself in to authorities
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/18/us/rebekah-jones-data-scientist-surrender/index.html

With 25,000 National Guardsmen necessary to protect the inauguration from domestic terror, Terrorist HawleyMO blocks Biden from having his most senior homeland security official in place.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/politics/hawley-mayorkas-dhs/index.html

Jon Ossoff will be sworn in as a senator at 430pm tomorrow, per his office-to-be. He'll be escorted into the chamber by Sen Cory Booker, and will take the oath on using "a book of Hebrew scripture once owned by Rabbi Jacob Rothschild" of Atlanta

Joe Biden often quotes from Kierkegaard: "Faith sees best in the dark." It is telling that his first event in Washington, on the eve of his inauguration, occurs at dusk, with lights illuminating the Reflecting Pool in remembers of 400,000 American lives lost to the coronavirus.

Biden delivers remarks at a Nationwide Memorial service honoring 400,000 lives lost to the  Covid-19 pandemic: "Between sundown and dusk, let us shine the lights in the darkness along this sacred pool of reflection and remember all who we lost."
https://twitter.com/i/status/1351661176204251137
https://twitter.com/NBCNewsNow/status/1351661176204251137

Prosecutors again asking a DC judge to intervene after a judge elsewhere granted release to a Capitol insurrection defendant — man described as self-avowed white supremacist/Nazi sympathizer, Army Reservist/Navy contractor with security clearance https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20459764/1-19-21-us-motion-emergency-stay-hale-cusanelli.pdf

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30743861/hall-fame-pitcher-don-sutton-dies-75
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Sutton

A WNBA spokesperson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "As it relates to the Atlanta Dream, we understand a sale of the franchise is close to being finalized. Once the sale negotiation is concluded, additional information will be provided."
https://www.ajc.com/sports/wnbas-atlanta-dream-on-verge-of-being-sold/IVEZT3CR6BAFHCNGWXMHNR3SJ4/

Federal officials say about a dozen members of the National Guard have been relieved of duty at the inauguration after the vetting process @PeteWilliamsNBC "A matter of zero tolerance".
https://twitter.com/ChrisJansing/status/1351684040311635975

Pedro Baez Astros deal $12,500,000, 2 years plus option. Signing Bonus - $500,000 $4,500,000 -2021 $5,500,000 - 2022 Club option 2023 for $7,500,000 or $2,000,000 buyout. Base and Option can increase based on Innings pitched (twitter.com)
https://twitter.com/jonheyman/status/1351627183501045760

A US soldier [Army Private First Class Cole James Bridges] hoped to team up with ISIS to launch a terror attack on the 9/11 Memorial in Manhattan, calling the sacred site "a key target,'' according to explosive court papers Tuesday.
https://nypost.com/2021/01/19/us-soldier-wanted-to-team-with-isis-to-attack-9-11-memorial-feds/

The vice president of the anti-gay group "Super Happy Fun America," which organized buses to D.C. before the riots, has been arrested with a supporter of that entity, prosecutors say. This tweet was cited by authorities.
https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1351695682147651588

The radical socialists want to take away MyPillow and YourPillow and redistribute it to make it OurPillow 

New York Attorney General urges a judge not to let the NRA's bankruptcy filing pause proceedings seeking the organization's dissolution. A hearing on a motion to dismiss was scheduled for tomorrow morning.
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/new-york-attorney-general-urges-judge-not-to-let-nras-bankruptcy-filing-put-a-stop-to-dissolution-of-organization/

Executive actions POTUS will sign today include:
-Federal mask mandate
-Establish a WH COVID-19 team
-Cease withdrawal from WHO
-Restore national security pandemics office
-Extend pause on student loan payments and interest
-Rejoin Paris Climate Agreement
-Government agency review focused on equity
-Extend federal eviction moratorium
-Rescind Census orders to exclude non-citizens
-Preserve and fortify DACA
-Revoke Muslim ban
-Rescind 1776 commission

"It's just time." Philip Rivers retiring from NFL after 17 seasons.
https://twitter.com/sdutKevinAcee/status/1351885547514462209

Jailed Russian critic Alexei Navalny released a video accusing Putin of secretly building a $1 billion coastal palace funded through bribes
https://www.businessinsider.com/alexei-navalny-video-accuses-putin-coastal-palace-corruption-2021-1

In an already historic day, Sen. Alex Padilla became California's first Latin-American senator, Sen. Jon Ossoff became Georgia's first Jewish senator, and Sen. Raphael Warnock is Georgia's first Black Senator and the first Black Dem Sen from the deep south

OAN deletes articles about Dominion election conspiracy theories
https://www.businessinsider.com/oan-deletes-articles-about-dominion-voting-election-conspiracy-2021-1?amp&__twitter_impression=true

George Springer signed a 6-yr, 150M contract with the Blue Jay's Tuesday. Springer's $150M contract is the largest contract given out by the Blue Jays in franchise history. Their only other contract that topped $100M was a $126M extension give to Vernon Wells.Analysis (twitter.com)
https://twitter.com/espnstatsinfo/status/1351937536294150144


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Joe_Biden

On January 20, 2021 Joe Biden signed an executive order that rejoined the United States to the Paris Climate Agreement.[17][18] President of France Emmanuel Macron congratulated Biden saying 'Welcome back to the Paris Agreement!'[19]
https://www.npr.org/sections/inauguration-day-live-updates/2021/01/20/958854421/biden-moves-quickly-on-climate-change-reversing-trump-rollbacks
https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/biden-set-to-rejoin-paris-climate-accord-impose-curbs-on-u-s-oil-industry-5
https://thehill.com/policy/international/europe/535101-macron-to-biden-and-harris-welcome-back-to-the-paris-agreement

Biden's Oval decor includes portraits of Hamilton & Jefferson. President Biden has filled the Oval Office with images of American leaders and icons, focusing the room around massive portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt that hangs across from the Resolute Desk. It is a clear nod to a president who helped the country through significant crises, a challenge Biden now also faces. | Busts of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy flank a fireplace in the office. Biden often refers to the impact that both men made on the country as part of the Civil Rights movement. Biden is also nodding to segments of the Democratic Party's base via historic references. Behind the Resolute desk is a bust of Cesar Chavez. The office also includes busts of Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt and sculpture by Allan Houser of the Chiricahua Apache tribe that once belonged to the late Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI)  -  the first Japanese-American elected to both houses of Congress.
I have never agreed with Jefferson once
We have fought on like 75 different fronts
But when all said and all is done
Jefferson has beliefs; Burr has none
https://washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/20/biden-oval-office/

President Biden begins signing a tall stack of executive orders during his first Oval Office appearance for press.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EsNTfD_XMAI8lMR?format=jpg&name=medium
https://twitter.com/jeneps/status/1352016112687439872

SenSchumer becomes the first Jewish person to serve as Senate Majority Leader and the highest politically ranking Jewish person in America
https://twitter.com/jacobkornbluh/status/1352013826036805632

Howard University's Showtime Marching Band escorts VP Harris to the White House.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1352001519802003462
https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1352001519802003462

Biden directs Department of Education to extend student loan payment freeze
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/student-loan-payments-biden-executive-order-signed/

The new president, Joseph R. Biden, spoke to a sea of some 200,000 small flags, symbolizing those who might have attended the inauguration of the nation's 46th president, if it weren't for the pandemic. A brisk January wind whipped them into motion, creating the illusion of human bustle and activity. The cameras stayed focused largely on the speakers and the speeches, including a young poet whose words tied together a teeming multitude of ideas and themes with the sinews of inner rhyme, alliteration and associative images. We had been told, for weeks, that Trump's decision not to greet the incoming president, sit and take tea, share a limo ride and watch his successor's inauguration, was a shocking departure from protocol. In the end, it didn't matter. Scraps of familiar music, shards of old prayers, fragments of yesterday's speeches filled in the gaps and elicited the usual emotions, papering over the missing niceties. The Capitol, site of a deadly attempted insurrection just two weeks earlier, looked resplendent in the morning sun. The city was on lockdown, its streets mostly empty, its monumental core encased in fencing and barricades. But the emptiness made it feel only more like a stage set, manicured and perfect. These events are always made for TV, which in any ordinary year would leave one a bit cynical. This time, we could blame the visual contrivance on the pandemic, which seemed to excuse it a little bit. The compromises made to the pandemic, and the very real threat of far-right extremist violence, only made sense. Every face mask felt like a little step to redemption. Every soldier on the street seemed a painful acknowledgment of a disease that is deeper and more entrenched than we have had the courage to acknowledge. When Trump reached one last time into his grab bag of grievance and rhetorical narcissism, there was nothing left of his power, not even the power of shock or disgust. "So, have a good life, we will see you soon," he said, in closing, to a small crowd gathered on the tarmac, many still defiant in their refusal to defend themselves and others against the virus. "So, have a good life," sounded like an absolute farewell, such as the dying give to the living; "we will see you soon," sounded like a promise or a threat, or perhaps just one last jumble of logic before this cumbersome figure loaded himself into a giant plane, and jetted off to a life of golf, lawsuits and bitterness. The new president didn't touch on any of this, not a note of triumphalism, and only a few cautious and circumspect references to the turmoil and chaos of the past four years. The pandemic let him talk about collective suffering without broaching the subject of his predecessor's combativeness, cruelty and incompetence. Biden's inauguration also marks the inauguration of the pandemic in a larger sense: now, finally, it can be acknowledged as a national trauma, mourned collectively and eventually memorialized in the nation's capital. When he and his wife, Jill, and Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, stood at the end of the reflecting pool on Tuesday evening, looking down a corridor of lights to the Washington Monument, it felt like this most imperial symbol of America's origins had been entirely repurposed into a funeral marker  -  a solitary, silent, sad sentinel to death's year-long march through the land. The flags in front of the Capitol were supposed to represent the inaugural crowds who couldn't be there in person, but they also invoked the more than 400,000 who have died from the coronavirus pandemic. Just last October, artist Suzanne Brennan Firstenberg assembled some 200,000 white flags near the city's armory, just two miles from the Capitol. She wanted to memorialize what was already an unthinkably large death toll from the pandemic. Now the number has doubled. This kind of art, based on the assemblage and orderly display of some small, telling object, is particularly associated with mourning, a way of visualizing what the mind cannot otherwise comprehend: death by the hundreds, or thousands or, now, the hundreds of thousands. This kind of art, based on the assemblage and orderly display of some small, telling object, is particularly associated with mourning, a way of visualizing what the mind cannot otherwise comprehend: death by the hundreds, or thousands or, now, the hundreds of thousands. But the new president's inauguration committee deftly repurposed this visual idea, a symbol of mourning remade as a symbol of presence, an idealized version of the crowds watching from home. Unlike the mob two weeks ago, this crowd was orderly. Unlike those who gathered in person to watch the event on the West Terrace, this imaginary crowd stood in proximity to one another, diverse, disciplined and almost touching in their togetherness. One symbolic idea slipped into another, mourning and loss sliding into celebration and connection. Today, as I followed on my computer screen, I tried to watch the day's events with a more jaded eye, the same one I've cast on inaugurations almost since the first one I clearly remember, Jimmy Carter's in 1977. And I couldn't do that, either. The rhetoric of unity and healing was shopworn, the old references to Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. were threadbare. But the funny thing about cliches is that, while we are by definition tired of them, it's when we ourselves are exhausted  -  tired beyond measure, even broken into bits  -  that their power often takes us by surprise. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning," said the new president, quoting a familiar psalm. During the speeches, prayers, music and 23-year-old Amanda Gorman's inaugural poem, Biden sat on a chair better than the others, but not a throne. He looked every minute of his 78 years as he came down the stairs before passing under the red bunting into the morning sun. It was a strange contrast to perhaps the most famous and beloved inaugural of modern American history, John F. Kennedy's, 60 years ago. Then, an old poet recited verses to a young president. Now, a young poet recited verses to an old one. And then, two thoughts, two images came together. Biden was being inaugurated president, but he didn't need to be the star of the show. And suddenly his age, often cited as a liability, seemed transformed too, into an asset rarely acknowledged in American society. Perhaps there's a connection between his age and his modesty, his willingness to sit on the side of the show, to use "us" and "ours" more than "me" and "mine." Let's hope it is what seems to be: not the absence of vigor, but the presence of wisdom. 

 

Georgia Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock sworn into U.S. Senate
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-georgia-democrats-jon-ossoff-and-raphael-warnock-sworn-into-u-s-senate

China bans Trump cabinet officials from ever doing business with country China sanctions 28 Americans, including several Trump administration officials
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/china-trump-white-house-sanctions-b1790242.html

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tells reporters in first briefing: "There will be times when we see things differently in this room...That's okay. That's part of our democracy, and rebuilding trust with the American people will be central to our focus in the press office"
https://twitter.com/i/status/1352046623539535872
https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1352046623539535872

That is great news. Avril Haines will bring back professionalism and even-handedness to the DNI role. 👏: Senate confirms Avril Haines to be director of national intelligence, the first Biden Cabinet nominee confirmed. 10 Republicans voted Nay. The No's: Marsha Blackburn, Mike Braun, Ted Cruz, Joni Ernst, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, Mike Lee, Roger Marshall, Rand Paul, Jim Risch
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/20/politics/avril-haines-confirmation-vote/index.html

WH Press Secretary Jen Psaki on combatting Covid19 misinformation: "There are a number of ways to combat misinformation. One of them is accurate information and truth and data and sharing information even when it is hard to hear." Says briefings with health officials will return
https://twitter.com/i/status/1352048630971170818
https://twitter.com/axios/status/1352048630971170818

"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America." - President William Jefferson Clinton, January 20, 1993

Psaki, on impeachment trial: "We are confident that the Senate can multi task and they can do their constitutional duty while continuing to conduct the business of the American people". Says Biden will leave the specifics on timing and mechanics to Congress

"I have deep respect for the role of a free and independent press in our democracy and for the role all of you play," White House Press Sec. Psaki says. "We have a common goal, which is sharing accurate information with the American people."
https://twitter.com/i/status/1352050000042319874
https://twitter.com/NBCPolitics/status/1352050000042319874

A tremendous change in this 1st press briefing - dominated by policy, not by questions about controversial tweets

Jen Psaki says all Biden EOs today "were reviewed by the career staff" at the WH Office of Legal Counsel. "We went through that process in advance of releasing them. That took a great deal of work on our policy teams but that was a vital part of the process for us as well."
https://twitter.com/chrisjohnson82/status/1352049785264603137

Psaki on whether the White House will push for using budget reconciliation or other measures to push through the Covid19 package if Republicans resist: "We're not going to take any tools off the table for the House and Senate can get this urgent package done."

I'm looking forward to the State Department holding daily press briefings again

Psaki has some deep experience in government. Trump never understood the value of someone with experience who could ad lib and provide context.

Most publicized keep-my-job campaign by a White House chief usher ever....White House chief usher Timothy Harleth has been let go by the Biden's, says a source. Harleth was hired by Melania Trump in 2017. He was previously a manager at the Trump Hotel DC.

Jen Psaki talking about the role of the Office of Legal Counsel. That's pretty old school.

Confirmed: Biden has signed executive order implementing SCOTUS decision in Bostock v. Clayton County against anti-LGBTQ discrimination in all federal agencies.

The Trump letter, the Trump trial, the Trump plane design all mentioned at the first Biden WH briefing. A sign of how much the former president will shadow the new president's early days in office.

The White House Press Secretary did not attack a single reporter during her first briefing.

Would be a big political win for Biden if he could get a handle on the endless chaos and rioting in Portland. Rioters smashing the state Dem party HQ right now...Protesters are tagging the Democratic Party of Oregon Headquarters and smashing windows.
https://twitter.com/Oregonian/status/1352040359543533569

Jen Psaki's experience as State Dept. spokesperson really showed in her debut WH briefing. Psaki expertly engaged with reporters with efficiency and even welcomed a second round of questions, which is something we haven't seen for some time.

The irony, of course, is that many Obama White House aides hated the daily press briefings and would daydream about getting past them — and now after the last four years, it's a badge of honor for the Biden White House to bring them back

She added that Biden has no current plans for a call with Russian President Putin. Reminder: the New START nuclear treaty expires in 16 days. Someone in the Biden administration will inevitably be speaking with someone in the Russian government in the coming days.

The White House Press Secretary did not call on OANN.

How Biden plans to fight the pandemic: 100 million shots, large-scale vaccination sites, and the reopening of K-8 schools https://businessinsider.com/biden-pandemic-plan-coronavirus-vaccines-testing-schools-2021-1

Biden Administration has told Trump's Labor Board general counsel Peter Robb he can resign by tonight or else be fired: NLRB general counsel Peter Robb writes that he's declining the new Biden Administration's request he resign, saying it would "permanently undermine" the agency https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/biden-moves-to-oust-top-labor-board-attorney-robb Robb is a former management-side attorney who helped Ronald Reagan defeat PATCO.

After voting to disenfranchise the entire commonwealth of Pennsylvania based on lies and conspiracy theories, Cruz expresses concern for the citizens of Pittsburgh.
https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/status/1352040800646029312

Bill Peduto, the mayor of Pittsburgh, fired back after Trump referenced the city in his speech defending the White House's decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord: "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris," Trump said, speaking in the White House rose garden on Thursday. Peduto seized on the comment, countering that Pittsburgh voted for Trump's opponent, Hillary Clinton, during the 2016 presidential election. "Fact: Hillary Clinton received 80% of the vote in Pittsburgh," he wrote. "Pittsburgh stands with the world and will follow Paris agreement."
https://theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/01/pittsburgh-fires-back-trump-paris-agreement

As the Mayor of Pittsburgh, I can assure you that we will follow the guidelines of the Paris Agreement for our people, our economy & future.
https://twitter.com/billpeduto/status/870370288344674304

The Trump appointee overseeing the Voice of America and other U.S.-funded broadcasters resigned on Wednesday at the request of the Biden admin. Michael Pack's actions during his brief tenure had prompted a rebuke by a federal judge and multiple whistleblower complaints.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/controversial-trump-appointee-overseeing-voa-resigns-biden-s-request-n1255004

So, I don't know if Ted Cruz is trying to be verbally environmentally conscious but it's actually a recycled line from PTrump from 2017. " I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris"
https://washingtonpost.com/video/national/trump-i-was-elected-to-represent-the-citizens-of-pittsburgh-not-paris/2017/06/01/11007d80-4707-11e7-8de1-cec59a9bf4b1_video.html

It's a catchy line, but Pittsburgh decided to voluntarily comply with Paris guidelines in spite of US withdrawal, so
https://theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/01/pittsburgh-fires-back-trump-paris-agreement

By signing the Geneva convention, President Chester Arthur showed he's more interested in the views of the Swiss than ...
https://twitter.com/SenTedCruz/status/1352040800646029312

NSA General Counsel Michael Ellis, who was illegally and unconstitutionally installed by Trump during his final days in office, was put on administrative leave Wednesday, and his appointment is the subject of a DoD IG investigation.
https://washingtonpost.com/national-security/former-gop-operative-michael-ellis-placed-on-administrative-leave-from-nsa-top-lawyer-job/2021/01/20/3bd154e6-5b83-11eb-b8bd-ee36b1cd18bf_story.html

For the second time in his stateless life, Paul Pierrilus faced the possibility this week of being deported to a country he has never known, never lived in and that has never recognized him. The 40-year-old New York man was minutes away from boarding one of the last deportation flights of the Trump administration before a relentless international effort by his family, attorney and a fortuitous connection to a freshman U.S. congressman helped him evade removal. Immigration attorneys and advocates say chartered deportation flights continued uninterrupted until the last hours of Donald Trump's presidency, sending dozens of immigrants, including people such as Pierrilus, to nations they scarcely know or fled decades earlier. | Pierrilus found himself in such a situation. The financial consultant was born in the French territory of St. Martin to Haitian parents and immigrated to the United States as a child. But neither Haiti nor the French government automatically confer citizenship by birth. So Pierrilus was stuck in limbo, a citizen of nowhere and with no country willing to give him legal status. Precise data is elusive, but the Center for Migration Studies of New York estimates about 218,000 people in the United States are stateless or at risk of being so. | Katrina Bleckley, staff attorney with the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said a drug offense put Pierrilus on the radar of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE tried to deport Pierrilus's brother, Daniel Pierrilus, who is in an identical immigration situation. But when the brother arrived in Port-au-Prince in 2006, Haitian officials sent him back, family said. | B​ut Pierrilus could not be deported to Haiti because he isn't a citizen — a fact confirmed by a tweet from the Haitian ambassador to the United States, Bocchit Edmond. Instead, Pierrilus checked in routinely with federal immigration officials while under an order of supervision that allowed him to live and work in the United States for nearly two decades, his attorney said. During his Jan. 11 appointment, Pierrilus was detained and within a few days was in a removal staging facility in Alexandria, La., shackled and awaiting deportation on the eve of a new presidency. "My mother was devastated and distraught," said his sister Neomie Pierrilus, who reached out to a cousin who went to high school with their new congressman, Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), to see whether they could help. "I am a fighter, and I wasn't going to give up on my family." The cousin came through with a phone number for Jones. Bleckley left a desperate voice mail and sent a text to Jones, unsure whether it would make a difference. Jones, meanwhile, was on a treadmill when he saw the notification. "There was nothing to do except go to Congress," said Bleckley, who was monitoring an online tracker to see whether Pierrilus's flight had taken off. "Minutes after the text, I got a call back. I've never had a turnaround like that." Jones's staff worked the phones all night with Bleckley, demanding ICE send them a copy of valid Haitian travel documents for her client. They received nothing. Bleckley finally heard Pierrilus's voice on the phone about 9 a.m. Tuesday, relieved that the flight had left without him. He is expected to return home this week. | "We have an immigration system where attorneys, advocacy organizations and members of Congress must work on a case-by-case basis to work miracles in order to obtain justice for clients and constituents," said Jones, who serves on the House Judiciary Committee, which will consider Biden's proposed immigration legislation. "That is no way to run an immigration system."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/in-one-of-its-last-acts-trump-administration-tried-to-deport-man-to-haiti-who-has-never-been-there/2021/01/20/738d88e4-5b49-11eb-a976-bad6431e03e2_story.html

In the last days, the man who had imposed himself so relentlessly on the public, whose all-hours tweetstorms and rants troubled our sleep and ruined our days and nights, faded from view into a gloomy purgatory of his own design.

The last days that Trump lived in the White House began officially when Congress voted, in the middle of the night—with broken glass in the marble hallways and gas masks scattered in safe rooms—to certify the election results that Trump still refused to accept. It ends when he flies to his namesake resort in South Florida Wednesday without ever uttering a word to Joe Biden.

In the last days of his presidency, stripped of his social media bullhorn, the president's shouting—mostly about the betrayal of those in his own party who blocked him from altering the election and tried to remove him from office—could be heard only by the few remaining staff too loyal or too afraid to ignore him.

Thank you for your faith in something that is bigger than all of us: that we will build a better world because we're going to do it together.
https://twitter.com/FLOTUS/status/1352060835347234820 

White House official confirmed for me that Joe Biden just fired Peter Robb after he refused to resign as NLRB general counsel.
https://twitter.com/jamieson/status/1352072011699335169

For those who haven't been following, this sets a new precedent. Unions wanted Robb gone immediately -- they think he's that bad -- but the gen counsel typically serves out their full 4-year term even when it spills into a new presidency.
https://huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-peter-robb-nlrb-unions_n_6000a47cc5b62c0057bb6301

Biden rescinds Trump's emergency declaration on border security, halts border wall construction
https://www.abc27.com/news/us-world/breaking-biden-rescinds-trumps-emergency-declaration-on-border-security-halts-border-wall-construction/

Biden Has Already Fired Three of Trump's Worst Appointees
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/biden-michael-pack-kathleen-kraninger-peter-robb.html

Biden sacked Kathleen Kraninger, who was confirmed as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2018. Kraninger, who had no previous experience in consumer protection, immediately tried to undermine the agency's role as a watchdog for the financial sector. She scrapped a landmark rule that restricted predatory payday lending, pressuring staff to downplay the resulting harm to consumers. And she refused to enforce a federal law that protected military personnel against a broad range of predatory lending. Her decision yanked federal support from military families who were defrauded by lenders. In the midst of the pandemic, Kraninger also approved a rule that allows debt collectors to harass Americans with limitless texts and emails demanding repayment.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/biden-michael-pack-kathleen-kraninger-peter-robb.html

The Army falsely denied for days that Lt. Gen. Charles A. Flynn, the brother of the disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn, was involved in its heavily scrutinized response to the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol. Charles Flynn confirmed in a statement issued to The Washington Post on Wednesday that he was in the room for a tense Jan. 6 phone call during which the Capitol Police and D.C. officials pleaded with the Pentagon to dispatch the National Guard urgently, but top Army officials expressed concern about having the Guard at the Capitol.
ttps://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/flynn-national-guard-call-riot/2021/01/20/7f4f41ba-5b4c-11eb-aaad-93988621dd28_story.html

Executive Order on Organizing and Mobilizing the United States Government to Provide a Unified and Effective Response to Combat COVID-19 and to Provide United States Leadership on Global Health and Security
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-organizing-and-mobilizing-united-states-government-to-provide-unified-and-effective-response-to-combat-covid-19-and-to-provide-united-states-leadership-on-global-health-and-security/

Executive Order on Protecting the Federal Workforce and Requiring Mask-Wearing
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-protecting-the-federal-workforce-and-requiring-mask-wearing/

Proclamation on Ending Discriminatory Bans on Entry to The United States
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/proclamation-ending-discriminatory-bans-on-entry-to-the-united-states/

Executive Order On Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-advancing-racial-equity-and-support-for-underserved-communities-through-the-federal-government/

President Joe Biden Announces Acting Federal Agency Leadership
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/20/president-joe-biden-announces-acting-federal-agency-leadership/

Paris Climate Agreement
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/20/paris-climate-agreement/

Regulatory Freeze Pending Review
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/regulatory-freeze-pending-review/

Sidney Powell Drops Georgia Suit, Marking End to Presidential Election-Related Lawsuits in State
https://www.newsweek.com/sidney-powell-drops-georgia-suit-marking-end-presidential-election-related-lawsuits-state-1562781

Proud Boys leader Joseph Biggs arrested in Florida in connection with the Capitol riot
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/20/us/proud-boys-joseph-biggs-federal-charges/index.html

Members of the far-right group, who were among Donald Trump's staunchest fans, are calling him "weak" as more of them were charged for storming the U.S. Capitol. | But by this week, the group's attitude toward Mr. Trump had changed. "Trump will go down as a total failure," the Proud Boys said in the same Telegram channel on Monday.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/technology/proud-boys-trump.html

President Biden is expected to nominate Michael Barr, a former Treasury Department official, to a top post overseeing national banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co., according to people familiar with the decision. Mr. Barr, the likely pick to serve as Comptroller of the Currency, helped craft the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul during the Obama administration as the Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial institutions from 2009 to 2010.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-is-expected-to-tap-michael-barr-as-comptroller-of-the-currency-11611196272

Congressman Andy Biggs' two brothers have publicly castigated him for sowing doubt about President Joe Biden's election win and called for his removal from office.
https://azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2021/01/20/rep-andy-biggs-brothers-andy-spread-election-fraud-lies/4235799001/ 

Biden reverses Trump's freeze on $27.4 billion in funds | Congressional Democrats had reacted in fury to Trump's attempt to even briefly block the programs, which included funds for international Covid-19 vaccination efforts, environmental protection, and arts and humanities programs, and a slew of foreign policy initiatives, among others.
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/535155-biden-reverses-trumps-freeze-on-274-billion-in-funds

On January 20, 2021, Joe Biden halted the construction of the Trump border wall,[18] ending the national emergency declared by the Trump Administration in February 2018.[19] Joe Biden ended the Trump travel ban imposed by Donald Trump in January 2017.[18][19] Biden also reaffirmed protections to DACA recipients.[20]
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/20/politics/executive-actions-biden/index.html
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-executive-orders-b5b409da08e42414b9a12e2c67ee2df6
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/1/20/22240549/biden-executive-actions-immigration

Letter to His Excellency António Guterres
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/20/letter-his-excellency-antonio-guterres/

Executive Order on the Revision of Civil Immigration Enforcement Policies and Priorities
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-the-revision-of-civil-immigration-enforcement-policies-and-priorities/

Executive Order on Revocation of Certain Executive Orders Concerning Federal Regulation
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-revocation-of-certain-executive-orders-concerning-federal-regulation/

Executive Order on Ensuring a Lawful and Accurate Enumeration and Apportionment Pursuant to the Decennial Census
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-ensuring-a-lawful-and-accurate-enumeration-and-apportionment-pursuant-to-decennial-census/

Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-protecting-public-health-and-environment-and-restoring-science-to-tackle-climate-crisis/

Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-preventing-and-combating-discrimination-on-basis-of-gender-identity-or-sexual-orientation/ 

Biden to sign 10 executive orders to combat Covid19 pandemic; invoke Defense Production Act to make supplies
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/21/biden-to-sign-10-executive-orders-to-combat-covid-pandemic-invoke-defense-production-act.html

Executive Order on Ethic Commitments by Executive Branch Personnel
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-ethic-commitments-by-executive-branch-personnel/

Pausing Federal Student Loan Payments
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/20/pausing-federal-student-loan-payments/

Proclamation on the Termination Of Emergency With Respect To The Southern Border Of The United States And Redirection Of Funds Diverted To Border Wall Construction 
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/proclamation-termination-of-emergency-with-respect-to-southern-border-of-united-states-and-redirection-of-funds-diverted-to-border-wall-construction/

Reinstating Deferred Enforced Departure for Liberians
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/reinstating-deferred-enforced-departure-for-liberians/

Preserving and Fortifying Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/preserving-and-fortifying-deferred-action-for-childhood-arrivals-daca/

Twin suicide bombings rock central Baghdad, at least 28 dead
https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-iraq-baghdad-d138cf4f0b9bf91221e959ea4d923128
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/21/middleeast/iraq-baghdad-explosion-intl/index.html

Elephants counted from space for conservation
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-55737086

Biden 'American Rescue Plan' would cut child poverty in half
https://www.naco.org/blog/biden-american-rescue-plan-would-cut-child-poverty-half

The Cleveland Cavaliers (7-7) defeat the Brooklyn Nets (9-7) 147-135 in double OT as 45/5/5 from Colin Sexton and 25/7/7 from Cedi Osman proves too much for the Nets Big Three

Collin Sexton dominates the Nets as he ends the game with 42/5/5 in a win against the Nets.

Collin Sexton ties the game with a three
https://streamable.com/dspkid

Cole Anthony beat the Wolves at the Buzzer
https://streamable.com/7exdaw

Sexton denies Durant on the fast break
https://streamable.com/x87swg

Sexton hits the sidestep triple over Green for 42 pts
https://streamable.com/t27oa8

Steph puts the entire Spurs defense on skates before laying it in

Sexton goes on a stretch where he scores 20 straight points for the Cavs in OT and double OT, outscores the entire Nets squad 14-8 in double overtime, and dishes it to Prince for the dagger 3 in the 2nd OT period
https://streamable.com/aytn6l

Joel Embiid tonight: 42 points on 12/19 shooting, 17/21 from the line, 10 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal in 32 minutes

Collin Sexton is on fire as he drills the three on KD
https://streamable.com/6nexr4

Harden gets away with a travel in the clutch
https://streamable.com/jy060s

Joel Embiid: "Marcus Smart just told me that I flail a lot. I mean, come on."

Steph introduces Google Maps to Patty Mills before drilling the 3

The Golden State Warriors (8-6) defeat the San Antonio Spurs (8-7) by a score of 121-99 behind 26 points from Stephen Curry

Kerr tries to hide his disappointment
https://streamable.com/iu0rda

Wiseman with the grown man offensive rebound and ferocious dunk
https://streamable.com/h89nvx

James Wiseman had a career high of 20 points tonight on 8-11 shooting to go with 6 rebounds and 4 assists

Clint Capela with 27 points, career high 26 rebounds, and 5 blocks in the overtime win vs Detroit

Steph screens two defenders to give wide open 3 to Wiggins
https://streamable.com/kgv1wf

Oubre with the monster putback
https://streamable.com/opfr2h

Philadelphia 76ers (10-5) defeat Boston Celtics (8-5) by 117 - 109 with 42 points from Joel Embiid

Deandre Ayton in win against the Rockets: 26-17-3 with 5 blocks and 11/15 from the field

Kawhi just rips the ball away from Fox and drills the pullup 3 in transition
https://streamable.com/k4oiwt

The Nets are going to face players a lot better than Collin Sexton in the playoffs, and they will need to guard them.

Sexton manages to get the clutch putback to cut the lead to 1
https://streamable.com/60c6kq

Harden plays for 51 minutes, KD plays 50 minutes, and Kyrie plays 48 minutes in duel vs Cavaliers

Curry with the no look one handed lob to Wiseman
https://streamable.com/200aug

Steph splashes the 3, draws the foul and celebrates
https://streamable.com/mm0752

The Atlanta Hawks (7-7) defeat the Detroit Pistons (3-11), 123-115 led by Clint Capela's 27 PTS and 26 REBsPost Game Thread

Trae Young drains the dagger three from deep to give the Hawks a 6 point lead
https://streamable.com/605ili

Jarrett Allen Double Double Revenge Game vs Nets: 12 PTS 11 REB 2 AST 1 STL 4 BLK & the W

Blake Griffin spins in the athletic reverse layup through two Hawks defenders
https://streamable.com/ye629g

Thybulle tonight: 0/0/0/4/1 in 21 minutes

The Orlando Magic (7-8) defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves (3-10), 97 - 96

Embiid and Theis simultaneously flop and Theis gets called for his 4th personal foul
https://streamable.com/7hm5qg

Against the Spurs tonight, Steph Curry had a game high in points, rebounds, and assists in only 31 minutes

Kawhi Leonard decides it's time to steal a ball and convert the and-1, executes the command.
https://streamable.com/d8go8g

Booker lays it in to seal the victory against the Rockets
https://streamable.com/q9msc7

Paul George splits the trap and glides to the rim for the dunk
https://streamable.com/nzr4yn

Fox fouls Batum, snitches on himsel
https://streamable.com/i23unu

Christian Wood rolls his ankle in a very ugly fashion
https://streamable.com/pih6rs

Young finds Capela for the slam to tie the game at 106 with 5.4 left
https://streamable.com/k1m9wo

Kawhi with the sweet no look pass behind his shoulder to Zubac for the easy layup and the foul
https://streamable.com/zho5dn

Asked whether his shortened rotation was attributed to a lack of trust in the bench or riding what he had in his stars/vets, Steve Nash said: "A little bit of both," noting the Nets' second unit struggled against Cleveland. Says on the Nets defense: "We had breakdowns all over the place."

The Atlanta Hawks scored 123 points in a game that went into overtime. Their bench only had 4 points

Kyrie Irving drops 37 points in his return from going AWOL; first game with both KD and Harden
https://streamable.com/wokpa4

Draymond Green tells James Wiseman he likes his matchup against Marc Gasol with Gasol standing nearby.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3gcgozHNwI

Warriors are the only team to have defeated the reigning champion Lakers and the 3 other teams that beat the Lakers them this season (Clippers, Trailblazers, Spurs) 

Biden administration pauses deportations for 100 days and suspends "remain in Mexico" policy for asylum seekers
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/20/biden-remain-in-mexico-immigration/

Biden administration restores ties with the World Health Organization that were cut by Trump.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/world/biden-restores-who-ties.html

Joe Biden got 5 million followers in less than 24 hours after the @POTUS account was purged of everyone who followed it under Trump

Ted Cruz on 9/11/2017 liked a step mom pornhub video and shared it to his Twitter, then shamelessly blamed it on a staffer
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/09/12/after-tedcruz-liked-a-porn-tweet-sen-ted-cruz-blamed-a-staffing-issue/

You won't be able to wash off the stain of sedition. It, and the deaths you caused and the deep damage to our democracy you made possible, will be on you forever
https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1351947087785693192

US jobless claims dip to 900,000 as layoffs remain high with economy in grip of virus.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/21/weekly-jobless-claims.html

When this is all over, nobody will admit to ever having supported it
https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/1151669588808986624

White House press Secretary Jen Psaki told MSNBC that Fauci will be present at today's daily briefing, currently scheduled for 4:00 pm.

Buttigieg to testify for transportation secretary post at confirmation hearing
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/21/politics/buttigieg-transportation-cabinet-confirmation-hearing/index.html

44.4 million views of Navalny's Putin video in 48 hours. Some of those will be in the Kremlin.
https://twitter.com/olliecarroll/status/1352250418533982213

Today's Politico Playbook newsletter declares that President Obama "had the luxury of a 60-seat supermajority," and that's not quite accurate. Obama had 60 Democrats in the Senate for two short stretches.
https://twitter.com/jimgeraghty/status/1352245468001087488 

Biden Admin Discovered Trump And Republicans Had Zero Plans For Covid19 Vaccine Distribution | Biden's team expected to find major flaws in Trump's distribution plans when they arrived at the White House on Wednesday, sources with direct knowledge of the administration's COVID-19 work tell CNN. But "one of the biggest shocks that the Biden team had to digest during the transition period was what they saw as a complete lack of a vaccine distribution strategy," CNN reports. As one source put it, "There is nothing for us to rework. We are going to have to build everything from scratch."
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/21/politics/biden-covid-vaccination-trump/index.html

Biden signs executive order invoking 2-year lobbying ban for appointees
https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/535176-biden-signs-executive-order-invoking-2-year-lobbying-ban-for-appointees

Collin Darnell Sexton (born January 4, 1999) is an American professional basketball ..... also a father of 3, James Harden, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving. In January 2017 Sexton was selected as a McDonald's All-American.[1] He was selected with the 8th pick in the 2018 NBA draft by the Cavaliers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collin_Sexton

Doctor that promoted false hydroxychloroquine claims arrested in connection with Capitol riot
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/535202-head-of-fringe-medical-group-who-met-with-pence-arrested-in-connection-with

Rand Paul said Joe Biden's speech was "innuendo calling us white supremacists." If you think he was talking about you, he probably was, and he was probably right.

NO FFS: Biden will keep Christopher Wray as FBI director
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/21/biden-will-keep-christopher-wray-as-fbi-director-white-house-source-says.html

Stephanie Pollack of MassDOT to join Biden administration, Federal Highway Department
https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/01/21/stephanie-pollack-of-massdot-to-join-biden-administration-federal-highway-department/

____________________

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-protecting-public-health-and-environment-and-restoring-science-to-tackle-climate-crisis/

January 20, 2021

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1.  Policy.  Our Nation has an abiding commitment to empower our workers and communities; promote and protect our public health and the environment; and conserve our national treasures and monuments, places that secure our national memory.  Where the Federal Government has failed to meet that commitment in the past, it must advance environmental justice.  In carrying out this charge, the Federal Government must be guided by the best science and be protected by processes that ensure the integrity of Federal decision-making.  It is, therefore, the policy of my Administration to listen to the science; to improve public health and protect our environment; to ensure access to clean air and water; to limit exposure to dangerous chemicals and pesticides; to hold polluters accountable, including those who disproportionately harm communities of color and low-income communities; to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; to bolster resilience to the impacts of climate change; to restore and expand our national treasures and monuments; and to prioritize both environmental justice and the creation of the well-paying union jobs necessary to deliver on these goals.

To that end, this order directs all executive departments and agencies (agencies) to immediately review and, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, take action to address the promulgation of Federal regulations and other actions during the last 4 years that conflict with these important national objectives, and to immediately commence work to confront the climate crisis.

Sec. 2.  Immediate Review of Agency Actions Taken Between January 20, 2017, and January 20, 2021.  (a)  The heads of all agencies shall immediately review all existing regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, and any other similar agency actions (agency actions) promulgated, issued, or adopted between January 20, 2017, and January 20, 2021, that are or may be inconsistent with, or present obstacles to, the policy set forth in section 1 of this order.  For any such actions identified by the agencies, the heads of agencies shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, consider suspending, revising, or rescinding the agency actions.  In addition, for the agency actions in the 4 categories set forth in subsections (i) through (iv) of this section, the head of the relevant agency, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, shall consider publishing for notice and comment a proposed rule suspending, revising, or rescinding the agency action within the time frame specified.

(i)    Reducing Methane Emissions in the Oil and Gas Sector:  "Oil and Natural Gas Sector: Emission Standards for New, Reconstructed, and Modified Sources Reconsideration," 85 Fed. Reg. 57398 (September 15, 2020), by September 2021.

(ii)   Establishing Ambitious, Job-Creating Fuel Economy Standards:  "The Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule Part One: One National Program," 84 Fed. Reg. 51310 (September 27, 2019), by April 2021; and "The Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule for Model Years 2021–2026 Passenger Cars and Light Trucks," 85 Fed. Reg. 24174 (April 30, 2020), by July 2021.  In considering whether to propose suspending, revising, or rescinding the latter rule, the agency should consider the views of representatives from labor unions, States, and industry.

(iii)  Job-Creating Appliance- and Building-Efficiency Standards:  "Energy Conservation Program for Appliance Standards: Procedures for Use in New or Revised Energy Conservation Standards and Test Procedures for Consumer Products and Commercial/Industrial Equipment," 85 Fed. Reg. 8626 (February 14, 2020), with major revisions proposed by March 2021 and any remaining revisions proposed by June 2021; "Energy Conservation Program for Appliance Standards: Procedures for Evaluating Statutory Factors for Use in New or Revised Energy Conservation Standards," 85 Fed. Reg. 50937 (August 19, 2020), with major revisions proposed by March 2021 and any remaining revisions proposed by June 2021; "Final Determination Regarding Energy Efficiency Improvements in the 2018 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC)," 84 Fed. Reg. 67435 (December 10, 2019), by May 2021; "Final Determination Regarding Energy Efficiency Improvements in ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1-2016: Energy Standard for Buildings, Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings," 83 Fed. Reg. 8463 (February 27, 2018), by May 2021.

(iv)   Protecting Our Air from Harmful Pollution:  "National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Coal- and Oil-Fired Electric Utility Steam Generating Units—Reconsideration of Supplemental Finding and Residual Risk and Technology Review," 85 Fed. Reg. 31286 (May 22, 2020), by August 2021; "Increasing Consistency and Transparency in Considering Benefits and Costs in the Clean Air Act Rulemaking Process," 85 Fed. Reg. 84130 (December 23, 2020), as soon as possible; "Strengthening Transparency in Pivotal Science Underlying Significant Regulatory Actions and Influential Scientific Information," 86 Fed. Reg. 469 (January 6, 2021), as soon as possible.

(b)  Within 30 days of the date of this order, heads of agencies shall submit to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a preliminary list of any actions being considered pursuant to section (2)(a) of this order that would be completed by December 31, 2021, and that would be subject to OMB review.  Within 90 days of the date of this order, heads of agencies shall submit to the Director of OMB an updated list of any actions being considered pursuant to section (2)(a) of this order that would be completed by December 31, 2025, and that would be subject to OMB review.  At the time of submission to the Director of OMB, heads of agencies shall also send each list to the National Climate Advisor.  In addition, and at the same time, heads of agencies shall send to the National Climate Advisor a list of additional actions being considered pursuant to section (2)(a) of this order that would not be subject to OMB review.

(c)  Heads of agencies shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, consider whether to take any additional agency actions to fully enforce the policy set forth in section 1 of this order.  With respect to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the following specific actions should be considered:

(i)   proposing new regulations to establish comprehensive standards of performance and emission guidelines for methane and volatile organic compound emissions from existing operations in the oil and gas sector, including the exploration and production, transmission, processing, and storage segments, by September 2021; and

(ii)  proposing a Federal Implementation Plan in accordance with the Environmental Protection Agency's "Findings of Failure To Submit State Implementation Plan Revisions in Response to the 2016 Oil and Natural Gas Industry Control Techniques Guidelines for the 2008 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and for States in the Ozone Transport Region," 85 Fed. Reg. 72963 (November 16, 2020), for California, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas by January 2022.

(d)  The Attorney General may, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, provide notice of this order and any actions taken pursuant to section 2(a) of this order to any court with jurisdiction over pending litigation related to those agency actions identified pursuant to section (2)(a) of this order, and may, in his discretion, request that the court stay or otherwise dispose of litigation, or seek other appropriate relief consistent with this order, until the completion of the processes described in this order.

(e)  In carrying out the actions directed in this section, heads of agencies shall seek input from the public and stakeholders, including State local, Tribal, and territorial officials, scientists, labor unions, environmental advocates, and environmental justice organizations.

Sec. 3.  Restoring National Monuments.  (a)  The Secretary of the Interior, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, including the Antiquities Act, 54 U.S.C. 320301 et seq., shall, in consultation with the Attorney General, the Secretaries of Agriculture and Commerce, the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, and Tribal governments, conduct a review of the monument boundaries and conditions that were established by Proclamation 9681 of December 4, 2017 (Modifying the Bears Ears National Monument); Proclamation 9682 of December 4, 2017 (Modifying the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument); and Proclamation 10049 of June 5, 2020 (Modifying the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument), to determine whether restoration of the monument boundaries and conditions that existed as of January 20, 2017, would be appropriate.

(b)  Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of the Interior shall submit a report to the President summarizing the findings of the review conducted pursuant to subsection (a), which shall include recommendations for such Presidential actions or other actions consistent with law as the Secretary may consider appropriate to carry out the policy set forth in section 1 of this order.

(c)  The Attorney General may, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, provide notice of this order to any court with jurisdiction over pending litigation related to the Grand Staircase-Escalante, Bears Ears, and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monuments, and may, in his discretion, request that the court stay the litigation or otherwise delay further litigation, or seek other appropriate relief consistent with this order, pending the completion of the actions described in subsection (a) of this section.

Sec. 4.  Arctic Refuge.  (a)  In light of the alleged legal deficiencies underlying the program, including the inadequacy of the environmental review required by the National Environmental Policy Act, the Secretary of the Interior shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, place a temporary moratorium on all activities of the Federal Government relating to the implementation of the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program, as established by the Record of Decision signed August 17, 2020, in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  The Secretary shall review the program and, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, conduct a new, comprehensive analysis of the potential environmental impacts of the oil and gas program.

(b)  In Executive Order 13754 of December 9, 2016 (Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience), and in the Presidential Memorandum of December 20, 2016 (Withdrawal of Certain Portions of the United States Arctic Outer Continental Shelf From Mineral Leasing), President Obama withdrew areas in Arctic waters and the Bering Sea from oil and gas drilling and established the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area.  Subsequently, the order was revoked and the memorandum was amended in Executive Order 13795 of April 28, 2017 (Implementing an America-First Offshore Energy Strategy).  Pursuant to section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 43 U.S.C. 1341(a), Executive Order 13754 and the Presidential Memorandum of December 20, 2016, are hereby reinstated in their original form, thereby restoring the original withdrawal of certain offshore areas in Arctic waters and the Bering Sea from oil and gas drilling.

(c)  The Attorney General may, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, provide notice of this order to any court with jurisdiction over pending litigation related to the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other related programs, and may, in his discretion, request that the court stay the litigation or otherwise delay further litigation, or seek other appropriate relief consistent with this order, pending the completion of the actions described in subsection (a) of this section.

Sec. 5.  Accounting for the Benefits of Reducing Climate Pollution.  (a)  It is essential that agencies capture the full costs of greenhouse gas emissions as accurately as possible, including by taking global damages into account.  Doing so facilitates sound decision-making, recognizes the breadth of climate impacts, and supports the international leadership of the United States on climate issues.  The "social cost of carbon" (SCC), "social cost of nitrous oxide" (SCN), and "social cost of methane" (SCM) are estimates of the monetized damages associated with incremental increases in greenhouse gas emissions.  They are intended to include changes in net agricultural productivity, human health, property damage from increased flood risk, and the value of ecosystem services.  An accurate social cost is essential for agencies to accurately determine the social benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions when conducting cost-benefit analyses of regulatory and other actions.

(b)  There is hereby established an Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (the "Working Group").  The Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Director of OMB, and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy  shall serve as Co-Chairs of the Working Group.

(i)    Membership.  The Working Group shall also include the following other officers, or their designees:  the Secretary of the Treasury; the Secretary of the Interior; the Secretary of Agriculture; the Secretary of Commerce; the Secretary of Health and Human Services; the Secretary of Transportation; the Secretary of Energy; the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality; the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; the Assistant to the President and National Climate Advisor; and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of the National Economic Council.

(ii)   Mission and Work.  The Working Group shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law:

(A)  publish an interim SCC, SCN, and SCM within 30 days of the date of this order, which agencies shall use when monetizing the value of changes in greenhouse gas emissions resulting from regulations and other relevant agency actions until final values are published;

(B)  publish a final SCC, SCN, and SCM by no later than January 2022;

(C)  provide recommendations to the President, by no later than September 1, 2021, regarding areas of decision-making, budgeting, and procurement by the Federal Government where the SCC, SCN, and SCM should be applied;

(D)  provide recommendations, by no later than June 1, 2022, regarding a process for reviewing, and, as appropriate, updating, the SCC, SCN, and SCM to ensure that these costs are based on the best available economics and science; and

(E)  provide recommendations, to be published with the final SCC, SCN, and SCM under subparagraph (A) if feasible, and in any event by no later than June 1, 2022, to revise methodologies for calculating the SCC, SCN, and SCM, to the extent that current methodologies do not adequately take account of climate risk, environmental justice, and intergenerational equity.

(iii)  Methodology.  In carrying out its activities, the Working Group shall consider the recommendations of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine as reported in Valuing Climate Damages: Updating Estimation of the Social Cost of Carbon Dioxide (2017) and other pertinent scientific literature; solicit public comment; engage with the public and stakeholders; seek the advice of ethics experts; and ensure that the SCC, SCN, and SCM reflect the interests of future generations in avoiding threats posed by climate change.

Sec. 6.  Revoking the March 2019 Permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline.  (a)  On March 29, 2019, the President granted to TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, L.P. a Presidential permit (the "Permit") to construct, connect, operate, and maintain pipeline facilities at the international border of the United States and Canada (the "Keystone XL pipeline"), subject to express conditions and potential revocation in the President's sole discretion.  The Permit is hereby revoked in accordance with Article 1(1) of the Permit.

(b)  In 2015, following an exhaustive review, the Department of State and the President determined that approving the proposed Keystone XL pipeline would not serve the U.S. national interest.  That analysis, in addition to concluding that the significance of the proposed pipeline for our energy security and economy is limited, stressed that the United States must prioritize the development of a clean energy economy, which will in turn create good jobs.  The analysis further concluded that approval of the proposed pipeline would undermine U.S. climate leadership by undercutting the credibility and influence of the United States in urging other countries to take ambitious climate action.

(c)  Climate change has had a growing effect on the U.S. economy, with climate-related costs increasing over the last 4 years.  Extreme weather events and other climate-related effects have harmed the health, safety, and security of the American people and have increased the urgency for combatting climate change and accelerating the transition toward a clean energy economy.  The world must be put on a sustainable climate pathway to protect Americans and the domestic economy from harmful climate impacts, and to create well-paying union jobs as part of the climate solution.

(d)  The Keystone XL pipeline disserves the U.S. national interest.  The United States and the world face a climate crisis.  That crisis must be met with action on a scale and at a speed commensurate with the need to avoid setting the world on a dangerous, potentially catastrophic, climate trajectory.  At home, we will combat the crisis with an ambitious plan to build back better, designed to both reduce harmful emissions and create good clean-energy jobs.  Our domestic efforts must go hand in hand with U.S. diplomatic engagement.  Because most greenhouse gas emissions originate beyond our borders, such engagement is more necessary and urgent than ever.  The United States must be in a position to exercise vigorous climate leadership in order to achieve a significant increase in global climate action and put the world on a sustainable climate pathway.  Leaving the Keystone XL pipeline permit in place would not be consistent with my Administration's economic and climate imperatives.

Sec. 7.  Other Revocations.  (a)  Executive Order 13766 of January 24, 2017 (Expediting Environmental Reviews and Approvals For High Priority Infrastructure Projects), Executive Order 13778 of February 28, 2017 (Restoring the Rule of Law, Federalism, and Economic Growth by Reviewing the "Waters of the United States" Rule), Executive Order 13783 of March 28, 2017 (Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth), Executive Order 13792 of April 26, 2017 (Review of Designations Under the Antiquities Act), Executive Order 13795 of April 28, 2017 (Implementing an America-First Offshore Energy Strategy), Executive Order 13868 of April 10, 2019 (Promoting Energy Infrastructure and Economic Growth), and Executive Order 13927 of June 4, 2020 (Accelerating the Nation's Economic Recovery from the COVID-19 Emergency by Expediting Infrastructure Investments and Other Activities), are hereby revoked.  Executive Order 13834 of May 17, 2018 (Efficient Federal Operations), is hereby revoked except for sections 6, 7, and 11.

(b)  Executive Order 13807 of August 15, 2017 (Establishing Discipline and Accountability in the Environmental Review and Permitting Process for Infrastructure Projects), is hereby revoked.  The Director of OMB and the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality shall jointly consider whether to recommend that a replacement order be issued.

(c)  Executive Order 13920 of May 1, 2020 (Securing the United States Bulk-Power System), is hereby suspended for 90 days.  The Secretary of Energy and the Director of OMB shall jointly consider whether to recommend that a replacement order be issued.

(d)  The Presidential Memorandum of April 12, 2018 (Promoting Domestic Manufacturing and Job Creation Policies and Procedures Relating to Implementation of Air Quality Standards), the Presidential Memorandum of October 19, 2018 (Promoting the Reliable Supply and Delivery of Water in the West), and the Presidential Memorandum of February 19, 2020 (Developing and Delivering More Water Supplies in California), are hereby revoked.

(e)  The Council on Environmental Quality shall rescind its draft guidance entitled, "Draft National Environmental Policy Act Guidance on Consideration of Greenhouse Gas Emissions," 84 Fed. Reg. 30097 (June 26, 2019).  The Council, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, shall review, revise, and update its final guidance entitled, "Final Guidance for Federal Departments and Agencies on Consideration of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Effects of Climate Change in National Environmental Policy Act Reviews," 81 Fed. Reg. 51866 (August 5, 2016).

(f)  The Director of OMB and the heads of agencies shall promptly take steps to rescind any orders, rules, regulations, guidelines, or policies, or portions thereof, including, if necessary, by proposing such rescissions through notice-and-comment rulemaking, implementing or enforcing the Executive Orders, Presidential Memoranda, and draft guidance identified in this section, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law.

Sec. 8.  General Provisions.  (a)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i)   the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii)  the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b)  This order shall be implemented in a manner consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c)  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

THE WHITE HOUSE,
____________________

Clip of Jeff Passan voicing his frustration over the idea that ESPN 'sat on' the Porter article for three years before publishing it. He talks about the importance of protecting/looking after the people who are the sources of the information.
https://streamable.com/65jf0t
https://cms.megaphone.fm/channel/ESP6037677737?selected=ESP7577162833

Transcript: "There's another radio station in New York that's been pretty damn irresponsible today about its coverage of this, and I hate giving them any shine because they don't deserve it," Passan said. "But the notion that ESPN has been sitting on this story since 2017 is the most giant load of irresponsible garbage that I've heard in a long time. We have duties as journalists to protect our sources and to look after the people who give us the stories that we get to tell. It is their story, it is not ours. And the idea that we have been sitting on this, because this woman, who went through a horrendous thing with somebody in a position of power and ended up having to move back to her country and get out of journalism because of it, the idea that she wasn't ready at that time is perfectly rational and normal and the type of response that I think any of us could go through. She wasn't ready. "The story waits for when the person whose it is, is ready to tell it. And so, she waited, and she left the industry where she was worried she was going to have backlash and potentially have her job harmed. And she saw Jared Porter's rise to general manager of the New York Mets, putting him in a position of great power and great authority, and thought to herself, 'this man, who has his dream job, ended up facilitating me losing my dream job. And I didn't do anything … I didn't do anything.' And so the idea that this story, four-and-a-half years after this incident happened, has any less resonance, has any less importance, and has any less right to be told — anybody who thinks that needs to shut up."
https://nypost.com/2021/01/20/jeff-passan-rips-craig-carton-over-jared-porter-criticism/

European Court of Human Rights has found Russia guilty of ethnic cleansing of Georgian civilians following the ceasefire of the August 2008 war
https://agenda.ge/en/news/2021/167

Rick "Covid-19 Is Not A Disaster" Scott: I understand you want to save the planet, but how will that make me richer? 

438 Republican state legislators signed letters or resolutions calling to overturn the results of the presidential election. 83 Republican state officials spread disinformation about the election
https://www.republicaninsurrectionists.com/

Speaker Pelosi: "There will be prosecutions" if members of Congress "aided and abetted an insurrection in which people died."
https://twitter.com/i/status/1352292596740214785
https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1352292596740214785

Many of Biden's executive actions undid Trump's own (illegal and unconstitutional and terrorist) executive actions, including on the border wall, Paris accord, W.H.O., travel ban, 1776 Commission and Census. If you truly don't think executive actions are the way to go, you might view Biden eliminating Trump's Executive Orders as a good thing you mentally ill braindead terrorist
https://twitter.com/laurenboebert/status/1352268997987872768

Buttigieg has put on a clinic on how a nominee should act in a Senate hearing. Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana): "You haven't avoided the questions you've been straightforward. And you know what the hell you're talking about. And that's really pretty damn refreshing."

China handles Covid19 very differently from everybody else. After months of little disease and booming economy, the virus is back, especially in Shijizhuang. And massive complexes of mandatory quarantine centers are under construction.
https://twitter.com/Laurie_Garrett/status/1352296828625186819

Biden economic adviser Brian Deese is planning a meeting with a bipartisan group of senators on a new coronavirus aid bill -- as a progressive senator warns Biden to not just tack to the center.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-21/biden-aide-deese-to-make-appeal-on-stimulus-to-bipartisan-group

So happy that USA has finally rejoined the Pittsburgh Agreement. Welcome back!
https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg/status/1352212061552586756

ALL Clean Green Climate Action benefts THE ENTIRE PLANET.

Healing requires holding perpetrators accountable. Unity follows justice. IMPEACH TRUMP AND PROSECUTE AND IMPEACH ALL THE REPUBLICANS. PERIOD.

A judge denies the NRA's motions to dismiss, stay or transfer the NYAG's suit seeking its dissolution.
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/judge-denies-the-nras-effort-to-dismiss-pause-or-transfer-the-n-y-attorney-generals-suit-seeking-its-dissolution/ via

Biden will seek a five-year extension with Russia on New START, a critical nuclear arms treaty that expires in 15 days. Biden is also preparing to impose costs on Russia pending an intel community assessment of recent Russian actions. Biden is ordering DNI Avril Haines to provide a full intelligence assessment of Russia's interference in the 2020 election, use of chemical weapons against Alexei Navalny, Russian bounties on US soldiers in Afghanistan, and Russian cyber terrorism against SolarWinds. Following the ODNI reports, the Biden team "will use these assessments to inform our response to Russian aggression in the coming weeks," said a senior U.S. official. Biden is ruling out a "reset" in bilateral relations with Moscow as many new US presidents have. "This will be the first post-Soviet U.S. administration that has not come into office vowing to forge a warmer relationship with Russia," said Angela Stent. Trump tried to conclude a shorter New START extension in the final weeks but failed to reach an agreement after his nuclear envoy spent months trying to persuade China to join the accord before dropping that demand. Victoria Nuland, Biden's nominee for #3 job at State, wrote in Foreign Affairs against a 5 year (saying 1-2 yr gives leverage) extension.  Biden team says inability of Trump's team to get a shorter renewal and the lack of time left means a 5-year extension is the only responsible option. A five-year extention provides the new president with an early win and positive momentum, helps restore U.S. credibility on arms control issues, and creates the potential for more ambitious steps to reduce the nuclear danger.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/biden-russia-nuclear-treaty-extension/2021/01/21/4667a11e-5b40-11eb-aaad-93988621dd28_story.html

Hard to gauge the significance of these party registration changes. On one hand, they're a small proportion of the 8.2 million NC registered voters. On the other, changing party registration is not a common thing, so they may represent stronger undercurrents: Many Republicans have spoken out against the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol, but some Republican voters in swing states are going even further and changing their party registrations in the wake of the deadly attack. Arizona's secretary of state's office has seen thousands of Republicans change their party registration since last Wednesday. An office spokesperson told Newsweek in an email that in the past week the office's system has seen 3,317 occurrences where voters switched their registration from Republican to "party not designated."
https://www.newsweek.com/swing-states-republicans-change-party-registration-wake-capitol-riot-1561292

If HR1 stalls, I hope congressional redistricting reform can be carved off as a standalone bill since it has the broadest support (can't do state legislative redistricting reform by federal action, at least separate from voting rights)
https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/1352307808046354435

If I heard someone say "racism and lies are bad" in a speech I would simply not say "hey, he's talking about me!"

The Senate Armed Services Committee has approved Lloyd Austin's nomination to be Defense Secretary by voice vote as well as a waiver (vote tally is TBD). The House votes on the waiver around 3. And Austin is headed for a Senate confirmation vote as early as today. He could be on the job by the end of the day.

CISAgov is launching a ransomware public education campaign, with a focus on Covid-19 responders and schools:
https://www.cisa.gov/news/2021/01/21/cisa-launches-campaign-reduce-risk-ransomware

Already seeing Biden supporters get upset with reporters for asking valid questions regarding his agenda/actions (doing their jobs). They say "let him settle in!" But presidents instantly have immense power. Obama conducted first drone strike on day 3. Trump issued Muslim ban on day 7.

Joe Biden's proposed immigration bill, if passed, would remove the word "alien" from US immigration laws, replacing it with the term "noncitizen." It's a deliberate step intended to recognize America as "a nation of immigrants."
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/21/politics/alien-biden-immigration-law/index.html
https://www.npr.org/sections/inauguration-day-live-updates/2021/01/20/958626092/on-immigration-biden-goes-big-in-opening-bid-to-congress

Terrorist McCarthy Jan. 13 on the House floor: "The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress."
Terrorist McCarthy today at a news conference: " "I don't believe he provoked it if you listen to what he said at the rally."

House Oversight Committee chair requests FBI probe of Parler, including its role in Capitol siege
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/21/parler-fbi-russia-jan-6-capitol/

Biden's Interior Department blocks illegal and unconstitutional drilling on public lands
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/535224-bidens-interior-dept-temporary-blocks-drilling-on-public-lands

New Arizona Bill Would Require Early Ballots Be Notarized To Prevent Lower And Middle Income Voters From Voting
https://kjzz.org/content/1652462/new-arizona-bill-would-require-early-ballots-be-notarized

Steph Curry needs a minute to process reporter calling him Wardell
https://streamable.com/x2zb2w

McConnell is refusing to hand over committee chairmanships to the new Democratic majority until he gets a promise that he'll be able to block the Democratic policy agenda. If Biden thinks McConnell and Republicans care about anything other than power and destroying America, he is sorely mistaken.

McConnell demands Democrats commit that they won't "go nuclear" to ban legislative filibusters. Schumer says no. The organizing resolution can be filibustered, hence McConnell's potential leverage. So what's going on here? Democrats are highly unlikely to make such a commitment, even if McConnell sees the ploy as a clever way to split the Democrats. Even if Democrats did agree, both parties know it's not a credible commitment. The last time the party leaders shook hands on such an agreement (2011) the agreement didn't stick. McConnell and the Republicans' concerted effort to block judicial and executive nominees encouraged Reid and Democrats to nuke most nomination filibusters in 2013, in a Congress that was covered by the 2011 agreement. That agreement was informal in the sense that it wasn't written into either the organizing resolution or one of the "standing orders" Senate agreed to in 2011. Even if agreement had been formalized beyond the handshake, that wouldn't have stopped the Democrats in 2011 (minor nuke of the cloture rule) or 2013 (major bomb of cloture rule), or the Republicans in 2017 once the party felt it could shoulder the political costs of bending the rules. McConnell knows that history. Schumer too. McConnell coming out of the gates holding up the organizing resolution (which freezes the committees with their Republican chairs and ratios from the last congress) just affirms that Republicans are fully hellbent on obstructing the Biden Administration. The Democratic majority threat to go nuclear has not tamed the minority party's willingness to obstruct Democrats even over the very basic organizing task for the new Congress (which puts swift action on new president's nominees at risk).

Legal scholars, including at the Terrorist Federalist Society, say Trump can be tried and convicted even though he's out of office, rebutting an argument by Republican senators who say it would be unconstitutional.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/21/legal-scholars-federalist-society-trump-convict-461089

Japan saw 1K flu patients in the second week of Jan, compared to 800K a year earlier. England, which normally has several thousand flu patients in the hospital or ICU in early Jan, had zero new hospitalizations for the disease in the first week of 2021. Covid-19 Has Nearly Wiped Out the Flu. Mask-wearing and higher vaccination rates have contributed to historically low levels of seasonal influenza. Influenza, usually raging throughout the Northern Hemisphere this time of year, has become virtually invisible.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-has-nearly-wiped-out-the-fluhow-do-we-keep-it-from-coming-back-11611230410

Biden is genuinely working so I give him a pass to be late for covid-19 remarks.

Curry's face when the reporter called him Wardell instead of Steph
https://streamabledl.com/x2zb2w

The constellation of social media posts and video/audio recordings quoted by prosecutors shows in stark terms that many of Trump's supporters understood his overtures to come to the Capitol and "stop the steal" to be a call to violence
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/captiol-rioters-charged-social-media-posts-violence

Read the National Strategy for the Covid-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/National-Strategy-for-the-COVID-19-Response-and-Pandemic-Preparedness.pdf

Biden took bong rips in the bathroom before the speech, its ok guys, he is good. Biden signs executive orders on Covid-19 response, authorizes broader use of Defense Production Act to speed vaccine production and distribution. "We're in a national emergency. It's time we treated it like one." As part of his national strategy for Covid-19, Biden says his admin "will reimburse states 100% for the use of their National Guards to help Covid-19 relief efforts." President Biden says travelers to the United States will not only have to get tested for Covid-19 before boarding a plane. They will also have to quarantine once in the U.S.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?508190-1/president-biden-delivers-remarks-covid-19-response

Watching Biden simply sitting at a table signing EO's that keep America safe is really all Trump had to do to get re-elected. It would have taken five minutes. And he couldn't even do that. I love EOs not being a show piece. Biden explains each one as he signs them. Not seeing a President sign his/her own name and then hold it up like a fucking art masterpiece is so refreshing. I love that we have competent adults in power again. Just hearing him thank an aide is nice to hear.

For those asking why he has to use a different pen, it's because each individual pen becomes blessed with Joe Juice, and will later be auctioned off, with proceeds going to charities. Seriously, the pens are used as "gifts" to give people who helped draft the executive orders, etc.

One idea that's been discussed is to enact a carbon tax as a method to help pay for the $2 trillion infrastructure proposal.

Lake Margaret, Ferncreek (right, Boone), Kaley (left/west)

Regression: The #Steelers and QB Dwayne Haskins have now agreed to terms on a contract, source said.
https://twitter.com/albertbreer/status/1352326482543177734

Regression: The Pittsburgh Steelers interviewed former Browns Head Coach Hue Jackson earlier this week for the offensive coordinator position per a league source.
https://twitter.com/rapsheet/status/1352331643961417733

Scientists have unearthed a massive, 98-million-year-old fossils in southwest Argentina. Human-sized pieces of fossilized bone belonging to the giant sauropod appear to be 10-20 percent larger than those attributed to the biggest dinosaur ever identified
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210121-new-patagonian-dinosaur-may-be-largest-yet-scientists

Payton says he's real confident in the QBs they have. "I'm excited about Jameis Winston. I'm excited about Taysom Hill."
https://twitter.com/nick_underhill/status/1352322069636259843

Biden removes Trump's Diet Coke button from the Oval Office
https://theweek.com/speedreads/962437/biden-removes-trumps-diet-coke-button-from-oval-office

Senate Democrats file ethics complaint against Hawley, Cruz over election challenge
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/21/senate-democrats-file-ethics-complaint-against-hawley-cruz-over-election-challenge-461190

Judge Won't Order Amazon to Host Parler
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/judge-wont-order-amazon-to-restore-service-to-parler

President Biden's White House Introduces Initiatives On Immigration. Biden's bold immigration plan would really put America first. Mr. Biden's plan is in keeping with the United States' best traditions. It responds to the challenge of population stagnation. It would reverse his predecessor's extravagantly cruel policies. And it is now clear that when it comes to immigration, Mr. Biden is all in. That courageous stance was not necessarily expected or politically expedient. Unity was the new president's campaign theme and inaugural touchstone, yet few issues are as divisive as immigration. His evident readiness to tap his modest reserves of political capital for a slugfest on immigration is a signal that the United States has returned to its roots as a beacon for refugees and a humanitarian role model among nations. The plan is also smart. The U.S. population growth rate in the just-ended decade was the lowest since the first national census in 1790, according to the Brookings Institution — lower even than during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The number of Americans below the age of 18 actually shrank in the 2010s, by more than 1 million. That stagnation, the product of an aging population and historically low fertility rates, cannot be reversed by immigration alone. But it will certainly be exacerbated, and has been in the past four years, by a policy hostile to newcomers. In Mr. Trump's penultimate year in office, annual net immigration fell below 600,000, the lowest level in decades; it was more than 1 million in the final years of the Obama presidency. What's more, by proposing an eight-year path to citizenship for most of the nation's 11 million unauthorized migrants — the centerpiece of his plan — Mr. Biden is attempting to align law and reality. By 2029, when they would be eligible for citizenship, most will have been in the United States for more than a quarter-century. At least 4 million are essential workers in construction, food processing, groceries, restaurants, agriculture and transportation — doing jobs critical to practically every American. Mr. Biden is moving quickly where he can — fully reinstating the Obama-era program providing work permits and deportation protection for "dreamers," young migrants brought to this country by their parents; rescinding Mr. Trump's 2017 travel ban from majority Muslim countries; halting construction of the southern border wall; and reining in the Trump administration's aggressive deportation policies. He has also signaled he will increase annual refugee admissions, which Mr. Trump poleaxed, and scrap a Trump administration rule that denies green cards to immigrants deemed likely to use public benefits such as food stamps. Other measures will require congressional action. Under legislation Mr. Biden is sending to Congress, green cards conferring legal permanent residence would be granted to dreamers as well as to immigrants from strife- and disaster-wracked nations who have been here for years. The president is also pushing tougher border security — in recognition that the new administration is not inviting a wave of new migrants, still less amid a pandemic — though not as a precondition for his immigration reforms. His more impactful, long-term strategy to dissuade new waves of illegal immigrants is a concerted aid effort to boost economies and contain crime in Central America. Mr. Biden has laid out an immigration program that would genuinely put America first.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bidens-bold-immigration-plan-would-really-put-america-first/2021/01/21/4efa3f42-5a98-11eb-a976-bad6431e03e2_story.html

Reporters asking gotcha questions looks bad in a backdrop of a competent press secretary. Doesn't work as well as before.

Early Nielsen ratings show more people watched Biden's inauguration on TV than Trump's inauguration.
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1352378126379094018

Executive Order on Promoting COVID-19 Safety in Domestic and International Travel
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/21/executive-order-promoting-covid-19-safety-in-domestic-and-international-travel/

Executive Order on Improving and Expanding Access to Care and Treatments for COVID-19
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/21/executive-order-improving-and-expanding-access-to-care-and-treatments-for-covid-19/

Executive Order on Ensuring a Data-Driven Response to COVID-19 and Future High-Consequence Public Health Threats
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/21/executive-order-ensuring-a-data-driven-response-to-covid-19-and-future-high-consequence-public-health-threats/

Memorandum to Extend Federal Support to Governors' Use of the National Guard to Respond to COVID-19 and to Increase Reimbursement and Other Assistance Provided to States
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/21/extend-federal-support-to-governors-use-of-national-guard-to-respond-to-covid-19-and-to-increase-reimbursement-and-other-assistance-provided-to-states/

Executive Order on a Sustainable Public Health Supply Chain
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/21/executive-order-a-sustainable-public-health-supply-chain/

Executive Order on Ensuring an Equitable Pandemic Response and Recovery
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/21/executive-order-ensuring-an-equitable-pandemic-response-and-recovery/

Executive Order on Supporting the Reopening and Continuing Operation of Schools and Early Childhood Education Providers
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/21/executive-order-supporting-the-reopening-and-continuing-operation-of-schools-and-early-childhood-education-providers/

Executive Order on Protecting Worker Health and Safety
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/21/executive-order-protecting-worker-health-and-safety/

National Security Directive on United States Global Leadership to Strengthen the International COVID-19 Response and to Advance Global Health Security and Biological Preparedness
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/21/national-security-directive-united-states-global-leadership-to-strengthen-the-international-covid-19-response-and-to-advance-global-health-security-and-biological-preparedness/

Executive Order on Establishing the COVID-19 Pandemic Testing Board and Ensuring a Sustainable Public Health Workforce for COVID-19 and Other Biological Threats
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/21/executive-order-establishing-the-covid-19-pandemic-testing-board-and-ensuring-a-sustainable-public-health-workforce-for-covid-19-and-other-biological-threats/

Readout of Vice President Harris's Call with World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/21/readout-of-vice-president-harriss-call-with-world-health-organization-director-general-dr-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus/

Dr. Fauci - "One of the new things with this administration, if you don't know the answer, don't guess. Just say you don't know the answer."

Dr. Fauci - "I've always spoke on the basis of science and evidence... that's why I got in trouble sometimes"

So any time Joe takes a mask off we're going to have a fucking Republican-led scandal about it even though they don't believe in masking. Got it.

REPUBLICANS ALSO NEED TO COME TO CENTRE in order to reach BIPARTISANSHIP

It's so weird to see a press secretary who is competent and not gaslighting reporters/the American people. And I was so thrown by the fact that the reporters weren't hurling questions at her after she concluded the briefing, because she actually answered all their questions and didn't try to deflect

I still can't believe that one of Trump's and Republican's attacks was that Joe Biden would "listen to the scientists"

Fauci looked like he's had the world lifted off his shoulders. I'm pretty sure that's the first time I ever saw him really smile.

76ers' Seth Curry (Covid-19 Health and Safety Protocols) is probable to return Friday against the Boston Celtics.
https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/basketball/news/76ers-seth-curry-likely-to-return-friday/

Hopefully he comes back strong after covid19. He was off to an amazing start

Because You Sean Spicer were and still are a lying terrorist who began your very first press briefing by lying about Trump's inauguration size and attacking the media and attacking reporters in the room. You lied so bad you ran away from the press and hid behind bushes. Fuck off already.
https://twitter.com/seanspicer/status/1352339438446268417

I sent Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's office a list of my fact check findings and invited her to comment on any of them. Her communications director wrote back, "Here's our comment: 'CNN is fake news.'"
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/21/politics/fact-check-marjorie-taylor-greene-twitter-election-capitol/index.html
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1352387267818631169

McConnell's plan would be to delay the trial into February and give Trump's team essentially two weeks to prepare. In the interim, the Senate could move ahead with nominees and other business. That's why Democrats will review this offer closely.

In 2018, Justice Dems backed Paula Jean Swearengin in a primary against Manchin. She got 30% of the vote to his 70%. This year, Swearengin got her chance to run in a general election, against Sen. Shelley Moore Capito. She won just 27%: One progressive leader told me a few days ago that if Manchin was up for re-election in 2022, they'd be looking to recruit a primary challenger to run against him
https://twitter.com/HCTrudo/status/1352329099541360647

Pennsylvania Senate Republican Caucus spent $1.04 million of taxpayer dollars on lawsuits in an effort to suppress the vote and overturn the 2020 election results. PA Spotlight has exclusively secured documents showing how much the Pennsylvania Senate Republican Caucus spent trying to overturn the 2020 election and suppress the vote. A right-to-know request turned over documents that show Pennsylvania Senate Republicans spent over one million dollars in taxpayer money on their failed efforts throughout 2020. The Pennsylvania Senate Republican Caucus paid Arlington, VA-based law firm Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky $657,262 for their efforts. The firm has substantial ties to the Koch network and has been involved in voter suppression litigation. The caucus also used Obermayer, Rebmann, Maxwell, & Hippell, spending $384,938 for their legal services from late April through the end of October. In sum, the caucus spent $1,042,200 on their voter suppression and election denial efforts.
http://www.paspotlight.org/2021/pa-senate-republican-caucus-spent-1-04-million-in-taxpayer-money-on-voter-suppression-election-denial-efforts/

Protesters in the Pacific Northwest smashed windows at a Democratic Party headquarters, marched through the streets and burned an American flag on Wednesday in a strident challenge by antifascist and racial-justice protesters to the new administration of President Biden, whose promised reforms, they declared, "won't save us." In Portland, Ore., lines of federal agents in camouflage — now working under the Biden administration — blanketed streets with tear gas and unleashed volleys of welt-inducing pepper balls as they confronted a crowd that gathered outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building near downtown. Some in the crowd later burned a Biden-for-President flag in the street. | "No Cops, Prisons, Borders, Presidents," said one banner, while another proclaimed that the conflict over racial justice, policing, immigration and corporate influence in the country was "not over" merely because a new president had been inaugurated in Washington, D.C.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/us/protests-portland-seattle-biden.html

First Lady @DrBiden hosts Education Forum with @rweingarten & @BeckyPringle - LIVE on C-SPAN
https://c-span.org/video/?508221-1/education-forum-lady-jill-biden

The Senate will hold a final confirmation vote on Gen Lloyd Austin's nomination to be Secretary of Defense at 10:30am on Friday, a senior dem aide tells NBC News. Schumer also says they hope to confirm Yellen and Blinken tomorrow as well.

Trump named 7 former aides as horcrux gatekeepers to his White House papers, sharpies, big mac wrappers,
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-impeachment-lawyers-presidential-records-meadows-cipollone-philbin-national-archives-2021-1

The Senate can start the second impeachment trial without a Trump legal team, Trump can represent himself

In a newly uncovered 2018 FB post, Marjorie Taylor Greene endorsed the conspiracy theories that 9/11 was an inside job and that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged. She also (again) endorsed the conspiracy theory that the Parkland shooting was staged.
https://mediamatters.org/false-flag-conspiracy-theory/facebook-rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-endorsed-conspiracy-theories-911

President Biden directed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Thursday to release new guidance to employers on protecting workers from Covid-19. In one of 10 executive orders that he signed Thursday, the president asked the agency to step up enforcement of existing rules to help stop the spread of the coronavirus in the workplace and to explore issuing a new rule requiring employers to take additional precautions. The other executive orders also relate to the pandemic, including orders directing federal agencies to issue guidance for the reopening of schools and to use their powers to accelerate the production of protective equipment and expand access to testing.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/business/economy/biden-osha-coronavirus.html

Numerous National Baseball HOF voters have reached out to the Hall hoping to amend their ballots, removing their votes for Curt Schilling after he supported the seditious acts in Washington D.C. 2 weeks ago. HOF officials are concerned about the precedent this could set.
https://twitter.com/mattspiegel670/status/1352387286118313986 

Biden appoints FTC and FCC acting directors in move that signals a more aggressive approach to regulating big tech
https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-appoints-ftc-fcc-acting-directors-slaughter-rosenworcel-2021-1 

Federal prosecutors and FBI agents spent years and millions of dollars building evidence against some of the most outrageous Medicare fraud cases in U.S. history. Then Trump let the convicted felons out of jail. Prosecutors are outraged. | It was New Year's Eve, and dance music was pulsating from the backyard of a multimillion-dollar home here co-owned by Philip Esformes, a former nursing home executive who orchestrated one of the biggest Medicare frauds in United States history. Not far away, in Hialeah, Fla., Judith Negron, 49, who had been convicted in a separate scheme to siphon off hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent Medicare payments, was also at home for the holidays instead of in federal prison. Thanks to a commutation by Mr. Trump, she had been released after serving eight years of a 35-year sentence and was relieved of any remaining obligation to pay her share of $87 million in court-ordered restitution. | After years of painstaking work and millions of dollars spent to investigate and prosecute the cases, the remainders of the sentences being served by the two convicted felons — participants in a type of fraud that costs taxpayers billions of dollars — had been wiped away by the stroke of a presidential pen. | "It is an incredible kick in the teeth to the agents and prosecutors who toil away every day under very difficult circumstances to achieve justice and some restitution to the taxpayers from the billions of dollars that has literally been stolen from them," Mr. Pelletier said. His frustration is shared by many current and former Justice Department officials who spent years working on these cases, considered two of the most important taken up in the nationwide effort to combat widespread Medicare fraud. "It is disheartening, demoralizing," said Wifredo A. Ferrer, a former United States attorney for the Southern District of Florida, speaking generally about presidential commutations in Medicare fraud cases. "We are doing these cases to control health care costs and save lives and make sure legitimate health care centers don't have to compete with the crooks." | "It is disheartening, demoralizing," said Wifredo A. Ferrer, a former United States attorney for the Southern District of Florida, speaking generally about presidential commutations in Medicare fraud cases. "We are doing these cases to control health care costs and save lives and make sure legitimate health care centers don't have to compete with the crooks." | Mr. Trump added to the anger on Wednesday, when he commuted what was left of the prison sentence for Dr. Salomon E. Melgen, 66, who ran clinics in Florida that fraudulently diagnosed Medicare patients with eye diseases and then performed medically unnecessary tests and procedures, falsely billing the federal government at least $42 million, according to prosecutors. | "It is an insult and slap in the face to everybody," said Mr. Stefin, 67, who retired last month, including "the patients who are getting needles stuck in their eyes and lasers blasting their retinas for treatments they did not even need." | There were so many schemes unfolding in South Florida that prosecutors set up an office with two football fields' worth of space to store documents seized during raids and house the dozens of prosecutors, F.B.I. agents, and personnel from the inspector general's office at the Department of Health and Human Services assigned to the team. | The team also included a nurse who could help them reverse-engineer falsified billing codes and data experts who could examine billing trends to help them identify surges in reimbursements that might merit further investigation. | The case involving Mr. Esformes was even bigger, as the network of clinics he owned collected an estimated $1.3 billion in fraudulent Medicare claims, with Mr. Esformes extracting $38.7 million in payments from 2010 to 2016, according to prosecutors. They said he used the money to fuel a luxurious lifestyle that included a $360,000 watch, a $1.6 million Ferrari, a series of multimillion-dollar homes in Miami, Chicago and Los Angeles and even bribes for a basketball coach to help his son get into college.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/us/politics/trump-pardons-medicare-fraud.html

Republicans keep complaining about the new metal detectors outside the House chamber because they want to illegally bring firearms into the House. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), who has repeatedly flouted the magnetometers that were installed near the House chamber after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, set off the metal detectors while trying to enter. When an officer with a metal detector wand scanned him, a firearm was detected on Harris's side, concealed by his suit coat. Police refused to let Harris in, and the officer signaled a security agent that Harris had a gun on him by motioning toward his own firearm. HuffPost watched Harris try to get another member to take the gun from him so he could go vote. The member, Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), told Harris he didn't have "a license" and refused to hold the weapon for him. | In response, Capitol Police put desks and velvet ropes on the sides of the magnetometers to block members from walking around the machines, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she will fine members who bypass screenings $5,000 for their first offense and $10,000 for their second. Those fines are not yet in effect, as the House hasn't adopted those rules, and a few members continue to not comply with the screenings.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/house-congressman-gun-andy-harris_n_600a0874c5b674575ae423ae?gjl

Facebook pages of Navalny and Khodorkovsky groups and supporters have been suspended. Even small accounts like the Free Russia Forum's on Instagram have been blocked after thousands of fake complaints from new Kremlin bot accounts.
https://twitter.com/Kasparov63/status/1352346268492824577

Buttigieg's Climate Promises: What Could He Actually Do? | Transportation now accounts for one-third of the nation's greenhouse gases each year. And the sector has been stubbornly difficult to clean up, as the vast majority of Americans remains deeply dependent on gasoline-fueled vehicles to get around each day. The federal agency has a number of powerful policy levers that could be used to try to change that. One strategy might be to encourage state governments to rethink how they design their roadways and mass transit systems, nudging the United States away from its reliance on automobile travel. Another is to help ratchet up fuel-efficiency standards for new cars and trucks and promote cleaner electric vehicles. | The department also doles out $1 billion or so each year in competitive grants that help states and cities fund individual transportation projects. Mr. Buttigieg would have considerable leeway to reshape these grant programs fairly quickly, experts said. The Trump administration often awarded grants to road projects that encouraged car travel, such as $34.6 million for a highway interchange to support a new National Football League facility in South Carolina. A more climate-focused agency, by contrast, could announce it was looking for proposals that offered alternatives to driving, such as bus or bike projects. "It's a small pot of money, but it sends a powerful signal to states and cities," said Paul Lewis, vice president for policy and finance at the Eno Center for Transportation. "And I'd expect the new administration to place a greater emphasis on climate-friendly projects." | Individual states — not the federal government — typically have final say over how they spend billions of federal dollars each year to build or repair roads and public transit. Nevertheless, the Transportation Department could require states to start tracking the greenhouse gas emissions produced by their transportation systems and set targets for reducing those emissions over time. While states would not be required to cut their emissions, a little transparency could go a long way. "Right now, we're not even measuring greenhouse gas emissions and using that to drive project choices," said Kevin DeGood, director for infrastructure policy at the liberal Center for American Progress, which has recommended the policy change. The department could also do more to help states and cities identify roads and bridges at risk of being damaged by rising sea levels and other extreme weather caused by climate change, Mr. DeGood said. | By law, the Transportation Department works with the Environmental Protection Agency to craft federal fuel economy standards, which require new cars, S.U.V.s and pickup trucks sold in the United States to use less gasoline over time. The Obama administration used this authority to require that automakers improve the efficiency of their fleets by 5 percent annually, on average, for model years 2021 to 2026. The Trump administration weakened that to 1.5 percent per year. On Wednesday, Mr. Biden asked the two agencies to revisit that decision and propose new, presumably more ambitious rules by July. The Transportation Department will have considerable input into those rules, which could potentially be designed to encourage automakers to sell more cleaner electric vehicles. One challenge, though, is that more Americans are buying S.U.V.s, which has caused overall fuel economy to stagnate. Mr. Biden has also set a goal of installing 500,000 new charging stations for electric vehicles in the next decade. Achieving that daunting goal would most likely require Congress to authorize billions of dollars in new spending. The Transportation Department could, however, help shape how and where those chargers get built.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/climate/buttigieg-climate-transportation.html

You weren't banished you mentally ill terrorist guards. Your duty was done and you were waiting reassignment. Your post-Capitol Terrorist Attack and Inaugural guard duty was not a photo op. If you're looking to be followed and praised every day, you're in the wrong line of work and you're in it for the wrong reason. This is how it goes. A lot of shuffling, a lot of waiting. Shaking your hands and thanking you for your service after the successful inauguration was the clue that the job was finished.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/21/national-guard-troops-vacate-capitol-461220

Thanasis blocks AD
https://streamable.com/55afmz

Giannis hits the pull up three to start off with a blazing 4/4 from the field
https://streamable.com/q0inrv

D'Angelo Russell trash-talking Dwayne Bacon last night
https://streamable.com/lh5xro

The NBA just announced a whole bunch of games have been pushed back to at least 8pm local time for weekday games and at least 7pm for weekend games. This is part of the NBA's adjustment in its testing protocols to attempt to have same day PCR tests for every game.
https://twitter.com/TimBontemps/status/1352408669678407682

Massive fire rages at world's largest COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer
https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/535242-massive-fire-rages-at-worlds-largest-covid-19

Vatican bank's former chief found guilty of money laundering, sentenced to nearly 9 years in prison
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/21/europe/vatican-bank-money-laundering-intl/index.html

Curry's second wind comes from his ability to rapidly lower his heart rate during short breaks, even in the middle of games. It's something he trains his body to do. Once he's out of breath at the end of most workouts, Curry lies on his back, and Payne, his trainer, places sandbag weights below his rib cage in order to overload, and train, Curry's diaphragm. Through conditioning and breathing techniques like this, Curry can often coax his heart rate below 80 during one 90-second timeout. | For Curry, a typical offseason workout looks something like this: Sporting a hilarious golfer's tan and usually some kind of colorful, prototype Under Armour sneaker, Curry flies through a nearly impossible, full-court version of the conventional star shooting drill. Designed by Payne, it consists of 10 shots -- from the corner, baseline and wing -- with full-court 94-foot sprints in between. And it must be done with a minimum 80% accuracy and in under 56 seconds or the drill repeats. Essentially it's the same drill run in nearly every basketball practice on earth, turbocharged to an absurd degree for Curry, whose year-round conditioning goal is to always be ready to take the floor within two weeks. Last offseason, when Curry did this workout at Stanford, several Division I players in attendance begged to join in on Payne's ultimate scoring-without-the-ball drill -- they all either collapsed from exhaustion or gave up halfway through. That's exactly what Payne expects, though, since the drill is designed specifically to challenge Curry's remarkable conditioning and unique skill set in order to prepare him for challenges like the one against Portland. "Steph's definition of conditioning is different than most," Payne says. "Lots of guys are in great shape. Can you be in the kind of great shape where you are fatigued after a long play like this and your quads are burning and you can't breathe but you can still maintain perfect mechanics and still make good decisions? Are you fatigued but can still execute at the highest levels? Because that's what truly matters.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/30742095/how-stephen-curry-organized-chaos-fuels-record-breaking-career-golden-state-warriors-rebuild 

Bipartisan Constitutional Amendment to Overturn Citizens United Introduced
https://teddeutch.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=402908

Biden To Bump Up Food Assistance For People 'Hanging By A Thread'
https://www.npr.org/sections/president-biden-takes-office/2021/01/22/959474276/biden-to-bump-up-food-assistance-for-people-hanging-by-a-thread
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/01/22/biden-increase-food-stamps/

Biden halts illegal and constitutional and environmentally destructive Trump-initiated oil and gas leases, permits on US land and water
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-billings-a3a37acf2fce55449b704b01badc1f67

The New York Knicks are in the bonus 55 seconds into the 4th quarter

Shaq and Donovan Mitchell with an awkward moment in Mitchell's post-game interview
https://streamable.com/jwqqyx

Donovan Mitchell 36 PTS (11-19 FG) 7 REB 5 AST in win vs Pelicans. The Jazz have won 7 in a row — the longest active streak in the NBA

The Utah Jazz (11-4) defeat the New Orleans Pelicans (5-9), 129 - 118 behind 36/7/5 and a block from Donovan Mitchell

The Houston Rockets are acquiring Cleveland's Kevin Porter Jr., for a future protected second-round pick
http://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1352462034525442050

Yikes the referees are terrorists: Draymond Green gets another T and is ejected for yelling at Wiseman
https://streamable.com/3x16sp

The Warriors-Knicks game ended with 80 free throws being shot.

Giannis airballs the jumper against AD
https://streamable.com/wqwwcv

Wiseman on Draymond getting tossed for yelling at him: "I was trying to get a post up and he threw it early. He was like 'catch the ball' or something like that...I guess that's basketball. I was confused myself...I don't know why the ref did that. I don't know."
https://twitter.com/anthonyVslater/status/1352502420367044613

Was it the same ref that purposely head butted Livingston and T'd him up?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0ui0JPJ8Q4

Middleton nutmegs LeBron and Jrue lays it in
https://streamable.com/1ard90

Curry with the crafty no-look dish to Draymond, who drills the 3
https://streamable.com/i9q7ad

Brandon Ingram with a spicy 6/6 start against the Jazz
https://streamable.com/exg6vp

Lonzo Ball finds Ingram on the cut for the big one handed slam
https://streamable.com/ovcynh

Interview conducted by Monte Poole (NBC Sports Bay Area) with crew chief Ben Taylor
Question: Why was Draymond Green assessed a 2nd technical foul with 1:04 remaining?
Taylor: Green received his 2nd technical foul for profanity that was deemed to be directed at the official
Question: It appeared Warriors coach Steve Kerr and several players were trying to tell you Draymond was addressing his teammate James Wiseman. Was that the explanation you heard?
Taylor: Yes it was
Question: Did you consider rescinding the 2nd technical foul after hearing their explanation
Taylor: No we did not
https://twitter.com/NBAOfficial

Are you a clown?
Maybe.
Did you consider not being a clown?
No. 

NO, REALLY? "This tells us that everyone, irrespective of their body weight, should be physically active to safeguard their health," Lucia said. The study showed greater cardiovascular risk for overweight and obese participants compared with those of a normal weight, regardless of how much exercise they did. Participants who were obese and active were twice as likely to have high cholesterol, four times as likely to have diabetes and five times as likely to have high blood pressure as those who were normal weight but inactive. "Exercise does not seem to compensate for the negative effects of excess weight," Lucia said. "This finding was also observed overall in both men and women when they were analysed separately." Lucia underlined that it is "equally important" to fight obesity and inactivity. "Weight loss should remain a primary target for health policies together with promoting active lifestyles," he said.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/21/health/fat-but-fit-study-scli-intl-wellness/index.html

As chair of @TheDemocrats, I can promise you this: We're not going to let our victory turn into complacency. We're going to spend the next four years organizing all across our country, from red states to blue.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1352448381927436290
https://twitter.com/harrisonjaime/status/1352448381927436290

When I look at the map, I see an entire country that is at stake. That's why I'm committing to a 50 state, 7 territory strategy. No more ignoring the red on the map to focus on the purple. We will go into every community, every zip code, and organize to build back better.
https://twitter.com/harrisonjaime/status/1352381642803990528

New research shows that a temporary decision by Walmart to stop selling firearms reduced the suicide rate by 3.3 to 7.5 percent in counties with stores, "an estimated 5,104 to 11,970 lives saved."
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1073110520979404?journalCode=lmec

Truly astonishing to hear Mitch McConnell talk about respecting Senate rules after he stole 2 Supreme Court seats for Trump & blocked 110 Obama judicial nominees

Cruz says he's for the people of Pittsburgh? The same ones whose votes he tried to throw out? Says he's cares about the welfare of Americans, when he incited an insurrection that would have overthrown America's government? He's a self-serving seditionist. Cruz is for Cruz.

During Ted Thompson's final month on the job with the Packers, he extended pending FAs Davante Adams, a WR who he stood by after early career struggles, and C Corey Linsley, a 5th round center he believed in. He also signed an unknown TE to the practice squad: Robert Tonyan.
https://twitter.com/FieldYates/status/1352420334683770881

NFL announced that Super Bowl LV in Tampa will host 22,000 fans — 7,500 of which will be vaccinated healthcare workers being given free tickets to the game.
https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1352605656210165761

Important development in Washington: Jennifer King is going to become a full-time offensive assistant for the WFT, source said. She spent the last year as a coaching intern.
https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1352413645171535872

#Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy today: "It's always good to be mentioned & having an opportunity to pursue your dreams. Yes, I want to be a HC, but when it's all said and done, my job is to make sure I'm not taking away from the goals we're trying to accomplish."
https://twitter.com/MySportsUpdate/status/1352370667497390102

Free agent center Alex Len has agreed to a one-year deal with the Washington Wizards. After clearing waivers, Len had multiple suitors and chose opportunity with Wizards, who needed depth in frontcourt.
https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1352632641447747595

The Nets say Kevin Durant is questionable for tonight's game against Cleveland (Achilles injury recovery).
https://twitter.com/malika_andrews/status/1352624674090397697

As a child, Hank Aaron hid under his bed when the KKK stormed through his neighborhood. As an 18 year old, he left Mobile, Alabama with two sandwiches and two dollars. He retired as baseball's home run king and died today a hero. So inspiring. Raised in the Jim Crow South, he ignored hatred as he conquered baseball and went on to live a life of eminence. He was a paragon of grace and class. When he walked into a room, everyone froze, then marveled. Everybody knew they were amongst a King.

Hall of Famer Henry "Hank" Aaron dies at 86
https://www.cbs46.com/news/hall-of-famer-henry-hank-aaron-dies-at-86/article_71a37148-5cc4-11eb-9cdf-1bbe85006da2.amp.html
https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/ny-hank-aaron-coronavirus-vaccination-20210105-5cntf4ckmjfwpczshbmz3gigbi-story.html

Rare footage of Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves launching a home run off of Don Larsen during the 1957 World Series at Milwaukee County Stadium. #Braves #Yankees
https://twitter.com/baseballography/status/1346118231464026112

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Aaron
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathalie_Delon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Pierre_Bacri
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmie_Rodgers_(pop_singer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Sutton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Christie
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghulam_Mustafa_Khan_(singer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mira_Furlan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Parton

Natalie Delon with her son Anthony Delon
https://www.instagram.com/p/CKTgp_kFMhn/

Alain Delon and Natalie Delon December 2020
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ5Zx8jF3vh/

National Guard back inside Capitol after having been moved to parking garage
https://thehill.com/policy/defense/535361-national-guard-back-inside-capitol-after-being-moved-to-parking-garage?amp

Archaeologists Unearth Egyptian Queen's Tomb, 13-Foot 'Book of the Dead' Scroll
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-unearth-50-more-sarcophagi-saqqara-necropolis-180976794/

Russia welcomes US proposal to extend nuclear treaty
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-international-news-vladimir-putin-dmitry-medvedev-russia-6730cb38e8253a02d83c562841e7ed00

Pelosi will transmit Trump impeachment article Monday, triggering trial of former president
https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/ap-online/2021/01/22/schumer-pelosi-will-transmit-trump-impeachment-article-monday-triggering-trial-of-former-president

Lloyd Austin is confirmed, becoming the first Black defense secretary in U.S. history.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/us/lloyd-austin-confirmed.html

VOA reinstates White House reporter (Patsy Widakuswara) reassigned after questioning Pompeo
https://thehill.com/policy/international/535387-voa-reinstates-white-house-reporter-reassigned-for-questioning-pompeo

DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison Wants To Build The 'Next Generation' Of Democratic Talent | It's about building for the future. I think the rut that the Democratic Party has gotten into over the past years is we're just thinking about the two-year cycle instead of thinking about the long term. We are going to embark upon a course to build for the future of the Democratic Party. I want Joe Biden, when he decides to leave the presidency, to be known as the best party builder that we've ever seen. And I think we have the ability to do just that. | Well, 2022 is extremely important for us. And listen, history is not on our side. But this is the thing that I've learned just this past election cycle: You can make your own history. You know, we had a history in Georgia of Democrats not winning runoff elections. Well, not only did we win one, we won two runoff elections. There's also the history of incumbent presidents always getting re-elected. For the first time in almost 30 years, we changed that history as well. Donald Trump was not re-elected. And so we can make our own history. But in order to do that, we have to organize, organize, organize. Lay the foundation, embed ourselves in these communities, make sure we express the victories and the promises that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are able to keep through their legislative work. And if we do that, I feel good and bullish about where we go in 2022.
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/22/959573611/dnc-chairman-jaime-harrison-wants-to-build-the-next-generation-of-democratic-tal

Today, President Biden is taking new executive actions to deliver economic relief for American families and businesses amid the COVID-19 crisis while addressing the racial inequities it has exacerbated.     The President is also issuing an Executive Order that will launch an all-of-government effort to provide equitable emergency economic relief to working families, communities, and small businesses across the nation. The all-of-government effort will:
        Address the growing hunger crisis facing 29 million Americans — and as many as 12 million children – by asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to consider expanding and extending federal nutrition assistance programs.
        Ensure equitable and effective delivery of direct payments — by asking the Treasury Department to change its delivery structure and focus on getting relief to the 8 million Americans who still have not received the financial assistance to which they are entitled.
        Help approximately 2 million veterans maintain their financial footing by asking the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to consider pausing federal collections on overpayments and debts.
        Help ensure that unemployed Americans no longer have to choose between paying their bills and keeping themselves and their families safe from COVID-19 by asking the U.S. Department of Labor to clarify that workers who refuse unsafe working conditions can still receive unemployment insurance.
        Enable effective and equitable distribution of government assistance by establishing an interagency benefit coordination structure.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/22/talking-points-january-22-executive-orders-economic-relief/

Increase access to nutritious food for millions of children missing meals due to school closures. Established under Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) connects low-income families with kids with food dollars equivalent to the value of the school meals missed due to COVID-related school closures. To date, the program has only allowed P-EBT benefit amounts up to $5.70 per child per school day and many households have had trouble claiming benefits. To address these concerns and expand needed relief, the President is asking USDA to consider issuing new guidance increasing P-EBT benefits by approximately 15% to accurately reflect the costs of missing meals and make it easier for households to claim benefits. For instance, this action could provide a family with three children more than $100 of additional support every two months.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/22/fact-sheet-president-bidens-new-executive-actions-deliver-economic-relief-for-american-families-and-businesses-amid-the-covid-19-crises/

Allow larger emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program allotments for the lowest-income households. Congress authorized emergency increases to SNAP benefits to help address food insecurity during the pandemic. So far, those benefit increases have not been made available to all of the lowest income households. USDA will consider issuing new guidance that would allow states to increase SNAP emergency allotments for those who need it most.  This would be the first step to ensuring that an additional 12 million people get enhanced SNAP benefits to keep nutritious food on the table.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/22/fact-sheet-president-bidens-new-executive-actions-deliver-economic-relief-for-american-families-and-businesses-amid-the-covid-19-crises/

Update food assistance benefits to reflect the true cost of a basic healthy diet. More than 40 million Americans count on SNAP to help put food on the table. Currently, however, USDA's Thrifty Food Plan, the basis for determining SNAP benefits, is out of date with the economic realities most struggling households face when trying to buy and prepare healthy food. As a result, the benefits fall short of what a healthy, adequate diet costs for many households. Therefore, as directed by the 2018 Farm Bill, the President will ask USDA to consider beginning the process of revising the Thrifty Food Plan to better reflect the modern cost of a healthy basic diet.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/22/fact-sheet-president-bidens-new-executive-actions-deliver-economic-relief-for-american-families-and-businesses-amid-the-covid-19-crises/

Ensure Equitable and Effective Delivery of Direct Payments. As the President fights to get Americans the full $2,000 in direct payments they deserve, his administration is also working to ensure that all those who are eligible receive their full payments. Many Americans faced challenges receiving the first round of direct payments and as many as eight million eligible households did not receive the payments issued in March. In December, Congress passed legislation that would provide Americans with $600 in stimulus. The President's American Rescue Plan proposes an additional $1,400 per-person payments to ensure that households get the support they need to help pay bills, put food on the table, and support small businesses and their communities. While Treasury and career staff at the IRS have worked tirelessly to deliver two rounds of payments in the midst of a pandemic, the work is far from over. To ensure equitable and effective delivery of direct payments and focus on getting relief to eligible individuals who have not received the financial assistance to which they are entitled, the President is asking the Department of Treasury to consider taking a series of actions to expand and improve delivery of Economic Impact Payments including establishing online tools for claiming their payments, working to make sure that those who have not yet accessed their funds get the relief they deserve, and analyzing unserved households to inform additional outreach efforts.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/22/fact-sheet-president-bidens-new-executive-actions-deliver-economic-relief-for-american-families-and-businesses-amid-the-covid-19-crises/

Guarantee that No American Has to Choose Between Paying Their Bills and Keeping Themselves and Their Families Safe from COVID-19. In 2019, 43% of American households reported having at least one member with pre-existing conditions, many of whom may have a heightened risk of serious illness or death if they contract COVID. President Biden believes that workers should have the right to safe work environments and that no one should have to choose between their livelihoods and their own or their families' health. As one of many measures to help keep workers and their families' safe throughout the pandemic, the President is asking the Department of Labor to consider clarifying that workers have a federally guaranteed right to refuse employment that will jeopardize their health and if they do so, they will still qualify for unemployment insurance.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/22/fact-sheet-president-bidens-new-executive-actions-deliver-economic-relief-for-american-families-and-businesses-amid-the-covid-19-crises/

Help Families, Workers and Small Businesses Access Relief Resources Quickly, Easily and Equitably through Coordinated Benefit Delivery Teams. During the pandemic government programs have provided much needed support to help tens of millions of Americans pay rent, mortgages and other bills, get the food they need, and access healthcare. However, critical support does not always reach the people who need it: families struggle to navigate complicated eligibility rules while over 20% of Earned Income Tax Credits go unclaimed; many small businesses in communities of color cannot easily access loans; and according to one survey less than 40% of service workers who were laid off or furloughed at the height of pandemic closures actually received timely unemployment benefits due to system failures as applications surged. At the same time, an estimated 47% of children live in households that have trouble covering usual expenses such as food, housing, and medical care. The stakes are too high and too many families are in need for people not to get the relief that they are entitled to. The Biden-Harris Administration is establishing a network of benefit delivery teams and a coordination structure across federal and state administered programs to reduce the time and burden to access urgent support that provides greater stability and builds towards an equitable recovery.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/22/fact-sheet-president-bidens-new-executive-actions-deliver-economic-relief-for-american-families-and-businesses-amid-the-covid-19-crises/

The federal government should only award contracts to employers who give their workers the pay and benefits they have earned; President Biden is today directing his administration to start the work that would allow him to issue an Executive Order within the first 100 days that requires federal contractors to pay a $15 minimum wage and provide emergency paid leave to workers.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/22/fact-sheet-president-bidens-new-executive-actions-deliver-economic-relief-for-american-families-and-businesses-amid-the-covid-19-crises/

He is also taking critical steps to protect and empower federal employees, who dedicate their careers to serving the American people. They keep us healthy, safe, and informed, and their work transcends partisan politics. They are health care workers who care for veterans, the elderly, and the disabled. They are expert scientists, medical doctors, and technicians who maintain world-class standards, prevent and combat the spread of infectious diseases, and save countless lives. They deliver our mail, run our national parks, keep our federal buildings up and running, help protect us against climate change and environmental poisoning, and ensure that the law is applied faithfully and fairly. They are talented, hard-working, and inspiring Americans, worthy of the utmost dignity and respect. But, over the last four years, they've been undermined and demoralized. The President will sign an executive order taking steps to protect and empower federal employees who are so essential to this country. It: Restores collective bargaining power and worker protections by revoking Trump Executive Orders 13836, 13837, and 13839. It goes further to direct agencies to bargain over permissible, non-mandatory subjects of bargaining when contracts are up for negotiation so that workers have a greater voice in their working conditions. | Eliminates Schedule F, which undermines the foundations of the civil service. Its existence threatens the critical protections of career employees and provides a pathway to burrow political appointees into the civil service. | Promotes a $15 minimum wage. The Executive Order directs the Office of Personnel Management to develop recommendations to pay more federal employees at least $15 per hour.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/22/fact-sheet-president-bidens-new-executive-actions-deliver-economic-relief-for-american-families-and-businesses-amid-the-covid-19-crises/

Trump is a criminal ex-president who extorted Ukraine with tax payer money to investigate a political opponent, who obstructed justice 10 times according to the Mueller report, who was labeled as "Individiual-1" and committed campaign finance felonies with Michael Cohen, who tried to force Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find 11,780 votes" to overturn the vote count in Georgia, who committed tax fraud according to the NYT, and who incited an insurrection on the Capitol with his constant lies and rhetoric.
https://apnews.com/article/e0d125d737be4a21a81bec3d9f1dffd8
https://fortune.com/2018/12/07/feds-accuse-trump-crime-cohen-campaign-finance/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-raffensperger-call-georgia-vote/2021/01/03/d45acb92-4dc4-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/02/us/politics/donald-trump-tax-schemes-fred-trump.html

In addition, these are the other criminals that were hired or affiliated with this president:
- His National Security Advisor pled guilty twice
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-pardons-michael-flynn-who-twice-pleaded-guilty-lying-fbi-n1249031
- His campaign chairman, a lifetime friend and lifetime business partner, was convicted on 8 counts. 10 counts were a mistrial. A Trump supporter on the jury, Paula Duncan, convicted Manafort on all 18 counts.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/manafort-convicted-8-counts-n901231
- His deputy campaign chairman, Rick Gates, pled guilty
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/former-trump-campaign-official-rick-gates-expected-to-plead-guilty-and-cooperate-with-special-counsel-in-probe-of-russian-election-interference/2018/02/23/ceaaeac8-16b4-11e8-b681-2d4d462a1921_story.html
- His real personal lawyer pled guilty
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/nyregion/michael-cohen-trump-russia-mueller.html
- His foreign policy advisor on his campaign has pled guilty
https://www.npr.org/2017/10/31/560835237/first-guilty-plea-in-russia-probe-who-is-george-papadopoulos
- His long time advisor and associate, Mr Stone, was found guilty on 7 counts
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/roger-stone-found-guilty-counts/story?id=67015102

Republicans are already trying to rewrite history and pretend that what Trump did was fine.

Democrats eye arcane legislative tool reconciliation to pass parts of Covid19 relief bill. Bernie Sanders in the lead and is already aggressively fighting to get this relief bill fully funded and passed | But behind the scenes, lawmakers recognize time is of the essence and are preparing to work through reconciliation if they have to. Chairs of the House and Senate Budget Committee have not been shy about talking publicly about their plans. "The caucus would prefer this be done on a bipartisan basis. We haven't made a decision yet to use reconciliation, but we are prepared to move very quickly if it looks like we can't do it any other way," Rep. John Yarmuth, a Democrat from Kentucky and the chairman of the House's Budget Committee, said Thursday. Hours later, Sen. Bernie Sanders, the chair of the Senate Budget Committee, told NBC's Seth Meyers that the first goal was to try to reach out to Republicans, but he argued they couldn't wait for them to come along. "I think we should reach out to Republicans if they choose not to come on board, which I suspect will probably be the case ... we should use that majority in a very aggressive way," Sanders said. "It is my view we should make sure that we address the needs of the American people in that reconciliation bill, and if we pass it with 51 votes, we'll pass it with 51 votes.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/22/politics/covid-relief-package-reconciliation/index.html 

Republicans don't like the Democrats' stimulus package? Here's a one-year payment plan to circumvent your blockade: The IRS would be tasked with depositing checks worth $300 every month per child younger than 6, as well as $250 every month per child aged 6 to 17. That would amount to $3,600 over the course of the year for young children, as well as $3,000 a year for older children.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/01/22/biden-childtaxcredit-stimulus

"But I won't personally benefit so screw it!" and "Why should I pay for other people's kids, they need to pay for their mistakes!" - tons of Americans, unfortunately. I don't have kids but this is a good move. In the same way that eliminating at least some student loan debt would be a good move. It's impossible for any given measure or policy to directly help 100% of the population.

Constitutional Law Scholars on Impeaching Former Officers: We differ from one another in our politics, and we also differ from one another on issues of constitutional interpretation. But despite our differences, our carefully considered views of the law lead all of us to agree that the Constitution permits the impeachment, conviction, and disqualification of former officers, including presidents.
https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000177-2646-de27-a5f7-3fe714ac0000

Schiff asks new intel chief Avril Haines to declassify Jamal Khashoggi report
https://www.axios.com/haines-jamal-khashoggi-biden-report-declassify-c3e5d6e2-c0b3-43a3-9a86-defdab5d9362.html

Tucked into President-elect Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus plan is a one-sentence provision that could drive billions in federal subsidies to help people afford to buy health insurance. The proposal would do two things: make upper-middle-income Americans newly eligible for premium subsidies on PPACA marketplaces, and increase the financial help that already goes to lower-income enrollees. Taken together, some experts expect these changes to drive more sign-ups for Healthcare.gov plans after they fell in the Trump era. Democrats have spent much of the last two years pressing for these policies, outlining ideas in candidate platforms and fine-tuning them in congressional legislation. The House even passed a similar proposal this past summer, but none of it had a shot at becoming law with President Trump in office and a Republican majority in the Senate. Now, control of the White House and a slim majority in Congress mean the first real prospect of significantly strengthening Obamacare since it became law in 2010. President-elect Biden's inclusion of policies to shore up the health law in his first major legislative package has raised those hopes further. | Mr. Biden's plan tackles one of the Affordable Care Act's biggest weaknesses: affordability. Surveys of uninsured Americans and those with Healthcare.gov plans routinely find that affordability of premiums ranks as a top complaint. One conducted in 2018 shows that 42 percent of those who shopped for individual market coverage found it "very difficult or impossible to find an affordable plan." | The affordability challenges are a result of how drafters wrote the health law. They limited premium subsidies to those earning less than 400 percent of the federal poverty line: $51,520 for an individual and $106,000 for a family of four in 2021. The premium subsidy cap meant that coverage could be significantly more expensive for those even just slightly above that limit. Many of these premium subsidy limits, part of an effort to keep the total cost of the measure under $1 trillion, pushed a higher share of the costs onto patients. The Biden plan would create a new cap — 8.5 percent of an individual or family's income on premium contributions — for midlevel health plans, something the president-elect had also proposed during the campaign. This policy would mostly affect higher-earning Americans who do not currently qualify for subsidies.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/16/upshot/biden-obamacare-stimulus.html

The Trump campaign paid more than $2.7 million to individuals and firms that organized the Jan. 6 pro-Trump terrorist attack against Congress to murder US lawmakers to stop them from certifiying the election results https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-22/trump-campaign-paid-organizers-of-pre-riot-rally-2-7-million

Hank Aaron has died. As this obituary by Richard Goldstein makes clear, what he endured is a searing lesson about racism in America in our not-so-distant past.
https://nytimes.com/2021/01/22/sports/baseball/hank-aaron-dead.html

Last night on his program @TuckerCarlson again lied to his audience about CNN, stating we'd "dutifully removed" the COVID-19 tracking graphic from our coverage now that President Biden has taken office. That is false. We look forward to his correction tonight. #factsfirst
https://twitter.com/CNNPR/status/1352676313300152323

PressSec Jen Psaki asked if Biden believes Trump should be convicted in a Senate impeachment trial. "He's no longer in the Senate and he believes it's up to the Senate and Congress to determine how they will hold the former president accountable."

Love Biden's covid19 plan and these press briefings. But not liking deflecting the questions about "is 100 million in 100 days too low?" with "well it was called bold when we set it". We're doing almost a million a day NOW with minimal federal coordination and constrained manufacturing. We need more than 50 million people vaccinated by April 30. Why not shoot higher?

So I guess I'm the last person on social media to learn that the "Parler" site is pronounced like "funeral parlor" and not like a French verb (parlez, to speak)

Jen Psaki has an update on Air Force One. "I can confirm for you here, the president has not spent a moment thinking about the color scheme of Air Force One," she told reporters today.

PressSec says President Biden has sent a tasking to the ODNI "requesting a comprehensive threat assessment, coordinated with the FBI and DHS, on domestic violent extremism."
https://c-span.org/video/?508235-1/white-house-daily-briefing
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/22/white-house-assessment-domestic-extremism-461390

The end of an NBC News era: this afternoon NBC will announce that Tom Brokaw is formally retiring after an extraordinary 55 years with the network

PressSec on Biden's position re: ending the legislative filibuster: "His position has not changed." Biden is on record opposing the end of the legislative filibuster.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/14/joe-biden-2020-filibuster-360587

Even when this new Press Secretary doesn't like a question or needs to provide a vague answer (maybe mostly because they've been working for 48 hours...) at least her tone doesn't immediately get all condescending and "I hate the press" and "fake news" like we've seen before.

PressSec: "He ran against him because he believes Trump's unfit to serve, and Trump's no longer here because President Biden beat him."

He was impeached for inciting a riot meant to overturn election results. That's accurate and worthy of conviction unto itself. The US cannot survive questioning election results every four years. It will escalate if this cycle isn't framed as a aberration. The only way to conclusively frame this as an aberration is to convict Trump. (Expelling Hawley and Cruz would help too, but that's a separate matter and will never to happen). Either this election cycle is framed as extraordinary or ordinary. Conviction frames it as unacceptable and guarantees it won't be repeated in the future. Acquittal frames it as acceptable and guarantees it will be repeated in the future, perhaps with irreversibly devastating results.

Discredited Gun Researcher In Justice Department Fired: John Lott, who pushes the theory that "more guns = less crime," was hired in October to advise on crime data.
https://www.thetrace.org/2021/01/discredited-gun-researcher-out-at-justice-department/

Biden reaffirms commitment to enshrining Roe v. Wade in federal law
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/535427-biden-reaffirms-commitment-to-enshrining-roe-v-wade-in-federal-law

Kill Coal to Save Lives | It's time to finish what the Obama Administration started. It's time to finish off coal. On Tuesday, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled that the Affordable Clean Energy rule—the Trump administration's attempt to relax (or rather, erase) standards for carbon dioxide emissions from coal and natural gas power plants—was unlawful, as it was based on a "fundamental misconstruction" of the Clean Air Act. Given that former President Trump's Department of the Interior spent the past four years pursuing a campaign of deregulation and corporate land grabs, the decision by the court was heralded as a pre-inauguration gift for the Biden administration. The appeals court's ruling means that the new administration will have the opportunity to move ahead with regulation of the coal and natural gas industries without having to entirely redraft the Republicans' now-vanquished archaic codes. Biden's cabinet will be able to adopt the principles of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan (CPP), which required power plants to reduce their emissions by 32 percent by 2030—a number that was designed to effectively force the closures of dozens of remaining coal plants in the U.S. Compare this to the absurd ACE standard of 0.7 to 1.5 percent and it should be fairly clear how momentous this ruling was for climate change, given that power generation currently sits as the second-highest contributor in the U.S. But it's important to note that the court's decision was not just a gift for Biden and D.C.'s climate policy wonks. By reversing a policy designed to prolong the steady decline of the coal industry, this decision may also offer relief to countless communities that have been coerced into calling these plants neighbors for decades. Look closely at any one of the number of coal plants that still litter America's landscape and you'll likely also find a trail of community-wide health scandals, all typically swept under the rug in the name of economic contributions. Whether the court meant to or not, its ruling won't just be seen as a political victory that will move us closer to hitting long-term emissions goals; it will also quite literally save lives.
https://newrepublic.com/article/161011/kill-coal-save-lives
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/climate/trump-climate-change.html

The Miller coal plant, owned by Southern Company subsidiary Alabama Power and located in Jefferson County, has long held the mantle of being one of the nation's top greenhouse-gas emitters. Speaking with Public Integrity in 2017, Alabama Power spokesperson Michael Sznajderman casually admitted as much. "That's kind of old news," Sznajderman said. "It's jostled for that No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 spot for years." Southern's CEO even went on CNBC to claim that the company's CO2 emissions were a non-issue as it related to climate change. Miller has consistently earned an "F" ozone rating from the American Lung Association—cranking out close to 20 million metric tons of gas annually will do that. But as Public Integrity's reporting showed, it also took a toll on a local level. Speaking with Public Integrity, attorney Scotty Colson described the company as a "good corporate citizen," citing its consistent high employment rates and charity work. But after years of living with asthma and a burning sensation in his chest, Colson admitted that the trade-off is difficult to stomach. "You can question the science," Colson said, "but you can't question the reality of my lungs."
https://newrepublic.com/article/161011/kill-coal-save-lives
https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063101975
https://publicintegrity.org/environment/americas-biggest-greenhouse-gas-polluter-and-the-place-that-relies-on-it/

In Texas, the NRG-owned WA Parish Generating Station has exacted a grim toll in exchange for the energy and jobs it's provided the surrounding communities in Fort Bend County. Public Citizen noted last May that the pollutants emitted by the plant are estimated to be responsible for some 178 premature deaths each year. The promise of jobs dominates national discussion around coal. But the generating station's emissions also cost the community money by way of medical bills. In a column for Chron.com last November, writer Allyn West shared that one of his coworkers spent twice as much each month on asthma medication and air filters as they did on the electricity Parish provides along with the air pollutants. Meanwhile, NRG elected in the spring of 2020 to shut down the plant's accompanying carbon capture unit—used to limit the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by fossil fuel operations and long bandied as a symbol of NRG's commitment to "clean" energy—with the company saying that its continued use was "uneconomical."
https://newrepublic.com/article/161011/kill-coal-save-lives
https://www.chron.com/opinion/outlook/article/Opinion-The-W-A-Parish-plant-in-Texas-is-15726129.php
https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/2143976-nrg-to-suspend-carbon-capture-operations-at-petra-nova
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0196890414004415
https://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2012/02/21/how-biggest-power-plant-in-texas-will-use-pollution-to-pump-oil/

Should the new ruling and incoming regulations from the Biden Administration succeed in ushering out coal, there's also a case to be made that the benefits will extend beyond just protecting the surrounding community from breathing-related illnesses. In my home state of North Carolina, one of the defining scandals of the last decade was the 2014 Duke Energy coal ash spill in the Dan River, filling it with arsenic and selenium. The river provides drinking water throughout North Carolina and Virginia. Looking beyond the spill, the North Carolina Medical Journal found that for the past three decades, scientists have connected those living nearby coal-fired plants with having "higher rates of all-cause and premature mortality, increased risk of respiratory disease and lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, poorer child health, and higher infant mortality." Even after these plants are retired, the risk for contamination will remain high. For years, coal ash has been stored by corporations in ostensibly contained ponds, many unlined, that often lie near natural bodies of water. Following the flooding from Hurricane Florence in 2018, the Neuse River overran the coal ash ponds at a retired coal plant in Goldsboro, causing arsenic levels to spike. During the same storm, the Cape Fear River was also exposed to coal ash after an unlined coal ash pond topped the retaining wall meant to block it from the river.
https://newrepublic.com/article/161011/kill-coal-save-lives
https://greensboro.com/news/dan-river-coal-ash-disaster-most-ash-settled-up-to/article_363fdca7-bb76-5072-9c6d-43ddcde131ec.html
https://www.ncmedicaljournal.com/content/79/5/289

Despite Republican promises to the contrary, coal as an industry already has one foot in the grave. The CPP's intended effects—replacing coal as the country's main energy production source—has largely been seen through, even without the CPP in full effect. As Rebecca Leber wrote for The New Republic in 2015, the coal industry was already bleeding jobs by the thousands because renewables and natural gas drastically drove down production costs, and the once-dominant economic force has shrunk and relocated from its stronghold in Central Appalachia to Wyoming. In return for poisoning the surrounding area and warming the world, the coal industry can't realistically even provide abundant, stable jobs anymore—although whether that was ever a good trade is doubtful. The Biden administration now has the chance to finish the job once and for all, as it well should. After all, coal will be the easy fight—if the administration creates newer, greener jobs as promised, it will be offering steadier employment that, as a side benefit, doesn't poison the region's children. Compared to the task of vaccinating a nation or heeding demands for more pipeline cancellations, that should be an easy sell.
https://newrepublic.com/article/161011/kill-coal-save-lives
https://newrepublic.com/article/122453/attacking-obamas-climate-plan-wont-save-americas-coal-industry
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/11/04/heres-why-central-appalachias-coal-industry-is-dying/

The Nuggets Look Mediocre, But Nikola Jokić Is Setting The World On Fire
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-nuggets-look-mediocre-but-nikola-jokic-is-setting-the-world-on-fire/

Kevin Durant is out tonight against the Cavaliers, the team says. Durant played over 50 minutes on Wednesday against Cleveland. This is also the first night of a back-to-back, with the Nets scheduled to play the Heat on Saturday.
https://twitter.com/malika_andrews/status/1352673923427684353

WikiHoops is an amazing site/app that shows you how "good" a game was without showing you the score, so you can decide which highlights are worth watching without knowing anything about the outcome.
https://wikihoops.com/

Free agent F/C Norvel Pelle is planning to sign with the Brooklyn Nets, pending clearance of Health and Safety protocols
http://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1352693784434380800

The NBA is rescinding the second technical foul on Warriors forward Draymond Green last night vs. New York, which forced him to be ejected late in the first half.
https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1352700313476751360

One of the benefits of being 65 is that I'm eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. I got my first dose this week, and I feel great. Thank you to all of the scientists, trial participants, regulators, and frontline healthcare workers who got us to this point.
https://twitter.com/BillGates/status/1352662770416664577

@GovEvers: "Even when I talk to Republicans behind the scenes they say, 'I wear a mask, but I don't want to be in the position of enforcing that or taking people's liberties away.' My response is always, 'Well, you're talking people's liberties away and frankly their lives..."
https://twitter.com/postlive/status/1352702656972730371 

Nobody — And We Mean Nobody — Was Consistently Great Like Hank Aaron
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/nobody-and-we-mean-nobody-was-consistently-great-like-hank-aaron/

In 2018, Henry Aaron upon being asked whether he would visit Trump's White House: "'There's nobody there I want to see." Rest in Peace.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2018/06/23/hank-aaron-mlb-trump-white-house-nobody-want-see/728051002/

Among the new decorative touches in the Oval Office under Biden is a moon rock brought home by Apollo 17 in 1972.
https://www.space.com/president-biden-moon-rock-oval-office

Last spring, AmericanOversight received records that showed the CDC had a "novel-coronavirus" Slack channel. After they FOIA'd CDC, they obtained messages from the channel. The records include guidelines that indicate all Slack messages are federal records subject to FOIA. In the Slack messages, public health officials talked about pandemic-related trends across the country. In one conversation on March 20, 2020, public health officials discussed a drop in emergency hospital visits at the time. The officials also discussed how to share data, specifically making Covid-related syndromic data publicly available, as well as the tracking of non-Covid syndromic data related to suicides, accidents, and mental health. The channel was described as a place for "open communication and collaboration relating to syndromic querying, investigations, and general surveillance for the novel coronavirus outbreak." The records span March to April 2020, although they had requested records starting from February. Previous records indicated the CDC had started the Slack channel and invited officials to join it in late January 2020.
https://americanoversight.org/document/cdc-slack-messages-with-state-health-departments

With the latest #Congressdotgov release, we are bringing you new search fields to find all amendments for a bill, resolution or amendment, and the ability to display large bill texts in plain text format to speed oading.
http://blogs.loc.gov/law/2021/01/congress-gov-new-tip-and-top-for-january-2021/
https://twitter.com/LawLibCongress/status/1352710618290257920

The Executive isn't in charge of the impeachment. Impeachment is a Congressional (Legislative branch) issue because imeachment is a prosecution. Biden has no say in whether articles are given to the Senate or not.

11 months ago I voted Sanders in the DNC primary. I know it's only day 3, but Biden is doing exactly what Bernie would have done thus far.

Biden: "Nobody in America should be working 40 hours a week and be below the poverty line."

Biden mentioning tribal communities is really important.

The Vin Scully call of his record breaking home run remains one of the best of all time. FWIW, Phil Niekro, Tommy Lasorda, Don Sutton, and obviously Hank Aaron were all in attendance on 4/8/74 when Aaron hit his 715th home run. All of them are in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and all have died in the last month.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjqYThEVoSQ

Hank Aaron recalls racism during his chase for Babe Ruth's home run record | Racial segregation was commonplace while Aaron was growing up in Mobile, Alabama. He saw how his father had to yield his place in line at a general store when a white customer entered. And there were times when his mother called him into the house and the family hid under a bed because the Ku Klux Klan was marching past the house. Aaron faced the racism of the Deep South while winning the South Atlantic League's MVP award with Jacksonville as a 19-year-old in 1953. And when Aaron was a shy rookie with the Braves in 1954, manager Charlie Grimm reportedly nicknamed him "Stepin Fetchit,'' a vaudeville comedian billed as "The laziest man in the world.'' Years later, as he closed in on Ruth's record, Aaron was assigned a bodyguard because of the death threats and hundreds of pieces of hate mail he received. Aaron kept most of the hate mail. Former Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Jim Auchmutey wrote in 1996, "The hate mail, the death threats, the racial slurs, they're all there, boxed up like toxic waste .  .  . Billye Aaron has read about how her husband goes up in the attic and digs out those letters and picks at the psychic wounds he suffered as a black man threatening a white man's legacy .  .  .  " Aaron spent the first 12 years of his major-league career in Milwaukee (he hit 398 home runs), but when the franchise shifted to Atlanta in 1966, the Braves' new home did not feel like the land of the free to Aaron. At the time, he said he preferred playing on the road rather than in front of the sparse crowds the Braves were drawing. He interpreted that ambivalence as bigotry, which he experienced in that first season in Atlanta, when his first wife heard racial taunts targeting her husband as she sat in the stands. Aaron said he has vivid recollections of those times. "It brings back a very foul taste in my mouth,'' he said from Atlanta in mid-January. "I had to send my kids to private school. My daughter, who was in college at the time, couldn't go out of the dorms. She was threatened with letters all the time. It was a horrible moment for me to try to break the record, really. The police were saying all of these probably are crank letters, but some of them maybe were for real. The team stayed at one hotel and I stayed at another. I sometimes had to sleep in the ballpark by myself. I had to slip out of back doors of ballparks.'' | "I find the world has changed and people today respect me more now than they did even 20 years ago,'' he said. "I think people grew up and understand. Baseball is a game. If you have the ability to play it and can do certain things, whatever records you accomplished, you deserve to break the record.'' Aaron finished his Hall of Fame career in 1976 with 755 homers. His record lasted until Aug. 8, 2007, when Barry Bonds, whom many have accused of using performance-enhancing drugs, hit No. 756 (he retired with 762). Aaron said he never has spoken to Bonds about the record. ''I guess you could say that I think in terms of if someone's going to break a record and don't have the respect of playing with all of the G/d-given talent, then they don't deserve to have the record,'' Aaron said. "So that's the asterisk I put on it.''
https://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/hank-aaron-black-history-month-1.26740392

Aaron started his pro career in the Negro Leagues with the Indianapolis Clowns, and (quoted from his wikipedia page) said this about the racism he faced:    We had breakfast while we were waiting for the rain to stop, and I can still envision sitting with the Clowns in a restaurant behind Griffith Stadium and hearing them break all the plates in the kitchen after we finished eating. What a horrible sound. Even as a kid, the irony of it hit me: here we were in the capital in the land of freedom and equality, and they had to destroy the plates that had touched the forks that had been in the mouths of black men. If dogs had eaten off those plates, they'd have washed them.[22]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Aaron#Negro_league_and_minor_league_career

No more votes in the Senate today, which means Blinken and Yellen will have to wait until next week to be confirmed to their posts.

Speaker Pelosi to Democratic colleagues: When the Article of Impeachment is transmitted to the Senate, the former President will have had nearly two weeks since we passed the Article. Our Managers are ready for trial before the 100 Senate jurors. As we work to defend our Constitution and our Democracy, the Democratic House remains hard at work to save the lives and livelihoods of the American people from the pandemic and economic crises.  We applaud the actions taken by President Biden, starting on Day One of his Administration, and are working to turn his national strategy for COVID response and preparedness into legislation that will pass both chambers and be signed into law. | Relatedly, when we return to session, we will pass a rule change mandating fines for Members who refuse to follow new screening protocols for the House Chamber.  It is sad that this step is necessary, but the disrespectful and dangerous refusal of some Republican Members to adhere to basic safety precautions for our Congressional Community – including our Capitol Police – is unacceptable.
https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/12221-1

Curious what Republican voters in Marengo, Iowa make of this. Pretty spicy quotes from longtime Iowa Republican operative Doug Gross about the future direction of the Republican Party. | "Our leadership in our Republican Party, in large part, has been telling our base lies regarding the election," Gross said. "We have to rely on our leaders at least to tell the truth to protect our freedoms, and they didn't do that. Instead, they played it. They played our base like a fiddle. And they played 'em so much, they played 'em so hard that they turned around and almost burned us down. And we can't let that happen again." Gross, who has not publicly been an outspoken critic of Trump over the last four years, said that if the former president runs again, he would personally do everything he could to block his rise. "I'm going to dedicate my efforts to try to make sure that Trump finds Iowa as his Saint Helena — that it's an island he'll be on that he never comes back from," Gross said, referencing Napoleon Bonaparte's place of exile and death.https://desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2021/01/22/iowa-republicans-position-future-gop-donald-trump-2024/4216787001/

Very excited to be a Spring 2021 Fellow at the Georgetown Institute of Politics & Public Service. I'll be discussing "Justice in America: Bridging the Divides." We'll examine the relation between our divides & injustice, & how bridging those divides can bring about lasting change
https://twitter.com/DougJones

Texas Supreme Court rejects Alex Jones request to toss lawsuits from Sandy Hook parents
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/535447-texas-supreme-court-rejects-alex-jones-request-to-toss-lawsuits-from

Good: Twitter suspends Antifa accounts with more than 71K followers
https://nypost.com/2021/01/22/twitter-suspends-antifa-accounts-with-over-71k-followers/

The Warriors' chances of future contention may depend on Wiseman getting as many reps as he can handle this season. Golden State's best shot at competing this season, though, might be finding someone else who can let Steph and Draymond cook while the youngblood learns from the bench. 

Statement by NSC Spokesperson Emily Horne on National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's Call with National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib of Afghanistan: National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke this morning with Afghan National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib regarding the U.S. commitment to the U.S.-Afghan partnership and to peace for all the people of Afghanistan. Mr. Sullivan underscored that the U.S. will support the peace process with a robust and regional diplomatic effort, which will aim to help the two sides achieve a durable and just political settlement and permanent ceasefire. Mr. Sullivan also made clear the United States' intention to review the February 2020 U.S.-Taliban agreement, including to assess whether the Taliban was living up to its commitments to cut ties with terrorist groups, to reduce violence in Afghanistan, and to engage in meaningful negotiations with the Afghan government and other stakeholders. He expressed America's desire that all Afghan leaders embrace this historic opportunity for peace and stability. The National Security Advisors discussed the United States' support for protecting the extraordinary gains made by Afghan women, girls, and minority groups as part of the peace process. Mr. Sullivan committed to consulting closely with the Government of Afghanistan, NATO allies, and regional partners regarding a collective strategy to support a stable, sovereign, and secure future for Afghanistan.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/22/statement-by-nsc-spokesperson-emily-horne-on-national-security-advisor-jake-sullivans-call-with-national-security-advisor-hamdullah-mohib-of-afghanistan/

Colorado geophysicist Jeffrey Sabol accused of beating cop at Capitol riot booked flight to Switzerland then attempted suicide: prosecutors
https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-capitol-riot-colorado-geophysicist-suicide-arrest-20210122-bllko6645rbrjkdfvb6nah62qa-story.html

Democrats Defend Public Health and Energy Conservation Regulations Against Trump Administration's Unlawful SAFE Vehicles Rule; File Amicus Brief in Competitive Enterprise Institute v. NHTSA
https://energycommerce.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases/democrats-defend-public-health-and-energy-conservation-regulations-against

The Sumter County Does have been identified as James Freund and Pamela Buckley
https://www.theitem.com/stories/sumters-1976-john-and-jane-doe-remains-identified-to-be-revealed,357896
https://www.wltx.com/article/news/crime/mystery-solved-in-sumter-co/101-dd1300d2-5574-44f9-b763-29caecee8476
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumter_County_Does
https://dnadoeproject.org/project/

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer says former President Trump's impeachment trial will start the week of Feb. 8. Under the timeline, the House will transmit the impeachment article against Trump late Monday, with initial proceedings Tuesday, but opening arguments will be pushed to February, which also allows the Senate time to confirm President Joe Biden's Cabinet nominations and consider the Covid19 relief bill. "The January 6th insurrection at the Capitol, incited by Donald J. Trump was a day none of us will ever forget. We all want to put this awful chapter in our nation's history behind us. But healing and unity will only come if there is truth and accountability."
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-capitol-siege-biden-cabinet-trials-462425af29b02c43e24913b6fd191b6f

I regret to inform you that Chuck Schumer just said 'erection' instead of 'insurrection' on the Senate floor
https://twitter.com/i/status/1352636240504479744
https://twitter.com/jamieson/status/1352636240504479744

Speaker Nancy Pelosi has planned a ceremonial procession Monday evening through the Capitol as the way to deliver the impeachment article to the Senate, to be, led by the House clerk and acting sergeant-at-arms, and including the nine House managers. The procession will move through National Statuary Hall and the Capitol Rotunda to the Senate, where the article will be presented to the secretary of the Senate at approximately 6:55 p.m. Then, lead House impeachment manager Jamie Raskin of Maryland will read the article of impeachment on the Senate Floor. He and the other managers will then return to the House chamber. This choreography is all similar to what was performed as a solemn process on January 15, 2020, after Trump's first impeachment weeks earlier, as House managers then delivered the articles on abuse of power and obstruction of Congress to the Senate. However, that procession included carts of evidence, such as impeachment hearing transcripts, and witness testimony. There were no hearings leading up to this impeachment.

At least half of those on billionaire enclave Fisher Island have received their Covid vaccines19, but the county's hardest-hit, majority Black neighborhoods all rank as the least protected areas from the deadly virus.
https://twitter.com/conarck/status/1352761915953598467

Trump impeachment trial schedule:
Monday: House managers read article of impeachment in Senate
Tuesday: senators sworn in for trial
Feb. 2: Trump's answer to article is due
Feb. 8: Trump's pre-trial brief is due
Feb. 9: House's pre-trial rebuttal brief is due; trial can begin.

Tyler Herro (neck) is out for Heat tonight. He has been sent home, so also out vs. Nets on Saturday and Monday.
https://twitter.com/IraHeatBeat/status/1352751208809771008

Looking back on the primaries, I do think that Biden was the best choice out of all them. I was all in for Beto+Cory+Jay+Elizabeth+Bernie+Pete+Julian but Biden is doing an incredible job of things going in the White House like he never left four years ago. It's a good thing that we've just elected the most experienced president.

John McCain voted to support Trump's policies 83% of the time.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-trump-score/john-mccain/

Hank Aaron wasn't just one of the greatest players ever, he was loved by his peers and revered by those who came after him.
https://nytimes.com/2021/01/22/sports/baseball/hank-aaron-hall-of-fame
_______________________

NYC Jewish leaders and pro-Israel groups welcome Andrew Yang's anti-BDS position as detailed in the op-ed he wrote for the Forward

https://forward.com/opinion/462603/andrew-yang-mayoral-race-new-york-city-jewish-community/

January 22, 2021

Andrew Yang: My vision for New York City's Jewish community

I was on the Lower East Side on Sunday with my wife, Evelyn, for a small-business tour. In my 25 years in the city, I've visited the neighborhood countless times for any number of reasons: to eat at Russ & Daughters or Congee Village with friends, visit the Tenement Museum or ride my bike before linking up with the Manhattan Bridge.

But on Sunday, while meeting with business owners, workers and customers, I reflected more deeply on the Lower East Side as the locus of the rise of the Jewish community in New York.

The neighborhood has changed dramatically since Jewish immigrants began moving there in large numbers in the 19th century. More recently, South Asians and Latinos have called the Lower East Side home, and the tenements have been retrofitted as gallery spaces and clubs or given way to high rises.

But the working-class spirit brought to the Lower East Side by its early Jewish occupants, and the corresponding desire to live the American Dream, continues to animate the community.

Jewish immigrants who overcame extraordinary odds and persecution in Europe, including but not limited to the Holocaust, were once again tested in the United States. But the community persisted and has achieved remarkable success in all areas of American society, all the while maintaining a deep communal commitment to social justice and family.

That story resonates deeply for me. My parents immigrated from Taiwan, where my dad grew up with dirt floors on a peanut farm. I'm so proud they made it here, and that I have had opportunities my parents once thought weren't possible for their children. American Jews showed families like mine the possibilities that existed here.

This is why the Jewish community should know that, as mayor, I'll always be a reliable partner. That's an essential goal for any leader of New York City.

I'm concerned about the direction of this country. It's why I ran for president in the first place. Our social fabric is fraying and the recent attack on the U.S. Capitol is an outgrowth of that. The rise of white nationalism in particular is a threat that seems to only be growing. The grainy footage of a sold-out Madison Square Garden hosting a Nazi rally in 1939 now seems like it could happen again today. The recent vandalism of the Museum of Jewish Heritage with a Confederate flag was a stark reminder of the threat that white nationalists still pose to New York's Jewish communities.

I share the Jewish community's anger about the recent rise in hate crimes. In 2019, anti-Jewish attacks made up 58% of all hate crime complaints in New York City.

We need to do a better job at guarding against all hate crimes, including antisemitic ones. The NYPD, in conjunction with federal authorities, must focus on rooting out hate and gun crimes rather than nonviolent offenses.

But not all hate crimes are committed by organized neo-Nazis. We need to build better relationships between different neighborhoods throughout the city. New York's diversity is its greatest asset, but friction is a feature of every melting pot. Through our clergy, community groups and schools, we can do a better job at fostering empathy and understanding across race, religion and ethnicity.

A pluralistic democracy is not an easy model to maintain, especially during a time of profound economic change. We have to work at it.

A Yang administration will push back against the BDS movement, which singles out Israel for unfair economic punishment. Not only is BDS rooted in antisemitic thought and history, hearkening back to fascist boycotts of Jewish businesses, it's also a direct shot at New York City's economy. Strong ties with Israel are essential for a global city such as ours, which boasts the highest Jewish population in the world outside of Israel. Our economy is struggling, and we should be looking for ways to bring back small businesses, not stop commerce.

And of course, as mayor, I'll respect religious freedom. It's a central reason why so many immigrated to this country in the first place. I will not get in the way of anyone's right to circumcise their children and maintain the traditions of their faith. I have and always will attend friends' brissim to celebrate this important religious milestone in the life of their new children.

Because religious liberties are a core part of our constitutional guarantees, I also won't be changing the tax status of faith-based organizations. While richer, larger tax-exempt entities should pay a fee while the city's tax base recovers, religious institutions and schools will continue to be exempt.

During my campaign, and if I am elected Mayor, I will continue to look to the Jewish community as a source of inspiration for what is possible in New York City. And I will stand with my Jewish neighbors against antisemitism and anti-Jewish violence. New York is New York thanks to our city's Jewish population — past, present and future.
_______________________

Lamelo attempts a poster slam, can't convert, then gets a steal and dishes it to Graham for 3
https://streamable.com/7aqey8

Blake Griffin gets sauced by Ben McLemore, and then falls asleep and puts his hand through the rim for a goaltend.
https://streamable.com/y7hvm4

Marcus Smart flop like a fish against Embiid
https://streamable.com/e9yyo2

James Harden fancy pass between his own legs to Irving for the layup
https://streamable.com/s29153

Jaylen Brown leaves Danny Green in the dust and finds Tristan Thompson for the lay in
https://streamable.com/sajnho

Ben McLemore drops Blake Griffin, hits the 3
https://streamable.com/x7ziz0

Excluding his first game, Jerami Grant is averaging 27/7/3 on 48/40/86 shooting

Trump And Justice Dept. Lawyer (Jeffrey Clark) Plotted To Oust Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen To Install Jeffrey Clark Who Would Forcibly Overturn Georgia Election Results: The Justice Department's top leaders listened in stunned silence this month: One of their peers, they were told, had devised a plan with Trump to oust Jeffrey A. Rosen as acting attorney general and wield the department's power to force Georgia state lawmakers to overturn its presidential election results. The unassuming lawyer who worked on the plan, Jeffrey Clark, had been devising ways to cast doubt on the election results and to bolster Trump's continuing legal battles and the pressure on Georgia politicians. Because Rosen had refused Trump's entreaties to carry out those plans, Trump was about to decide whether to fire Rosen and replace him with Clark. The department officials, convened on a conference call, then asked each other: What will you do if Rosen is dismissed? The answer was unanimous. They would resign. Their informal pact ultimately helped persuade Trump to keep Rosen in place, calculating that a furor over mass resignations at the top of the Justice Department would eclipse any attention on his baseless accusations of voter fraud. Trump's decision came only after Rosen and Clark made their competing cases to him in a bizarre White House meeting that two officials compared with an episode of Trump's reality show "The Apprentice," albeit one that could prompt a constitutional crisis.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/us/politics/jeffrey-clark-trump-justice-department-election.html

This is part of and proof that he was inciting insurrection. Trump was doing everything he could to ensure that he'd still be president. The impeachment article referenced his phone call with Georgia, so the Senate Democrats can and should subpoena everybody involved in the Georgia phone call and the Jeffrey Clark plan to oust Jeffrey Rosen.

We are going to have these sorts of Criminal Trump revelations constantly for awhile.....

Just when some thought the Friday night bombshell NY Times/Washington Post Trump story era was ending, this story comes along to prove otherwise

I'm so pissed that the media knew Melania and Epstein were good buds (and he probably introduced her to Trump) and never talked about it until now. She's probably the most evil first lady ever.
https://www.insider.com/jeffrey-epstein-reportedly-bragged-he-introduced-trump-to-melania-2019-7
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/01/jeffrey-epstein-and-donald-trump-epic-bromance

Biden's next executive order will let people stay on unemployment if they quit an unsafe job (employers refusing to implement covid19 safety protocols)
https://theweek.com/speedreads/962791/bidens-next-executive-order-let-people-stay-unemployment-quit-unsafe-job

Luka Doncic scored or assisted on 33 of the Mavericks 37 points in the first quarter, finishing with 19/5/6 in the first.

Capela denies Anthony Edwards at the rim
https://streamable.com/iy8btl

Irving jukes himself to end the half
https://streamable.com/6x7onj

Joel Embiid gets away with a blatant travel
https://streamable.com/rmtgt2

Payton Pritchard diagnosed with knee sprain
https://twitter.com/KeithSmithNBA/status/1352787570330128388

Thybulle with a great defensive play against Kemba Walker:
https://streamable.com/dxqi2s

The Nets are gonna be screwed when they're the one seed and the Cavs are the 8 seed

Biden administration ousts Victoria Coates
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/22/biden-victoria-coates-anonymous-461532

Madison Cawthorn lied about many things, including being a businessman, competing for the Paralympics, and being accepted to the Naval Academy.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/madison-cawthorn-paralympics/

Self-styled militia members from Virginia, Ohio and other states made plans to storm the U.S. Capitol days in advance of the Jan. 6 attack, and then communicated in real time as they breached the building on opposite sides and talked about hunting for lawmakers, according to court documents filed Tuesday. While authorities have charged more than 100 individuals in the riot, details in the new allegations against three U.S. military veterans offer a disturbing look at what they allegedly said to one another before, during and after the attack — statements that indicate a degree of preparation and determination to rush deep into the halls and tunnels of Congress to make "citizens' arrests" of elected officials. U.S. authorities charged an apparent leader of the Oath Keepers extremist group, Thomas Edward Caldwell, 66, of Berryville, Va., in the attack, alleging that the Navy veteran helped organize a ring of dozens who coordinated their movements as they "stormed the castle" to disrupt the confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden's electoral college victory. "We have about 30-40 of us. We are sticking together and sticking to the plan," co-defendant Jessica Watkins, 38, an Army veteran, said while the breach was underway, according to court documents. "You are executing citizen's arrest. Arrest this assembly, we have probable cause for acts of treason, election fraud," a man replied, according to audio recordings of communications between Watkins and others during the incursion. "We are in the main dome right now. We are rocking it. They are throwing grenades, they are fricking shooting people with paint balls. But we are in here," a woman believed to be Watkins said, according to court documents.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/conspiracy-oath-keeper-arrest-capitol-riot/2021/01/19/fb84877a-5a4f-11eb-8bcf-3877871c819d_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/u-s-v-thomas-edward-caldwell-donovan-ray-crowl-and-jessica-marie-watkins/d3e8cbfe-dad5-4286-91f6-6461638e1fc9/?itid=lk_inline_manual_2

House Democrats have renewed their long-stalled demand for Donald Trump's federal tax records, but the Biden administration has not decided whether it will drop its predecessor's objections and release the Treasury Department records to investigators, Justice Department attorneys told a federal judge Friday. U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden declined Friday to lift a stay on a pending House lawsuit. Instead, the judge agreed to give Treasury and Justice Department officials two weeks to report back to him, acknowledging that President Biden's team was just settling in after the inauguration this week.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/trump-taxes-house-lawsuit/2021/01/22/4f4df442-5cf1-11eb-8bcf-3877871c819d_story.html

Clint Capela has recorded a triple double with points/rebounds/blocks tonight

Capela records his 10th block of the game to achieve a triple double
https://streamable.com/2twu1x

The Cavs have the worst offensive rating in the NBA. They had failed to score 100 points in 9 straight games. They just scored 147 (113 in regulation) and 125 on the Nets in back-to-back games.

Embiid ices the game vs Boston with a stepback three
https://streamable.com/wgtgda

KD, Kyrie and Harden deep in thought
https://streamable.com/1w8q7x

Trae shrugs as he hits the open 3 pointer
https://streamable.com/k80sli

Luka shakes Aldridge to give Dallas 3pt lead in clutch
https://streamable.com/vieqry

Trae Young checks out the game with 43/5/4 and 8/12 from deep and 7-7 from the line

Booker hustles back after getting stripped for the huge block then finds Ayton on the break for the finish
https://streamable.com/ooz67c

Devin Booker in tonights OT loss against the Denver Nuggets before being benched after a suspected injury: 31 Pts, 5 Reb, 5 Ast, 11-21 from the field

The Denver Nuggets (8-7) defeat the Phoenix Suns (8-6) in overtime 130-126 behind Nikola Jokic's 31 points after being down 14 at halftime

Jaylen Brown finishes the night with 42/9/3/1/1 in loss to 76ers

Brogdon drills the 3 to give the Pacers a 2 pt lead with 2.8 left
https://streamable.com/h31znx

CP3 lobs it to Ayton, getting his 14th assist of the first half
https://streamable.com/ir4wzl

Nikola Jokic in tonights OT win against the Phoenix Suns: 31 pts on 15-27 shooting, 10 Reb, 8 Ast, 3 steals

Luka finds Brunson for the dagger 3 with 18 seconds left
https://streamable.com/2eil4l

Jarrett Allen yams down the alley-oop from Darius Garland on the fast break
https://streamable.com/qmvrcw

Kyrie Irving: Having a leader like Lebron take a lot of pressure off myself, and be able to perform and lead the group, I was just learning. And I learned as much as I could from him & other guys, and now we're here. It took resolve, compromise, sacrifice, and communication for that team to work.
https://streamable.com/6wytbs

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander vs. the Clippers tonight: 30 points, 8 assists (3 TOs), 2 steals, on 11-20 shooting (2-4 from 3, 6-6 on FTs)

The Nets have allowed 134 points in the paint over their last 2 games (both against Cleveland). That is their most allowed in any 2-game span over the last 25 seasons. (64 in Wednesday's game, 70 tonight).

Luka Doncic tonight: 36/9/11 on 46% shooting including 33% from deep

Paul George is averaging 24.7/6.3/5.5 shooting 51.5/50.0/91.8

The Chicago Bulls (7-8) defeat the Charlotte Hornets (6-9) 123-110, behind 25/6/9 from Zach LaVine

Fox slices through the Knicks like a knife and throws it down
https://streamable.com/pcf024

Tobias Harris tonight: 22 points, 8 rebs, 3 asts. 10/12 from the field n 3-3 from three with elite defense

Confusion at the end of Rockets V Pistons as Grant is fouled after the end of regulation, Rockets win
https://streamable.com/3fp0ig

Robin Lopez on flopping during Wizards/Heat game: "This league is full of theatrics and thespians. Several of you are worthy of Oscar level performances for what you've done tonight. All of you should be embarrassed. All of you... embarrassed. "

Murray pulls up to give the Nuggets a 3 pt lead with 28.5 left
https://streamable.com/1kknm0

Demarcus Cousins tonight: 5 pts on 2-16 from the field, 5 turnovers and a -10 in 33 mins

Haliburton shakes Payton with the jab-step and knocks down the triple
https://streamable.com/qtvk9z

The Wizards plan to sign free agent F Jordan Bell to a 10-day contract via the hardship provision
http://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1352961450294259712

Rudy Gay barely takes any time off the clock and drains the long-range 3
https://streamable.com/vkhfw8

Monty Williams said it was a hamstring injury for Devin Booker. Said they probably won't have him tomorrow night when looking ahead on another answer.
https://twitter.com/KellanOlson/status/1352855128403890176

Lauri Markkanen 23 pts 3 threes vs Hornets

PG shakes Pokusevski and drains the jumper
https://streamable.com/58xmqz

Jamal Murray activates nitrous and jets down the lane for the lay up
https://streamable.com/wfh5uz

Jamal Murray and Chris Paul both come up short on their game winners
https://streamable.com/ghyfmx

Dr. Fauci Tells Rachel Maddow White House Blocked Him From Appearing On Her Show
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anthony-fauci-rachel-maddow-block-trump-biden-covid_n_600b96d3c5b6d64153abfb28

AOC says FEMA is preparing to cover $2 billion in COVID-19 funeral costs across the US: 'We finally got it done'
https://www.businessinsider.com/aoc-fema-finalizing-2-billion-covid-funeral-reimbursement-program-2021-1

Lawyer for 'guy with the horns and the fur' claims his client finally realizes he's been 'duped' by Trump
https://lawandcrime.com/u-s-capitol-siege/lawyer-for-guy-with-the-horns-and-the-fur-claims-his-client-finally-realizes-hes-been-duped-by-trump/

Biden needs to preach unity and Congressional Democrats need to kill the filibuster to get the Democratic legislation passed. Now that he is in the White House, Joe Biden should take a page from Republicans and say he delivered on his promise to have united us, regardless of the facts on the ground, while Democrats go about actually governing. President Joe Biden could remain ambivalent on ending the filibuster rule, and continue to reiterate his belief that Republicans will come to the table and negotiate in good faith. In the Senate, Democrats could just end it and start to pass legislation. Democrats who doubt that Republicans will ever have some grand bipartisan awakening seem to think that they must wait until Republicans show themselves to be true obstructionists before they can act to end the filibuster rule. Democrats always essentially dare Republicans to stand in their way on politically popular measures. For example "If Republican senators hold those bills up by filibustering, Democrats accuse them of standing in the way of helping Americans, so you see ending the filibuster would then be an easier sell." This is not a plan to "sell" the filibuster: It's a plan to avoid doing anything about it. The fact that Republicans have barely paid a political price for years of obstruction and procedural nihilism suggests the limits of a strategy of waiting for Republicans to prove how much they love obstruction and procedural nihilism. The strategy is less about telling a convincing story to the American people than it is about allowing the Democrats to delay ending the filibuster until they believe they have permission from some amorphous outside force known as "the people." But they already received that permission when they won the Senate majority. And more importantly, not only do they not have to "prove" Republican intransigence, Republicans already did that for the last 100 years. Republicans failed the bipartisan test long before any of us were born and Democrats need to eliminate the filibuster rule. Joe Biden does not need to abandon his promise of Unity even if Democrats in the Senate move to disempower the Republican minority. Chuck Schumer can get his hands dirty while President Biden continues praying for the Republican "epiphany." Instead of trying to get Republicans in trouble for blocking politically popular measures, just do the politically popular measures, and mourn that the other side wouldn't put aside partisanship to get on board.

Michigan county commissioner pulls military assault rifle during virtual meeting to threaten local resident who asked board to denounce designated domestic terrorist Proud Boys. Since the events of January 6, MacIntosh said she felt compelled to ask the board to publicly denounce the actions of the Proud Boys, especially because of what has happened in the state regarding extremism in the last several months. But after the first woman finished speaking, Rob Hentschel, chair of the board of commissioners, stopped the public comment period to deny the claims that the Proud Boys were racist and extremist and violent and militant, while he was threateningly holding a military assault rifle at the screen.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/22/us/michigan-county-commissioner-gun-proud-boys/index.html

8 million people could have missed their $1,200 stimulus checks; here's how Biden wants to fix that. Now, the Treasury Department says it's going to reach out and reissue unclaimed payments or encourage the people sitting on the sidelines to claim the money on their 2020 income taxes. The efforts are meant to reach up to 8 million people who might be missing out on the $1,200 direct payment from the CARES Act that then-President Donald Trump signed in March, according to the Treasury Department. "They're entitled to those payments but there's not an easy way for those folks to access them, so we're making it a priority today to fix that problem and get the relief they're entitled to," Biden said Friday afternoon, just before signing the order and others geared towards financially struggling families. The Treasury Department said it will work with the Internal Revenue Service to create "simple options" helping people claim the money. Approximately 8 million people who hadn't filed taxes have already used the IRS non-filer portal to register for stimulus checks, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said at an unrelated talk Thursday. "Hundreds of thousands" of checks and debit cards from the first round of checks haven't been cashed or activated, the Treasury Department said Friday. Back in the summer, the IRS sent out some payments on debit cards and some people tossed them out, thinking they were junk mail. In reaction to the order, the Treasury Department said Friday it would also crunch the data on unused payments to see if it can find geographic patterns on where people aren't using the money and then focus their outreach in these spots. 
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/up-to-8-million-people-could-be-missing-out-on-stimulus-cash-according-to-biden-heres-how-he-wants-to-fix-that-11611354798

Thousands of Illinois Drivers Would Get Their Licenses Back Under a Criminal Justice Reform Bill
https://www.propublica.org/article/license-suspensions-illinois-red-light-speed-camera-tickets

_____________________________

Biden's 100-Day To-Do List

Day 1. Do a little dance

Day 2. Cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit

Day 3. Deep-clean the bed

Day 4. Enforce that mask mandate on federal property

Day 5. Gloat

Day 6. Extend nationwide restrictions on home evictions and foreclosures

Day 7. Hump day!

Day 8. Launch "Real Joe Biden" Twitter account

Day 9. Tweet once. Forget how you logged in.

Day 10. Make an elaborate egg sandwich. Send a pic to Barack.

Day 11. Dry January ends

Day 12. Go for a run like Bill used to

Day 13. Do the thing with the groundhog

Day 14. Pledge to vaccinate every American

Day 15. Change White House Wi-Fi password to BigJoesHouse

Day 16. Bake the "perfect muffin"

Day 17. Rewatch "The West Wing"

Day 18. Rewatch "The West Wing"

Day 19. Rewatch "The West Wing"

Day 20. Rewatch "The West Wing"

Day 21. Consider Time-Life "Soul of America" box set

Day 22. Join World Health Organization Gold Star Club

Day 23. Organize the medicine cabinet

Day 24. Get the most diverse cabinet in American history confirmed

Day 25. Push to pass the Equality Act, a bill to add protections for L.G.B.T.Q. Americans

Day 26. See what ol' Dr. Jill is up to

Day 27. Call Barack to see if he liked the muffins

Day 28. Email Twitter about the login issue

Day 29. Leg day with Doug

Day 30. Sign executive order to conserve 30 percent of America's lands and waters by 2030

Day 31. Let it rip

Days 32-33. Take Jill on a staycation

Day 34: Watch supercut of all "Rocky" training sequences

Day 35. Pledge to shake hands with every American

Day 36. Go for a nice walk

Day 37. Call Barack again to see if he liked the muffins

Day 38. Hygge

Day 39. Sign executive order to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050

Day 40. Take a nap

Day 41. See what's happening in the Middle East

Day 42. Cancel Peloton subscription

Day 43. Watch "Bridgerton"

Day 44. Watch "Bridgerton"

Day 45. Watch "Bridgerton"

Day 46. Hey, that's me!

Day 47. See if Doug wants to have a catch

Day 48. Listen. Really listen.

Day 49. Sign something and hold it up for the cameras

Day 50. Call into "Hannity." Yell "bababooey."

Day 51. Write the Great American Novel

Day 52. Are unpardons a thing?

Day 53. Get into birding

Day 54. Ride the train to Scranton just for funsies

Day 55. Walk around asking the Secret Service if they need to use the can

Day 56. Start a puzzle

Day 57. REALLY let it rip

Day 58. Ask Kamala if she wants to take over for a few weeks

Day 59. Zoom lunch with the Paris climate signatories

Day 60. Show Jill the sourdough starter

Day 61. Call Lady Gaga about duet album

Day 62. Legalize it

Day 63. Do 1-min. plank

Day 64. Reverse Trump's immigration policies

Day 65. Plot "The King's Gambit"

Day 66. Call Barack again to see if he liked the muffins

Day 67. Give the people what they want

Day 68. Do 100 push-ups. Make Ted watch.

Day 69. Pledge to make direct eye contact with every American

Day 70. Install beer fridge in garage

Day 71. Get to Inbox Zero

Day 72. Allow openly transgender troops to serve in the military again

Day 73. Kiss some babies

Day 74. Ask around if four-year term is mandatory

Day 75. Start a dream journal

Day 76. Bake a galette

Day 77. Trust falls with the Squad

Day 78. Buy the perfect denim jacket

Day 79. Prank call "Ask the Mayor"

Day 80. Do 2-min. plank

Day 81. Feel blessed

Day 82. Buy a harmonica

Day 83. Take a nap

Day 84. Jam session with Doug

Day 85. Fight for partial repeal of the 2017 tax cuts

Day 86. Pledge to tell every American they look nice today

Day 87. Teach Chuck how to throw a tight spiral

Day 88. Face masks with Jilly

Day 89. Turn it up to 11

Day 90. Continue to defer student loan payments

Day 91. Buy doggy sweaters for Major and Champ

Day 92. Game night with Nancy

Day 93. Call Barack. Leave "Hey, this sucks. Call me back" voice mail.

Day 94. Have an inside day

Day 95. Hang collection of Shepard Fairey posters

Day 96. Ask Congress to close gun loopholes

Day 97. Sign another thing and hold it up for the cameras

Day 98. Crack open "A Promised Land"

Day 99. Pardon Hunter

Day 100. Ensure peaceful transition of power to Kamala
_____________________________ 

We're watching reports of protests in 38 Russian cities, arrests of 350+ peaceful protesters and journalists. The U.S. supports the right of all people to peaceful protest, freedom of expression. Steps being taken by Russian authorities are suppressing those rights.
https://twitter.com/USEmbRuPress/status/1352959290353410055

Media sources indicate that on Saturday, January 23, demonstrations are being planned throughout Russia in support of an opposition activist. These demonstrations are likely to be unauthorized. Given the likely substantial police presence and possible dispersal of demonstrators into other areas of the cities, U.S. citizens should avoid these demonstrations and any demonstration-related activities.
https://ru.usembassy.gov/demonstration-alert-u-s-mission-russia-5/

The law firm that handled the tax affairs of Donald Trump and his company during his presidency said it would stop representing him and his business.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-tax-law-firm-ends-work-for-ex-president-11611252382

We cannot reach out to Republicans indefinitely. If they choose not to come on board to help the American people now, we have the majority. We should use that majority.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1352709760139866112
https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1352709760139866112

Navajo Code Talker John Kinsel Sr turns 100 today. Happy birthday!
https://twitter.com/Schischillyy/status/1352742797007147008
https://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/bib/loc.natlib.afc2001001.54894

Larry King (born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger; November 19, 1933 – January 23, 2021)[2] was an American television host, radio host, and paid spokesman, whose work was recognized with awards including two Peabodys, an Emmy award, and 10 Cable ACE Awards.[3] King began as a local Florida journalist and radio interviewer in the 1950s and 1960s, and gained prominence beginning in 1978 as host of The Larry King Show, an all-night nationwide call-in radio program heard on the Mutual Broadcasting System.[4] From 1985 to 2010, he hosted the nightly interview television program Larry King Live on CNN. From 2012 to 2020, he hosted Larry King Now aired on Hulu, OraTV and RT America.. He continued to host Politicking with Larry King, a weekly political talk show which aired weekly on the same two channels from 2013 until his death in 2021. King received many awards during his life, including several Cable ACE Awards, Peabody Awards and lifetime achievement awards. [3][5] | On January 2, 2021, it was revealed that King had been hospitalized 10 days earlier in a Los Angeles hospital after testing positive for COVID-19.[113] On January 23, 2021, King died at the age of 87 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles.[2][114]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_King

Jair Bolsonaro could face charges in The Hague over Amazon rainforest
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/23/jair-bolsonaro-could-face-charges-in-the-hague-over-amazon-rainforest

Navalny's wife, Yulia Navalnaya arrested in Protests. Link to her Instagram with picture of arrest in comments
https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/russia-yulia-navalnaya-putin-protest-b1791654.html

Taiwan reports large incursion by Chinese air force consisting of eight nuclear-capable bombers and 4 fighter jets. Taiwanese missiles deployed to 'monitor' incursion.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-taiwan-china-security/taiwan-reports-large-incursion-by-chinese-air-force-idUSKBN29S0BK

France has passed a law protecting the sounds and smells of the countryside
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/france-rural-noise-law-scli-intl/index.html

Biden apologizes to National Guard chief after 5,000 soldiers had to reportedly sleep in a DC parking garage with only one bathroom
https://www.businessinsider.com/national-guard-biden-apologises-troops-that-slept-in-parking-lot-2021-1

Capitol rioter charged with threatening to assassinate federal official (Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez)
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/23/politics/garret-miller-capitol-riot-threaten-alexandria-ocasio-cortez/index.html

When I watched Henry Aaron play baseball, I knew I was watching someone special. It wasn't just about watching a gifted athlete master his craft on the way to a Hall of Fame career as one of the greatest to ever play the game. It was that each time Henry Aaron rounded the bases, he wasn't just chasing a record, he was helping us chase a better version of ourselves. With courage and dignity, he eclipsed the most hallowed record in sports while absorbing vengeance that would have broken most people. But he was unbreakable. He stemmed the vicious force of white supremacy, in death threats, hate mail, and in hardened hearts. What I deeply admired and respected about him is that each time he rounded those bases — an astonishing 755 trips home — he melted away more and more of the ice of bigotry to show that we can be better as a people and as a nation. Henry Aaron became, in the words of President Carter, "the first Black man for whom white fans in the South cheered." It was not only his bat, but his character that won over those hearts and minds. For generations of athletes and civil rights advocates who followed, he showed how to be proud and be unafraid to stand up for what is right and just. Jill and I count ourselves among the many millions of Americans who are grateful for the memories he gave us and our families. As a nation, we will still chase the better version of ourselves that he set for us. As we do, we mourn his passing and send our prayers to his beloved Billye, their children and grandchildren, and the entire Aaron family. G/d bless, Henry "Hank" Aaron, an American hero.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/22/statement-of-president-joe-biden-on-the-passing-of-henry-louis-hank-aaron/

Josh Allen's father, Joel, won't be at the game Sunday. He's been battling COVID and pneumonia which landed him in the hospital this month
https://www.buffalorumblings.com/2021/1/23/22245868/josh-allens-playoff-run-came-during-fathers-covid-19-related-hospital-stay

#Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes tells reporters that he's been cleared from the NFL's concussion protocol. Good to go for Sunday.
https://twitter.com/rapsheet/status/1352698069545078784

Alex Smith has been named PFWA's 2020 Comeback Player of the Year.
https://www.washingtonfootball.com/news/alex-smith-pfwa-comeback-player-of-the-year

Matt Patricia is coming back to New England and will assist the Patriots coaching staff in a variety of roles, a league source confirmed. In addition, Evan Rothstein, who worked in a several roles with the Lions, also will join New England's staff.
https://twitter.com/globejimmcbride/status/1352727147601920002

#Bucs have ruled out WR Antonio Brown (knee) for Sunday's NFC Title Game vs. Green Bay.
https://twitter.com/mysportsupdate/status/1352667724611280900

The @Buccaneers will officially be activating DT Vita Vea. He is now eligible to play on Sunday vs Packers
https://twitter.com/pschrags/status/1352680206578933767 

No one would have held it against him if Navalny had decided to go into exile with his family. Yet Navalny and his wife, Yulia, flew back to Moscow anyway on Jan. 17, setting up the arrest everyone expected—and triggering massive protests.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/23/biden-must-act-save-navalnys-life-hopes-freedom-russia/

We have hit over 20 million Covid-19 doses administered in the U.S. per the CDC, as we continue on a pace of 1+ million a day.
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations

Separate the myths from the facts on radon with EPA's Citizen's Guide to Radon. #NationalRadonActionMonth https://epa.gov/radon/citizens-guide-radon-guide-protecting-yourself-and-your-family-radon

Who's up for a little weekend adventure? Famous for its paternoster lakes (series of glacial lakes connected by a single stream system), @RockyNPS in #Colorado always has you thinking, "I wonder what's over that hill."
Pic by Jeremy Janus (http://ShareTheExperience.org) #FridayFeeling

Interior Department Welcomes Day One Executive Orders to Restore Public Lands and Waters, Combat Coronavirus. Immediately following his inauguration, President Joe Biden signed Executive Orders that take critical first steps to address the climate crisis, create good union jobs, and advance environmental justice, while reversing the previous administration's harmful policies.

One of President Biden's Executive Orders requires the Interior Department to conduct a review of the monument boundaries and conditions of the Grand Staircase-Escalante, Bears Ears, Northeast Canyons, and Seamounts Marine National Monuments. The order directs Interior, in consultation with other agencies and Tribal governments, to determine whether restoration of the monument boundaries and conditions would be appropriate.

The Executive Order also places a temporary moratorium on activities related to the implementation of the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge pending legal and policy review. Pursuant to section 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the Executive Order also restores the original withdrawal of certain offshore areas in Arctic waters and the Bering Sea from oil and gas drilling. The Interior Department will immediately begin to implement the orders, and make recommendations to the President as directed. The Interior Department has issued a Secretarial Order that temporarily elevates review of relevant agency decisions, including final agency actions, regulatory actions, and energy development. During the 60-day window that the Order may be in effect, decision-making over these matters will be reserved for Department leadership for the purposes of reviewing questions of fact, law, and policy they raise. The Order does not impact existing ongoing operations under valid leases and does not preclude the issuance of leases, permits and other authorizations by those specified. In addition, any actions necessary in the event of an incident that might pose a threat to human health, welfare, or safety will continue. The President also took swift action to begin an urgent, robust, and professional response to the growing public health and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus outbreak. An additional Executive Order will help slow the spread of the virus by asking all of us to do our part and requiring masks and physical distancing. The Interior Department will have additional department-specific guidance in the days and weeks to come.
https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/fact-sheet-interior-department-welcomes-day-one-executive-orders-restore-public-lands
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-protecting-public-health-and-environment-and-restoring-science-to-tackle-climate-crisis/
https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/elips/documents/so-3395-signed.pdf
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-protecting-the-federal-workforce-and-requiring-mask-wearing/

On the Reinstatement of State Department Diversity Training | Restoring and strengthening American diplomatic leadership globally requires leveraging the full talent and richness of American diversity.  To achieve a diplomatic corps truly representative of America, more progress is needed to recruit and retain a more diverse Department workforce and embrace a culture of inclusion and accountability, free of bias.  In furtherance of these goals, the Department of State has announced the full resumption of employee training and professional development activities in support of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Day One White House decision to rescind the previous administration's Executive Order 13950 affirms the Biden Administration's unwavering commitment to advancing racial and gender equity and a federal workforce that reflect the talents, abilities, and perspectives of the country they serve.  The nearly 77,000 Department employees at over 275 missions worldwide and offices across the United States can rest assured of their new leadership's commitment to a more diverse and inclusive workplace that begins with open discussion of challenges faced and shared commitment to advance progress.
https://www.state.gov/on-the-reinstatement-of-state-department-diversity-training/

Effective January 22, 2021, the United States is suspending the Direct Access Program for U.S.-Affiliated Iraqis for 90 days. As the result of a joint investigation by the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service and the Department of Homeland Security's Office of the Inspector General, the Department of Justice is prosecuting individuals for stealing U.S. government records from the Department of State's Worldwide Refugee Admissions Processing System to take advantage of the Direct Access Program for U.S.-Affiliated Iraqis. This scheme specifically targeted applications for direct access to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program made possible by the Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act of 2007. This suspension of the Direct Access Program for U.S.-Affiliated Iraqis is necessary to further review and address vulnerabilities. All refugee applicants are subject to stringent security and vetting requirements and are denied refugee status if they have ties to designated terrorist organizations or if they have engaged in terrorist activities. They go through extensive biographic and biometric vetting before they are admitted. There are no indications that the scheme jeopardized the broader refugee admissions program. The discovery, investigation, and prosecution of these individuals demonstrates the dedication of the personnel charged with maintaining the safety and security of the United States and the American people – we have no higher priority. The message is clear for those who would seek to take advantage of America's generosity in welcoming the world's most vulnerable people – you will be held accountable. We recognize the importance of assisting those who legitimately put their lives at risk to provide critical support to the United States in Iraq and we do not take the decision to suspend this program lightly. The United States has been and will continue to be a leader in the global response to humanitarian crises, including in Iraq. In addition to the resettlement of more than 3.1 million refugees since 1980, the United States is the world's largest humanitarian assistance donor. Since Fiscal Year 2014, the United States has provided more than $3 billion in humanitarian assistance in Iraq and for Iraqis in the region, including more than $47 million to combat COVID-19 inside Iraq. Our assistance provides critical shelter, essential healthcare, emergency food assistance, protection, education, livelihoods, and water, sanitation, and hygiene services.
https://www.state.gov/ensuring-our-safety-and-security-through-a-90-day-suspension-of-the-direct-access-program-for-u-s-affiliated-iraqis/

The Governments of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States welcome the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum's (LPDF) vote in favor of the selection mechanism for a new interim executive authority, which will guide Libya toward national elections on December 24, 2021. This is an important step towards Libyan unity. The LPDF's decision affirms the clear demands of the Libyan people that it is time for a change of the status quo. We encourage all Libyan parties to act urgently and in good faith to finalize the adoption through the LPDF of a unified and inclusive government. As participants in the Berlin Conference process and international partners of Libya, we will lend our full support to the LPDF's efforts.
https://www.state.gov/joint-statement-on-the-situation-in-libya/

AZ Republican Pro-Trump Terrorist Chair Kelli Ward won her re-election on the second ballot, she won 51.5% to 48.5%, according to spox. Ahead of the vote Ward played a video of Trump urging committee members to vote for her. Ward is often critical of Republican AZ Gov. Doug Ducey (because he refuses to nullify Biden's win).

Sri Lanka Minister who promoted 'Covid syrup' tests positive
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55780425

Unimaginable a few days ago: the White House tweeting Dr Fauci encouraging the use of a mask: Please wear a mask.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1353111551696375808
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1353111551696375808

Kinda looks exactly like Republican behavior to me...It's almost like spreading lies about voter fraud and then trying to go back to business as usual has its road blocks: "This is not Republican behavior," says @kelliwardaz as all hell breaks loose at the Arizona GOP meeting. @AZGOP
https://twitter.com/TheEdgePHX/status/1353067415819612165

One of the most enduring and endearing photos from Joe Biden's inauguration does not feature the president at all. Rather, an image of independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has made waves across the internet, sparking thousands of photoshopped memes on social media. In the picture, Sanders dons oversized mittens and a practical brown coat, sitting socially distanced on a folding chair with crossed legs and arms. It is this photo of the former Democratic presidential candidate that has been transposed across time and place, dropped into historical moments, movie scenes, famous paintings and more. Brendan Smialowski, a Washington-based photojournalist who covers politics for wire service Agence France-Presse, shot the image of Sanders. "That picture is really not that great," Smialowski told CNBC. "It's not the nicest composition in the world." He had been keeping an eye on prominent guests at the inauguration ceremony Thursday, particularly Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley who have faced criticism for their efforts to overturn the presidential election results. "I saw Sen. Sanders out of my other eye kind of fiddling with his gloves. It was just a nice moment when he crossed his legs and crossed his arms," Smialowski said. "I threw the camera over to him." The rest is history. The photo quickly made its way across the internet paired with funny captions, then cut and paste into different iterations. | During an interview on "Late Night with Seth Meyers" Thursday, Sanders said he had no idea the photo of him had become an internet sensation. "I was just sitting there trying to keep warm, trying to pay attention to what was going on," he told Meyers. Sanders credited Jen Ellis, a Vermont schoolteacher, for making the mittens he wore. According to Ellis, the mittens are created from repurposed wool sweaters and lined with fleece made from recycled plastic bottles.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/23/bernie-sanders-inauguration-meme-heres-the-story-behind-the-photo.html

____________________

https://www.thecut.com/2021/01/bernies-mittens-are-not-for-sale-says-woman-who-made-them.html

The patterned mittens Bernie Sanders wore to the inauguration: top-notch. Who wouldn't want their own pair of the hand-knit accessory — thoughtfully crafted from repurposed wool sweaters and recycled plastic bottles — to keep their paws toasty in the wintertime? As it turns out, swarms of people do, but they're not for sale, and if you've considered reaching out to the woman who made them, please do not.

On Wednesday night, Jewish Insider caught up with the mitten-maker — Jen Ellis, 42, who teaches second grade just outside Burlington, Vermont — to ask her how it felt to see her senator wear her creation. While this wasn't the first time Bernie has worn the mittens in public — he debuted them at a Women's March in January of last year — this certainly served as the mittens' most high-profile appearance.

https://jewishinsider.com/2021/01/jen-ellis-bernie-sanders-mittens/

Ellis responded exuberantly. "He must really like them if he chose to wear them," she said, adding that she has long admired Sanders's politics. In fact, she sent him the handmade mittens after he lost the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, hoping they might bring a smile to his face or inspire him to run again. (At the time, her daughter was attending a preschool directed by Sanders's daughter-in-law, so Ellis had her daughter transport the mittens.)

But when asked to describe how she personally has fared in the past 24 hours, the enthusiasm drained from her voice. The virality was "unexpected," she told the outlet, before elaborating on the extent of the demand: By Wednesday evening, she had received a staggering 6,000 emails about the mittens. In fact, during the interview, Ellis was in the process of figuring out how to log back in to her Twitter account so she could announce that, unfortunately, "I don't have any mittens to sell." (She eventually got back into her account.)

    Thanks for all the interest in Bernie's mittens! It truly has been an amazing and historic day! I'm so flattered that Bernie wore them to the inauguration. Sadly, I have no more mittens for sale. There are a lot of great crafters on ETSY who make them. -Jen Ellis,
    — Jen Ellis (@vtawesomeness) January 21, 2021
https://twitter.com/vtawesomeness/status/1352050649412886529

Nor does she have any intention of starting up a mitten business. "There's no possible way I could make 6,000 pairs of mittens, and every time I go into my email, another several hundred people have emailed me," she told Jewish Insider. "I hate to disappoint people, but the mittens, they're one of a kind and they're unique and, sometimes in this world, you just can't get everything you want."

Instead, she has suggested that people visit Etsy, where they'll find a huge community of crafters selling handmade accessories that will keep their extremities just as warm. But as for Bernie's specific mittens? Kamala Harris's camel Pyer Moss coat and Michelle Obama's monochromatic pantsuit are more attainable.
____________________ 

https://jewishinsider.com/2021/01/jen-ellis-bernie-sanders-mittens/

While President Joe Biden was unquestionably the star of Wednesday's inauguration ceremony in Washington, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) appeared to have stolen the show on social media thanks to his endearingly grandfather-like attire, including a disposable blue surgical mask, gray Burton winter coat and oversized brown mittens made from repurposed wool sweaters. The mittens, patterned and lined with fleece, were the main attraction, resembling a pair of oven mitts or perhaps two strangely colored paws. The memes, of course, were abundant.

"In Vermont, we dress warm — we know something about the cold," Sanders said in his characteristically no-nonsense manner in a CBS News interview after the inauguration. "We're not so concerned about good fashion. We want to keep warm. And that's what I did today."

Setting aside the practicality of his ensemble, however, the mittens in particular were no doubt more meaningful than Sanders was letting on. They were made by Jen Ellis, a 42-year-old second grade teacher and craft hobbyist who lives in Essex Junction, Vt., outside Burlington — where Sanders was mayor in the 1980s — with her partner, Liz, and their kindergarten-age daughter. She gave the mittens to Sanders as a gift five years ago, but has never met him, even though she is an admirer.

"He must really like them if he chose to wear them," Ellis said with apparent glee in an interview with Jewish Insider on Wednesday evening. How did it feel to discover that her mittens had gone viral? "It's been unexpected," she replied calmly, going on to add that she had, somewhat alarmingly, received approximately 6,000 emails in the past few hours about an old tweet in which she had advertised her wares. Not an active social media user, Ellis was in the process of figuring out how to log back into her Twitter account so she could announce that, unfortunately, there was no product left in stock. "I don't have any mittens to sell."

Despite the interest, Ellis had no plans to meet the demand. "Honestly, I don't really do it a lot anymore," said Ellis, who has sold her mittens — which she calls "swittens," a portmanteau of sweater and mittens — online and at craft fairs. "I'm flattered that they want them, but there are lots of people on Etsy who sell them and hopefully people will get some business from them," she said. "But I'm not going to quit my day job. I am a second grade teacher, and I'm a mom, and all that keeps me really busy."

"There's no possible way I could make 6,000 pairs of mittens, and every time I go into my email, another several hundred people have emailed me," Ellis added. "I hate to disappoint people, but the mittens, they're one-of-a-kind and they're unique and sometimes in this world, you just can't get everything you want."

Of course, she has her own personal supply of swittens, which have come in handy — no pun intended — during the pandemic, as she has been conducting classes in the woods beside her school. "I've actually been wearing my mittens to teach every day," Ellis said. "I love them," she added. "I think it's a really cool project because it takes a garment, a sweater, that otherwise would have been thrown away. I use sweaters that have moth holes or have ripped or they've been sent through the wash and turned into cardboard."

The fleece lining, Ellis noted, is made from recycled plastic, "which diverts material from the landfill."

"They're a lovely gift," she said. "I often give them as wedding gifts. I put gift cards in them. We have bees, so I will usually put together a little bag of honey and mittens. It's very Vermonty."

Ellis was inspired to give a pair to Sanders when he lost the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and wanted to lift his spirits. "I didn't think he was going to run again," she said. "But I wanted him to." At the time, Ellis's daughter was attending a pre-school directed by Sanders's daughter-in-law, Liza Driscoll, so the opportunity was right to slip him a pair of swittens. "I was making mittens for holiday gifts for the preschool teachers," Ellis said, "and I made an extra pair for Bernie. I gave them to Liza to give to him, just as a thank you."

Sanders appears to have appreciated the gesture. He wore the mittens on the campaign trail in New Hampshire, during his second failed presidential bid this past cycle. "Last year when this had a little buzz, somebody made a little clothing line that had a picture of Bernie wearing his mittens and the words, 'I like Bernie,'" Ellis said. "So I have a couple of those T-shirts, which I think are funny."

"I'm a fan, and I've always voted for him," Ellis said of her senator, who has served in the upper chamber since 2007. "I agree with his politics. As a teacher, I work with people from all walks of life, and I can see how a lot of people need more help and support. Some of the things that Bernie talks about, like forgiving student loans and free education and just a lot of his humanitarian ideas and things, really align with what I see as a need in our country every day."

She hopes to cross paths with Sanders at some point in the future. "Someday, maybe he'll be walking down Church Street, and maybe I'll just come up and introduce myself and say hi," Ellis said. "I want him to keep doing what he's doing and fighting the good fight."

Still, in the unassuming manner of her political hero, Ellis sought to deflect attention from her mittens and instead drew attention to the historic nature of Wednesday's inauguration.

"I've tried not to let all of the mitten business overshadow the gloriousness of sitting with my five-year-old daughter and my partner and watching the first woman be sworn in as vice president," she told JI. "That's amazing. I had to wait four decades for that, and my daughter didn't even have to wait one. So that really is the true star of the day."
____________________ 

Today's #protest in #StPetersburg, #Russia, where protesters blocked Nevsky Prospekt avenue:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1352986501798354945
https://twitter.com/jimsciutto/status/1353119688113459201

R.I.P. Larry King - his #ItsMy2Cents tweets ranged from opinions to facts to questions
https://twitter.com/hashtag/ItsMy2Cents

King boasted of never over-preparing for an interview. His nonconfrontational style relaxed his guests and made him readily relatable to his audience. His shows were frequently in the thick of breaking celebrity news. King conducted an estimated 50,000 on-air interviews. He welcomed everyone from the Dalai Lama to Elizabeth Taylor, from Mikhail Gorbachev to Barack Obama, Bill Gates to Lady Gaga.

Sen. Tom Cotton Bragged He Was an 'Army Ranger.' He lied. The senator never served as an Army Ranger, he only attended the Army's two-month Ranger School, which is open to all members of the military.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/tom-cotton-army-ranger-school-1118418/

He's drafting challengers for lawmakers who crossed him and talking up a third party. This weekend, he put his thumb on the scale for a state party ally. Trump maybe be hidden from view lately, but he's flexing political muscle.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-republican-split/2021/01/23/d7dc253e-5cbc-11eb-8bcf-3877871c819d_story.html

The #Lions and Matthew Stafford have mutually agreed to part ways this offseason and the team will begin exploring trade options in the coming weeks for their star QB.
https://www.nfl.com/news/matthew-stafford-era-in-detroit-likely-over-as-star-qb-requests-trade

After Packers' CB Tramon Williams was elevated from Green Bay's practice squad today, he now is on track to become the first NFL player in history to play for two different teams during the same postseason; Williams played this postseason for the Ravens, before signing w/ Packers
https://twitter.com/adamschefter/status/1353095318661959680 

Denver Nuggets (9-7) defeat Phoenix Suns (8-7) in 2OT by 120 - 112 with 29 points and 22 rebounds from Nikola Jokic

The Pelicans are the most disappointing team in the NBA this season. After tonights extremely embarrassing loss to the Wolves, who were 3-11 and missing BOTH D'Lo and KAT, the Pelicans are 5-10 and now the 14th seed in the West. They're only 1 game ahead of those Wolves for last in the West. This is a team that was hyped up as a possible playoff team this year with a bunch of additions like Bledsoe, Adams, a healthy Zion etc. Instead they're one of the worst team's in the league.

Curry knocks down the corner triple to give him 2561 career made 3s and passes Reggie Miller for 2nd all-time
https://streamable.com/jzntgi

Murray sends the game to OT with a crazy off-balance 3 over Ayton
https://streamable.com/pmb3of

DeMarcus Cousins turns back the clock with 28 pts, 17 rebs, and 5 assists against the Mavericks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQW8LZPIxbk

The NBA hug police prevents Bam and Kyrie from dapping after Heats/Nets
https://streamable.com/yq9o9h

Bam Adebayo sets a new career high of 41 points on 14/20 FGs

Ben Simmons is happy to be fouled and steps up to knock down both clutch free-throws
https://streamable.com/g0sj28

Anthony Davis put up 37/6/3 in 28 minutes after saying "I think I suck right now"

The Philadelphia 76ers (12-5) defeat the Detroit Pistons (3-13) 114-110, led by 33 points and 14 rebounds from Joel Embiid.

The Brooklyn Nets (10-8) defeat the Miami Heat (6-9) 128-124

Crowder ties the game at 106 with .7 left
https://streamable.com/x8pcci

The Wizards having to play 41 games in 67 days is a disaster waiting to happen. Adam Silver: if they die, they die

The Houston Rockets (7-9) defeat the Dallas Mavericks (8-9), 133 - 108

Nico Mannion scores his first career three to cut the Jazz lead down to 29
https://streamable.com/e5vr1a

Willie Cauley-Stein argues and stares at ref in the middle of a play, gives up And-1 to Cousins
https://streamable.com/9kkfel

Bam Adebayo, with 41 points tonight against Brooklyn, is the first Miami Heat player in six years to score 40+ points in a regular-season game since Dwyane Wade in 2015

Bam Adebayo hits the tough shot over Jeff Green for his 40th point
https://streamable.com/qhc5sz

The Utah Jazz have won 8 games straight and no one is talking about it

The Trail Blazers have moved from 6th to 4th in the west this week without playing a single game

Steve Kerr on Steph Curry's lower usage rate with the starters: "There's a lot that goes in to all that. We see all the numbers and all the combinations. There are plenty of theories that we could talk about. I'm gonna leave that to you guys to assess and figure out."

Chris Paul knocks down the contested mid-range jumper to give the Suns a 3 pt lead with 12.2 left
https://streamable.com/l0gs7m

Zach LaVine 21 pts 10 rebs 4 asts vs Lakers

Former Mavericks guard J.J. Barea signs for team in Spain
https://www.nba.com/news/former-mavericks-guard-j-j-barea-signs-for-team-in-spain

Kevin Durant 31 PT 4 AST 4 REB, inching closer to split of 50/50/90 for the season.

"Are you serious" Josh Okogie with the behind the back pass under the rim to Vanderbilt for the slam
https://streamable.com/xugtpu

Ugly defense overshadows Curry's milestone as Warriors get blown out by Jazz
https://www.sfchronicle.com/warriors/article/Ugly-defense-overshadows-Curry-s-milestone-as-15893650.php

Rescue workers on Sunday lifted out the first of 22 miners trapped for two weeks hundreds of meters underground in an east China mine
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210124-first-of-22-trapped-miners-rescued-from-chinese-mine-state-media

Biden Administration Will End Military Support To Saudi Arabia In Yemen (Which Was The Obama-Era Policy)
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/biden-stop-support-saudi-war-crimes-yemen.html
https://news.yahoo.com/us-review-yemen-huthi-terrorist-143009286.html

Trump asked Justice Department to go to Supreme Court to overturn election
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-justice/trump-asked-justice-department-to-go-to-supreme-court-to-overturn-election-journal-idUSKBN29T01R

GOOD: Mexico's president says that President Joe Biden has told him the U.S. would send $4 billion to help development in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. For context, in December Trump was promising Indonesia $2B in aid, IF they established diplomatic relations with Israel before Biden's inauguration. THIS is how American influence should work. Aid. Development. Diplomacy. To everyone saying "whAT AboOut US?!".... the US spends upwards of 700bn on the military alone. We can afford 4bn to help our neighbors and clean the shit stain left by Trump. We've given nearly $2 trillion to Islamic nations that endlessly commit global terrorism. It's time we give the same money to Latin America. Imagine if we traded with south/central America like how we trade with China. Our hemisphere would be so much more prosperous, and we wouldn't have nearly as many asylum seekers, because countries to our south would be habitable, instead of a terrible, brutal struggle.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/biden-calls-canadas-trudeau-mexicos-lpez-obrador-75444816

Biden Administration Plan To Mega-Boost Social Security: "Under his plan, eligible workers would get a guaranteed minimum benefit equal to at least 125% of the federal poverty level. People who have received benefits for at least 20 years would get a 5% bump. Widows and widowers would receive about 20% more per month. Biden also proposes changing the measurement for annual cost-of-living increases to the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly, or CPI-E, which could more closely track the expenses retirees face. To pay for those higher benefits, Biden would apply Social Security payroll taxes to those making $400,000 and up. In 2021, workers generally pay the 6.2% Social Security tax on up to $142,800 of wages. (Earnings between $142,800 and $400,000 would not be subject to those levies under the plan, though that gap would eventually close over time.) Despite a Democratic majority in the House and Senate, there could be obstacles to getting major Social Security reform approved. Democrats have proposed their own legislation aimed at shoring up the program. The Social Security 2100 Act, proposed by Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., aims to boost benefits and restore the program's solvency for the next 75 years by raising payroll taxes. Another proposal, the Social Security Expansion Act, from Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., also aims to increase benefits for low earners while raising taxes for those with higher wages."
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/23/president-biden-could-make-big-social-security-changes-this-year.html

Biden was against the troop surge in Iraq and Afghanistan, preferring smaller counterterrorism forces (Special Ops and drones) instead; he did not want to go into Libya or Syria, saying that they had no idea what would come next if they deposed Assad (the lesson of Iraq and Afghanistan lesson); he was even hesitant about violating Pakistan's sovereignty to get Bin Laden. Biden was downright dovish by Obama cabinet standards. If Biden's inputs had won the day - we would have had a very different Obama admin.

Mahomes suffering from turf toe, reportedly not 100 percent for AFC Championship
https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1353297402879475712

Robert Saleh, the NFL's first Muslim head coach, decided football was his purpose after his brother David, a financial advisor, survived the World Trade Center attack on 9/11
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/24/us/new-york-jets-nfl-muslim-coach-history-trnd/index.html

Chiefs likely will have running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire but be without Le'Veon Bell for today's AFC Championship Game against the Buffalo Bills, per source. Additionally, the Chiefs will test WR Sammy Watkins pregame, but don't sound optimistic he will play today.

This is a really interesting story about how the American left+progressive movement overcame its internal differences and came together in 2020 to prepare for Trump's inevitable attack on democracy. Fascinating article shows how central progressive groups are to the Democratic coalition.  Not only did these groups plan far in advance, they were able to change strategies mid-stream.  They also showed self-restraint: they decided big protests would be self-defeating.
https://nytimes.com/2021/01/24/us/politics/democrats-trump-election-plan.html

The "criticism of her husband" occurred when Trump mocked McCain's years spent as a prisoner of war, and then continued to attack him even after his death. The Arizona Republican Party censured Cindy McCain for standing up for her husband against Donald Trump, who said he wasn't a war hero and a coward and a loser etc. Arizona Republicans voted to censure Cindy McCain also because of her support for gay marriage and Joe Biden's bid for the presidency.
https://www.vox.com/2021/1/24/22247096/arizona-gop-trump-kelli-ward-mccain-flake-ducey-censure

Brian Schatz consistently pushes for progressive policies, fights to grow the party and is one of the best communicators in the Senate: TEAM: You have all been super generous and supportive in helping to take back the Senate, and it worked! So, this bit awkward but I gotta ask. I'm up for re-election and I want to keep fighting for climate action and justice. Can you help? Thank you again.
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/bse210123
https://twitter.com/brianschatz/status/1353380769142607873

It's not a surprise that the Senate is at loggerheads. What has stunned Capitol Hill is just how quickly it happened, thanks to McConnell's filibuster ultimatum.

Joe Biden is attending mass on the first Sunday of his presidency at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown, where he often went to mass during his eight years as vice president. Via @Jordanfabian in the pool.
https://twitter.com/jeneps/status/1353388062613647365

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in his first directive since taking office, has given his senior leaders two weeks to send him reports on sexual assault prevention programs in the military, and an assessment of what has worked and what hasn't.
https://ktla.com/news/nationworld/bidens-defense-secretary-orders-review-of-military-sexual-assault-prevention-programs/
https://media.defense.gov/2021/Jan/23/2002569727/-1/-1/1/MEMORANDUM-ON-COUNTERING-SEXUAL-ASSAULT-AND-HARASSMENT-INITIAL-TASKING.PDF

_______________________

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/24/us/politics/democrats-trump-election-plan.html

How Democrats Planned for Doomsday

A huge coalition of activist groups had been working together since the spring to make sure that Joe Biden won and that the "election stayed won" amid Donald Trump's subterfuge.

By Alexander Burns

    Jan. 24, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET

The video call was announced on short notice, but more than 900 people quickly joined: a coalition of union officials and racial justice organizers, civil rights lawyers and campaign strategists, pulled together in a matter of hours after the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill.

They convened to craft a plan for answering the onslaught on American democracy, and they soon reached a few key decisions. They would stay off the streets for the moment and hold back from mass demonstrations that could be exposed to an armed mob goaded on by President Donald J. Trump.

They would use careful language. In a presentation, Anat Shenker-Osorio, a liberal messaging guru, urged against calling the attack a "coup," warning that the word could make Mr. Trump sound far stronger than he was — or even imply that a pro-Trump militia had seized power.

And they would demand stern punishment for Mr. Trump and his party: Republicans at every level of government who incited the mob "must be removed or resign," read one version of the group's intended message, contained in Ms. Shenker-Osorio's presentation and reviewed by The New York Times.

The meeting was no lucky feat of emergency organizing, nor was the highly disciplined and united front that emerged from it.

Instead, it was a climactic event in a long season of planning and coordination by progressives, aimed largely at a challenge with no American precedent: defending the outcome of a free election from a president bent on overturning it.

By the time rioters ransacked the Capitol, the machinery of the left had already been primed to respond — prepared by months spent sketching out doomsday scenarios and mapping out responses, by countless hours of training exercises and reams of opinion research.

At each juncture, the activist wing of the Democratic coalition deployed its resources deliberately, channeling its energy toward countering Mr. Trump's attempts at sabotage. Joseph R. Biden Jr., an avowed centrist who has often boasted of beating his more liberal primary opponents, was a beneficiary of their work.

Just as important, progressive groups reckoned with their own vulnerabilities: The impulses toward fiery rhetoric and divisive demands — which generated polarizing slogans like "Abolish ICE" and "Defund the police" — were supplanted by a more studied vocabulary, developed through nightly opinion research and message testing.

Worried that Mr. Trump might use any unruly demonstrations as pretext for a federal crackdown of the kind seen last summer in Portland, Ore., progressives organized mass gatherings only sparingly and in highly choreographed ways after Nov. 3. In a year of surging political energy across the left and of record-breaking voter turnout, one side has stifled itself to an extraordinary degree during the precarious postelection period.

Since the violence of Jan. 6, progressive leaders have not deployed large-scale public protests at all.

Interviews with nearly two dozen leaders involved in the effort, and a review of several hundred pages of planning documents, polling presentations and legal memorandums, revealed an uncommon — and previously unreported — degree of collaboration among progressive groups that often struggle to work so closely together because of competition over political turf, funding and conflicting ideological priorities.

For the organizers of the effort, it represents both a good-news story — Mr. Trump was thwarted — and an ominous sign that such exhaustive efforts were required to protect election results that were not all that close.

For the most part, the organized left anticipated Mr. Trump's postelection schemes, including his premature attempt to claim a victory he had not achieved, his pressure campaigns targeting Republican election administrators and county officials and his incitement of far-right violence, strategy documents show.

Ai-jen Poo, a prominent organizer involved in the effort, said the realization had dawned on a wide range of groups: "We all had to come together and bring everything we could to protecting our right to vote."

Michael Podhorzer, an A.F.L.-C.I.O. strategist who was one of the architects of the coalition, said it presented both a political model and a cautionary tale about a badly frayed democratic system.

"It was a success, but doing something that should never have had to be done," Mr. Podhorzer said.

'Eight Months Away From Crisis'

Like so much else about the 2020 election, the progressive alliance came together because of the coronavirus pandemic.

It was early last April, after the virus struck and disrupted the Democratic presidential primaries, that Mr. Podhorzer wrote a document titled "Threats to the 2020 Election." He warned of myriad dangers, including cyberattacks and mass disinformation.

One entry in his catalog concerned a postelection battle over the appointment of presidential electors: Under certain conditions, he wrote, rogue Republican state legislators could seek to nullify the will of voters and appoint pro-Trump electors from swing states.

"We are eight months away from crisis," Mr. Podhorzer wrote in a missive to his allies. "Our efforts over the last three years to create a political infrastructure to mobilize and persuade voters has been extraordinary, but our preparation for the coming crisis has been woefully inadequate."

Other progressive strategists, at organizations founded after 2016 like the Fight Back Table and the Social and Economic Justice Leaders group, had been mulling the same perils ahead.

They worried that a traditional political campaign might never attain victory if it did not also prepare to battle a would-be strongman during a deadly pandemic.

And so the Democracy Defense Coalition was born. Deirdre Schifeling, a former top strategist for Planned Parenthood, took the lead in coordinating the effort. With a grand name and a skeletal staff, the group began approaching liberal organizations in Washington and the states. A cluster of a few strategists became a coalition of 80 groups, and then of more than 200.

It was the largest of several interlocking progressive federations that prepared for a contested election.

"A lot of other organizations were very focused on winning the election," Ms. Schifeling said in an interview. "This whole defending the election once we won it — making sure the election stayed won — was not something a lot of others were focused on."

One of the more exhaustive assessments of legal threats to the vote came from Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan group formed after Mr. Trump's election that had become an influential hub for efforts to battle Mr. Trump through the legal system.

Late last summer, the group asked a Washington law firm, Arnold & Porter, to compile a report on how votes would be tabulated and electors assigned in every swing state, including a catalog of the pressure points someone like Mr. Trump could exploit.

The 137-page document identified people and governmental bodies in seven swing states who would play a key role in determining the integrity of the election. Among those listed were Republican state legislative leaders in battlegrounds like Michigan and Pennsylvania; the Michigan Board of State Canvassers; and Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state. Mr. Trump would soon seek to twist every one of them to his advantage.

The progressive organizations prepared for physical threats, too. They held de-escalation training sessions around the country, aimed at giving people the tools to ease potentially violent conflict.

Nelini Stamp, a top official with the Working Families Party, said her organization had been in touch with bail funds that could be activated in response to mass arrests and had readied a separate fund to raise money for the families of anyone killed in violence on or around Election Day. Their thinking, Ms. Stamp said, had been informed by the immense protests after the killing of George Floyd.

"We prepared for the worst of the worst: We're going to get shot at, killed, on Election Day and afterward," said Ms. Stamp, adding, "You have to understand that a lot of this is coming from movements that have been dealing with a lot of death."

Stopping the Steal

On the night of the election, the alliance of liberal groups convened at 11 o'clock for a video call. Mr. Trump was ahead in nearly every important state, but Democratic election modeling had predicted he would get a head start before the counting of mail-in ballots in states like Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Still, for too many, it felt like 2016 all over again.

"People were ashen," Ms. Schifeling recalled.

The group had prepared for several contingencies. Under one seemingly likely scenario, in which Mr. Trump declared himself the victor prematurely with the help of Fox News and moved to block ballot tabulation in key swing states, a major public mobilization was planned for Nov. 4 to demand that vote counting continue.

But during the long hours of election night, the strategy needed a tweak. Mr. Trump's declaration of victory had been treated by television networks as a galling stunt, and Fox quickly called the key state of Arizona for Mr. Biden. Vote counting was proceeding without major inhibition.

The rallies were canceled, in favor of more targeted actions: Instead of throngs of protesters carrying Biden-Harris signs and competing for street space with Trump supporters, progressives assembled in smaller groups around vote-counting facilities in Philadelphia and Detroit, aiming to head off any intimidation tactics from the right.

Anna Galland, a prominent progressive organizer involved in the deliberations, said it had been a "tough decision" not to mobilize nationwide demonstrations. Part of the concern, she said, had been that they might "inadvertently turn the tide of media momentum" by depicting a defeated president as a fearsome adversary.

"Organizing any kind of massive 'It's a coup' mobilization, in the midst of those contested days, would have just been bait for the right," she said.

Where they did gather, organizers were urged to take a tone of celebration and triumph. The goal, leaders agreed, would be to make Mr. Trump's actions look impotent. Ms. Stamp described a midweek demonstration in Philadelphia, organized when she and others learned of a Proud Boys presence in the area, that became a "two-day dance party" that averted a tense standoff.

When the left finally took to the streets en masse on Nov. 7, after media organizations projected Mr. Biden as the winner, it was in a mood of jubilation.

"Celebrate our achievement: turning out in record numbers, seeing will of people prevail," a presentation on Nov. 6 had recommended, and that was how the scenes that Saturday unfolded.

The same document warned, however, that Mr. Trump was "deliberately inciting violence because he hopes to distract us from the fact that he has lost this election."

While Democratic Party lawyers thrashed Mr. Trump in court, it was in Michigan that one of the scenarios envisioned in the Protect Democracy report came closest to unfolding: The president appealed to Republican election administrators to block certification of Mr. Biden's win there and summoned the Republican leaders of the Michigan Legislature to the White House.

Art Reyes, leader of the activist group We the People Michigan, directed a two-pronged effort, bombarding legislators' offices with phone calls and deploying several dozen volunteers to meet the two Republican leaders, Lee Chatfield and Mike Shirkey, at the airport on their way to Washington. A corresponding group was waiting when they landed.

Democratic litigators had been in contact before Election Day with Michigan's attorney general, Dana Nessel, about the possibility of an attempted electoral heist. "We were prepared to counter it," Ms. Nessel said in an interview.

As Mr. Shirkey and Mr. Chatfield traveled to the White House, word of a potential state investigation burst into view when it was reported that Ms. Nessel was scrutinizing the meeting.

Mr. Trump's gambit flopped. The lawmakers left the White House meeting and issued a statement stressing that they would "follow the normal process" regarding the state's electors.

Jegath Athilingam, a strategist who helped craft the progressives' messaging on Michigan, said they had been poised to deliver "more of an aggressive" denunciation of the lawmakers had they colluded with Mr. Trump.

But, she said, "Once he failed in Michigan, a precedent had been set."

Having hit a wall in Michigan, Mr. Trump had no success with attempts at back-room maneuvering in other states. But Mr. Trump's failure, they said in interviews, only offered them limited solace.

"We may have walked back from the brink of a dangerous moment in this country, but this cannot be the norm," said Rahna Epting, executive director of MoveOn. "It's not sustainable for democracy."

Alexander Burns is a national political correspondent, covering elections and political power across the country, including Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. Before coming to The Times in 2015, he covered the 2012 presidential election for Politico. @alexburnsNYT
_______________________ 

Except for the spiders weaving webs in the caverns of his mind, Rand Paul is an empty-headed seditionist. If Trump starts a party, he'll join it.
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1353345742170165249

The Yankees have agreed to acquire RHP Jameson Taillon from the Pirates. The deal is subject to a review of medical records.
https://twitter.com/Ken_Rosenthal/status/1353395762340765702

In an interview on National Public Radio, Elisabeth Moss said that none of the film is improvised. Despite the fact that some of her dialog feels spur-of-the-moment, even nonsensical, Moss said that everything she says on screen was on the page, and that it was the hardest dialogue she'd ever had to memorize.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7942742/

Romney says constitutional-law scholars conclude a president can be impeached after leaving office
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/romney-says-constitutional-law-scholars-conclude-a-president-can-be-impeached-after-leaving-office-2021-01-24

Romney on Trump impeachment: 'If we're going to have unity,' there must be 'accountability'
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/romney-trump-impeachment-trial-fox-news-sunday

You can think the president is bad, and also think their supreme court nominee is good, they are not mutually exclusive. Romney IS a republican, and holds republican values, people seem to want him to start being a Democrat, he's not. I don't like the justices Trump appointed, in fact I despise 2/3, but I can see easily, why someone like Romney could. The work of government doesn't stop just because they failed to impeach Trump. I see people slam Romney all the time simply because he votes for things that Trump wanted/supported. If Trump was pushing a largely conservative agenda, of course Romney is going to be voting for things on that agenda more often than not.

Chief judge of DC dist court blocks release of Eric Munchel, photographed in Senate gallery during Capitol riot carrying zip-tie cuffs and taser. On Friday, a magistrate judge in Nashville OK'd Munchel being sent home on GPS monitoring.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/22/capitol-riot-zip-tie-cuffs-ordered-released-461550

We celebrating first round wins now... lol: Damian Lillard is releasing a new Adidas shoe in OKC colors to celebrate his series-ending shot and 50 point game
https://twitter.com/nickdepaula/status/1353400212346163208
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Esg-ULbUYAUQTo2?format=jpg&name=360x360

Repeal of transgender military ban is expected as soon as Monday
https://cbsnews.com/news/biden-transgender-military-ban-repeal/

Mitt Romney argues on CNN that the Senate impeachment trial is constitutional: "It's pretty clear that the effort is constitutional." He adds: "I believe that what is being alleged and what we saw, which is incitement to insurrection, is an impeachable offense. If not, what is?"
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1353413552007122944

She's crazy but she's not wrong. That's why Republicans still regurgitate Trump's election lies and block efforts to hold him accountable: "Here's a warning the GOP needs to hear," tweeted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a newly elected member who has embraced Trump's conspiratorial view and made supportive comments about the extremist group QAnon. "The vast majority of Republican voters, volunteers, and donors are no longer loyal to the GOP, Republican Party, and candidates just because they have an R by their name. Their loyalty now lies with Donald J Trump."
https://washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-republican-split/2021/01/23/d7dc253e-5cbc-11eb-8bcf-3877871c819d_story.html

There really is a simple answer to this problem: don't invite liars on to your programs. Republicans are now in the minority. There is no news value of having them on to spout and mainstream conspiracy theories
https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/1353362390293819396

I think the media is broken. And that is it. There is no both sides about the election outcome. Inviting guests on to shows to spout conspiracy theories has downstream effects that are destroying peoples' lives, all for a few more clicks and eyeballs
https://twitter.com/ElectProject/status/1353399582491865088

#Bucs playmaking safety Antoine Winfield (ankle) is OUT for today's NFC Championship Game vs. Green Bay. Injury occured at practice. A massive blow to their secondary.
https://twitter.com/MySportsUpdate/status/1353410442756907008 

The Bidens stop at Call Your Mother, the bagel shop in Georgetown, en route back to the White House, already a big change. Trying to remember but can't recall Trump ever stopping anywhere in DC other than his own hotel.

Jay's law: all news reports about "dueling realities" that ask "why are we so divided?" should instead be framed as: how did the Republican Party and its supporters wind up here?  Then you can talk about dwelling in different worlds.
https://twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu/status/1353406068488081410

The NBA will soon be up to nine teams allowing reduced crowds with Atlanta and Miami planning to start admitting fans this week, Indiana starting last week and Memphis allowing floor-seat and suite-ticket holders. Cleveland, Houston, New Orleans, Orlando and Utah are the others
https://twitter.com/TheSteinLine/status/1353421505112104960

State Republicans push to eliminate early voting, mail-in voting, other voting restrictions
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/24/republicans-voter-id-laws-461707

Kids and young people are bearing a great deal of the psychological toll of the pandemic: Surge of Student Suicides Pushes Las Vegas Schools to Reopen
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/24/us/politics/student-suicides-nevada-coronavirus.html

Fauci: "one day I got a letter in the mail, I opened it up and a puff of powder came all over my face and my chest." From denialism to death threats, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci describes a fraught year as an adviser to Trump on the Covid-19 pandemic.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/24/health/fauci-trump-covid.html

Biden has now visited the same number of restaurants that Donald Trump did in his entire four years in office. The former President never dined anywhere in DC other than the steakhouse in his Pennsylvania Avenue hotel.
https://washingtonian.com/2021/01/24/biden-makes-first-dc-restaurant-visit-as-president-to-call-your-mother/

DC federal judge orders Eric Munchel (ID'd as the man photographed in the Capitol with zip tie handcuffs) to stay behind bars pending add'l review — prosecutors appealed after a TN judge ruled he could be released, noting, among other things, the "arsenal" they found in his home
https://twitter.com/ZoeTillman/status/1353435014671650817/photo/1
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EshdevlXYAISUdZ?format=jpg&name=large

Norman Powell jams it in Myles Turner's face
https://streamable.com/vrquw4

Hornets coach James Borrego on LaMelo Ball not starting yet: "If you're turning the ball over 5 times in 16 minutes, that ain't gonna cut it for me. If you're doing that on offense, you better be bringing something on defense."
https://twitter.com/legionhoops/status/1353423536946176000

OG Anunoby finishes with 30 points, 8 rebounds and 5 steals to lead the shorthanded Raptors over Pacers

Sales of U.S. Constitution copies topped 1 million in Trump years
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-01-23/sales-of-us-constitution-topped-1-million-during-trump-years

US carrier group enters South China Sea amid tensions between China and Taiwan
https://nypost.com/2021/01/24/us-carrier-group-enters-south-china-sea-amid-china-taiwan-tensions/

LOLLLLL:
1st & 10 at GB 39
(:08) (Shotgun) T.Brady pass deep left to S.Miller for 39 yards, TOUCHDOWN. R.Succop extra point is GOOD, Center-Z.Triner, Holder-B.Pinion.
Win %: 83.4

Some big plays by TB there. First the goal line stand then picking off Rodgers to go up by 2 scores into the half. And they're without one of their best DBs in Winfield Jr.

Belichick would have had him kneel out the half. Gotta love Arians and Brady. What a fucking throw by Tom Brady.

Tom Bradys connects with Scotty "Julian Edelman" Miller for the 39 yard TD
https://streamable.com/ypcvdc

Fournette makes something out of nothing and scurries for the TD
https://twitter.com/NFLBrasil/status/1353444591903641600

G/dwin hauls in a 52 yard reception
https://twitter.com/NFLBrasil/status/1353444202877575168

Brady to Evans for the opening drive touchdown
https://twitter.com/AroundTheNFL1/status/1353435860616753153

That may be the worst defensive design I've ever seen with 8 seconds and no timeouts left. Green Bay, I'm not sure how you play inside technique man to man and not just play zone and protect the sideline and the end zone? Amazing.

Shaq Barrett sacks Rodgers to force the punt
https://twitter.com/jgroc/status/1353437603014598658

White House and Élysée readouts of Biden/Macron call, and interesting slight differences namely the Élysée says explicitly they "noted their convergence and desire to work together... on the Iranian nuke issue and...Lebanon"
https://twitter.com/RymMomtaz/status/1353452212517695488
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/24/readout-of-president-joseph-r-biden-jr-call-with-president-emmanuel-macron-of-france/
https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2021/01/24/entretien-telephonique-avec-joe-biden-president-des-etats-unis-d-amerique

US mentions of NATO, China, Russia are also absent in the French communiqué

President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. spoke today with President Emmanuel Macron of France to express his desire to strengthen bilateral ties with our oldest ally. President Biden also stressed his commitment to bolstering the transatlantic relationship, including through NATO and the United States' partnership with the European Union. The leaders agreed on the need for close coordination, including through multilateral organizations, in tackling common challenges such as climate change, COVID-19, and the global economic recovery.  They also agreed to work together on shared foreign policy priorities, including China, the Middle East, Russia, and the Sahel.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/24/readout-of-president-joseph-r-biden-jr-call-with-president-emmanuel-macron-of-france/

Kevin King as nearest defender to the target in the first half, via Next Gen Stats: 2 receptions allowed on 3 targets for 54 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Max speeds on the touchdown at the end of the half... Scotty Miller: 20.64 MPH Kevin King: 19.19 MPH Via Next Gen Stats

Romney: If inciting insurrection isn't impeachable, what is?
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/01/24/sotu-romney-full.cnn

Brady just lasers it

This is the pandemic of privilege. People with money can:
- Use the poor as human shields, doing all of their "essential work"
- Send their kids to private schools, homeschool with tutors, etc.
- Obtain private special services (therapies, etc) privately & pay out of pocket
If you are not loudly advocating for the reopening of schools and society in general, you never again get to tell anyone to "check your privilege."

Exrtremely important play:
3rd & 5 at GB 24
(11:32) (Shotgun) A.Rodgers sacked at GB 14 for -10 yards (S.Barrett).

- Brady 3rd interceptions Yikes, just run the fucking ball. Buccs Defense Responds:
- 1st & 10 at GB 24 (9:15) (Shotgun) A.Rodgers sacked at GB 24 for 0 yards (S.Barrett).
- 2nd & 10 at GB 24 (8:31) (Shotgun) A.Rodgers pass incomplete deep right to M.Valdes-Scantling.
- 3rd & 10 at GB 24 (8:26) (Shotgun) A.Rodgers pass incomplete short middle to A.Lazard.
- 4th & 10 at GB 24 (8:20) J.Scott punts 51 yards to TB 25, Center-H.Bradley. J.Mickens to TB 28 for 3 yards (K.Russell). 

Kawhi splits the Thunder defense for the slam
https://streamable.com/cg9kfc

Jayson Tatum should be back tomorrow at Chicago, per coach Stevens. He's been out 2 weeks after testing positive for Covid19
https://twitter.com/dchinellato/status/1353468487004528643

Welcome to the game Gronkowski: (6:14) T.Brady pass short right to R.Gronkowski pushed ob at GB 30 for 29 yards (A.Amos).

Has LaFleur not seen his own defense all year? No way can they stop Tom Brady with 2 minutes to go. Absolutely horrible decision and too fucking bad, I prefer Tom Brady in the Super Bowl over the entire Green Bay Packers organization.

Pass interference against the Tampa Bay receiver Johnson so late in a critical game, I'll take it because the Packers player nearly yanked Johnson's jersey off. I don't like that kind of call that late in any game (playoffs or not) but once again I'll take it because the Packers player had yards of jersey in his hand. The Buccaneers' cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting was pulling on Packers jerseys all game long and the referees let it go: That is a HUGE problem when referees just let them play: players no longer know the line that can't be crossed as a game goes on, and a penalty/foul not called all game suddenly becomes a game-changing call at end of the game. It never makes sense for different standard of penalties in playoffs and regular season. But the late jersey call - which was the right call - is not why the Packers lost. Green Bay fans should be pissed that their team kicked a field goal instead of going for it with one of the best quarterbacks to ever play in the NFL. Embarrassing coaching from Green Bay. Also the Buccaneers defense was superb, and superb all season long.

Tom Brady takes the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the Super Bowl for the 1st time in 18 years.

Evans can't make the jump and the ball lands in Alexander's hands
https://twitter.com/NFLBrasil/status/1353470757138010121

Tom Brady throws his 3rd INT. 2nd INT for Jaire
https://streamable.com/pgll9s

Rodgers has the room to run on 3rd and goal, decides to throw it and the pass winds up incomplete
https://streamable.com/ofrsp1

Tom Brady will now start in his 10th Super Bowl, twice as many as any other QB in NFL history. That's 4 more than his modern contemporaries Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers *combined*. He's made the Super Bowl in over 50% of his healthy seasons as a starter. 

Kevin King flagged for a pass interference on Tyler Johnson
https://streamable.com/i9d5o9 

Kawhi Leonard tonight: 34/9/8 on 14/24 from the field and 4/9 from three, and 0 turnovers

Trump 'spoke more with North Korea than with the Europeans,' says EU Council chief
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-spoke-more-with-north-korea-than-europeans-eu-council-president-charles-michel/

People who have received a Covid-19 vaccine could still pass the virus on to others and should continue following lockdown rules
https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-55784199

UK students create 3D-printed coral structures that could rebuild world's damaged reefs
https://news.sky.com/story/uk-students-create-3d-printed-coral-structures-that-could-rebuild-worlds-damaged-reefs-12170781

SpaceX: World record number of satellites launched
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-55775977

19 burned bodies found near Mexico-US border town
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/19-burned-bodies-found-mexico-us-border-town-75456970

Saying that domestic terror laws "target half the country" is telling on yourself ("I oppose the laws because they target me!"), like "Joe Biden is attacking Republicans by criticizing white supremacists" was.

There are 39 dead presidents. They are buried in 18 different states and Washington, D.C.
http://presidentsusa.net/presidentsgravesites.html

Brady has as many playoff wins as Joe Montana, Peyton Manning, and Dan Fouts combined. Or swap out Peyton for Bradshaw. Or Elway, or Rapistberger, or Favre.

I've never seen a Democrat like Tulsi Gabbard try to run for office on the Trumpist platform before. Bizarre. Thank you for taking out this trash #Hawaii.

Michael Cohen believes Trump issues secret pardons to himself and family. There is nothing in Article II, Section II, preventing President Trump from signing a document granting a pardon, and then putting the paper in a safe at any of his golf resorts. He is not even required to notify the recipient.
https://www.newsweek.com/michael-cohen-thinks-donald-trump-issued-secret-pardons-himself-his-children-giuliani-1564018
https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/534222-how-to-stop-trumps-secret-pardons

There's like KC receivers open every play and Mahomes throws it to the covered one and it's still caught 

Tom Brady of the Buccaneers now has more playoff wins since turning 35 (17) than any other QB has in his entire career.
https://twitter.com/StatsBySTATS/status/1353482811727089666?

Packers CB Tramon Williams officially becomes the first player in NFL history to lose two games in the same postseason.

If Buffalo finally does get back to the Super Bowl today, it will be going against Tom Brady, who has a lifetime 32-3 record vs the Bills. It is the most wins in NFL history by any one quarterback against any one team.

Tom Brady: New team. New system. New coach. New conference. No offseason. No preseason. Back to the Super Bowl for the 10th time in his career.

"BuT kElCi Is OnLy A rEcEiViNg TiGhT eNd."

I know I've said this before but if you think you've found an easy solution to a problem that all experts have missed, you might want to check to see if actually there are good reasons why it's not as good a solution as you first thought. If it's obvious to you, imagine how obvious it probably is to the people who've spent their entire lives dedicated to this field. They may/probably have already considered the thing that you've just thought up.

Democrats should take Cornyn up on his offer. Call WH witnesses to Trump's refusal to act on the afternoon of Jan. 6. Force all the Republicans leaders and Trump staff who were either in the Capitol or on the phone pleading with Trump to act (tell his base to stop attacking and leave, tell his base Biden won) to testify. Call all the DOJ witnesses and evidence regarding Trump trying to overturn election results. Call Georgia officials over phone call with Trump ordering Georgia to overturn results.

In standard Republican code, Rand Paul reiterates the party's core strategy: prevent likely Democrats from voting. "Fix the laws" means massive new voter suppression. "Protect our vote" means Republican votes only. "Voter fraud" means allowing minorities to vote (which is hilarous, Trump won Latin Americans and Asian Americans and older Black men in the south). And there is almost no election fraud to stop.
https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/1353358887882280960

Mentally ill incompetent lying blob Sarah Sanders will announce tomorrow that she's running for governor of Arkansas.

Patrick Mahomes, a major concussion and a turf toe that will likely require surgery, leads the KC offense to 3 touchdowns in the 2nd quarter LOL. KC absolutely efficient offence LOL.

Mexican President, a horrible republican conservative mentally ill corrupt criminal, shitstain, has COVID19. May G-d take him with Him
https://twitter.com/lopezobrador_/status/1353500519344578560

Federal law enforcement officials are examining a number of threats aimed at members of Congress as the second trial of Donald Trump nears, including ominous chatter about killing legislators or attacking them outside of the U.S. Capitol
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-siege-ap-top-news-trials-impeachments-c6456b8c7a1d48e8b011fa82f8526f9d

No, Biden Doesn't Have a 'Chinese Handler.' The man is a US Secret Service Agent. David Cho, Korean-American, is a decorated member of the agency that protects U.S. leaders and their families. In 2019, Cho received the Department of Homeland Security's exceptional service gold medal. The award was "for tireless and direct participation in high-level negotiations" during the second summit between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam. He was second-in-command of the Secret Service during Trump's term in office. Some Korean Twitter users even pointed out an unintended pun: Cho is actually pronounced similar to "Joe" leading them to joke that there were two "Joes" on that historic day in Washington, D.C. "The racist, conspiratorial garbage about Biden's "Chinese Handler" (aka David Cho the head of his secret service detail) is another example of the perpetual othering of Asian Americans. He literally is willing to take a bullet for the president, instead he's just a foreign plant," wrote one user.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dpjqk/no-biden-doesnt-have-a-chinese-handler-hes-a-us-secret-service-agent
https://www.dhs.gov/exceptional-service-2019
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-to-make-changes-to-presidential-detail-to-bring-on-agents-who-worked-with-biden/2020/12/30/d6fb8fe8-49ce-11eb-a9d9-1e3ec4a928b9_story.html

The irony that Brady, the dynasty king himself could be the only thing stopping KC from starting their own dynasty.

Leonard Fournette said he spent 30 minutes crying on the phone with his mom. Said how he went from jail, getting cut, coming to the Bucs thinking he would be the starter and how it didn't work out. All the talks with people in the organization who helped him get his mind right.
https://twitter.com/JamesPalmerTV/status/1353499677031886855

That TD he had today looked like vintage LSU Fournette. Good for him. This man grinded all year, patiently waited for his shot and once it came he showed up big.

Chris Jones punches a Bills offensive lineman, no penalty
https://twitter.com/bradleygelber/status/1353499354812870662

And then the suplex by Breeland. Chris Jones is dirty and I'm tired fans pretending he's not because he was great last year.

Matt LaFleur says he regrets the field-goal decision in hindsight: "It was just the circumstances of having three shots and coming away with no yards, and not only needing the touchdown but the 2-point." He thought of having 4 timeouts to get a stop, and how defense was battling.

Breeland suplexes Diggs
https://streamable.com/83bimq

June 2018: "White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said it was "biblical" for President Donald Trump's administration to enforce federal law in a way that separates children from their families at the border when they illegally enter the US."
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/14/politics/sanders-immigration-child-separation/index.html

From our plans to deliver economic relief to an update on the First Cat — watch as White House @PressSec Jen Psaki answers your questions.
https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1353487747307118593

I have to say I'm impressed with how versatile the Bernie meme is.
https://twitter.com/jneeley78/status/1353488624067739649/photo/1

Mahomes sacked, next play LOL:
- 2nd & 10 at KC 25
(5:05) (Shotgun) P.Mahomes pass short middle to T.Hill to BUF 4 for 71 yards (M.Hyde; T.Johnson).
Win %: 94.5
_________________________

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/01/astead-herndon-interview-new-york-times-trump.html

"I Don't See the Last Four Years as This Journalistic Anomaly"

New York Times national political reporter Astead W. Herndon on covering Trump's first rallies, the biggest mistake in early reporting, and when to use the word racist.

By Aymann Ismail

Jan 24, 20216:58 PM

This is part of What We Learned, a series of reflections on the meaning and legacy of the Trump years.

Astead W. Herndon wasn't surprised when Donald Trump became the Republican nominee for the 2016 election. He had barely graduated college when he attended one of Trump's earliest rallies as a reporting intern for the Boston Globe. He talked to rallygoers, and saw firsthand how Trump encouraged a supporter who suggested that Barack Obama was a secret Muslim. A few years later, he became a national political reporter for the New York Times, where he continued to cover Trump rallies. In a phone conversation just after Trump left office, we talked about why his being with the Times didn't dissuade many Trump supporters from talking to him, how being a freshman reporter gave him an advantage, and the biggest challenge facing reporters in the Biden era. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Aymann Ismail: Back in 2015, you had just graduated college and were at the Boston Globe, and you were reporting on one of Trump's earliest rallies, the one in New Hampshire, and interviewed a handful of his earliest supporters. What do you remember from that time?

Astead Herndon: I remember going to that rally in New Hampshire and it was still in that kind of Trump Twilight Zone. I think there was a real belief among punditocracy that this couldn't last, that this was a kind of a sideshow that was happening among fringes of the Republican Party. I remember being really challenged by the whole tone of the event. Seeing Donald Trump in person, I was shocked that he was a real figure. He'd existed in my head as this pop culture thing for so long. For most of those early months, the media was still shedding the celebrity Donald Trump and realizing the real political movement that was happening. I think it was a failure of imagination from political media to really believe that nativism was where the base of the party was. Birtherism had political salience with the Republican base. Once you talk to Republicans, you'd realize that was true. Some folks found it immoral. They thought it was inherently politically unpopular, and that was just a distinction that I really think blinded a lot of people to where that train was obviously headed.

At the New Hampshire rally I went to initially, it was the one where someone had asked the question about Barack Obama being a secret Muslim, and having training camps throughout the country. I put that in my original piece from this rally and it was cut out. It was cut out as kind of like sensational. Honestly, I'm not even trying to sell out the Globe. I love the Globe. I'm just saying this because it's indicative of the time. Then, the next day, Trump is dominating cable news—people were comparing it to when McCain shot down the same question. But originally, it was cut out of the story. I just think that there was a belief that the stuff was fringe and that frankly highlighting it was worse than acknowledging it.

Aymann Ismail: So your first experience with political reporting was covering Trump. That's wild.

Astead Herndon: I think that one thing about being a reporter forged in the Trump fire is that I don't have much of the sheen of the "this can't happen here" stuff. I don't think I have much of the deference to the political norms that have guided reporting for a long time. My personal opinion is that Trump has largely been consistent on the things that he has cared about since the day he came down that escalator. The chaos has been consistent in how he's gone about it, too. And so if you were to reorient yourself into recognizing the forces that were motivating him, I don't think anything's actually been all that surprising. I think these four years were a kind of a manifestation of what he promised to bring upon the country. So, in that way, I don't see the last four years as this journalistic anomaly that will never be replicated again. I think that it is one piece of what is a larger conflict in America. And I think that a risk is that a Biden administration that is better at norms, that is better at the kind of baseline stuff that people have come to get outraged about, will blind people to the forces that led to Trump in the first place.

Aymann Ismail: If you could, would you change anything about the way that you wrote about Trump, especially in the beginning?

Astead Herndon: I went to Trump rallies and I wrote about Trump from a base level. I wrote about white grievance in the Republican Party. I wrote about conspiracies and violence. And I think that those things have held up. What would I have done differently? I think that that first year and a half, there could have been much more grounding, rather than feigning shock at every tweet. The real inadequacy of writing about Trump is when you write from the top down. What I liked about the last two years was I think there's been an increasing willingness to write about Trump from the bottom up—how it was affecting people, rather than who he is as an individual leader. I think there was too much top down for too long, and I include myself in this. I think it took some folks until coronavirus to really think about how Trump impacted everyday people. And we could have more clearly communicated that for the Muslim ban, for Hurricane Maria, etc. There was too much written about Trump's disorganization, his unwillingness to deal with facts, his unwillingness to constitute the mechanics of government, and not enough about the consequences of his actions.

I think there's a lot of legitimate palace intrigue with Trump, who is a unique figure. That wrapped up political reporting in a Washington-centric, individual-centric mode. And so when I talk about bottom-up Trump reporting, I'm talking about how supporters, how communities, how people are changing because of politics, and then affecting the political scene. I am not talking about individual actors in Washington and what they say and what they do as being a real central thing. So I think in the first year and a half, he had a lot of focus on D.C. Then there's all of these things that have happened, there was a big racial justice movement last year, there was this huge pandemic that changed our day-to-day lives, which I think have made the last two years really focused on bottom-up, or regular folks, and then how the changes among those people were coming to Washington. And I think that that is actually really valuable.

Aymann Ismail: So Trump talked a lot about the New York Times. He called it the "Failing New York Times." He would try to convince his supporters that it was falling apart, that the newspaper was losing subscribers, hemorrhaging money. And he made the Times a target. In the middle of all that, in 2018, you accepted a job there as a national politics reporter. That was around the same time Cesar Sayoc, the Trump super fan, mailed pipe bombs to some of Trump's opponents. Did you hesitate at all before accepting a job there?

Astead Herndon: No. I think The New York Times is the best day-to-day news outlet in the world. And I don't think that anything Donald Trump says changes that. What Trump says about The New York Times is somewhat annoying. But, one, it's not true. Two, as someone who goes to his rallies and talks to his supporters, it sometimes comes up, but usually they'll talk. It does require some building of trust, but I don't think that's any different than when I used to work at the Globe and go to Black and brown communities and try to get them to trust us when media had done horrible things to their communities for a long time. And so, I think that the process of gaining people's trust and having them tell their story is one that's universal. On the right, there's an intentional disinformation and misinformation machine about the media, and about specifically the Times. But I think that some of the work we've done in the last two or three years is a testament to how you can still go to those places, get those people to talk, and get those people to be explicit. As a Black person who works at The New York Times, I can show up to Trump rallies in St. Cloud, where they're trying to ban Somali immigrants, and see rally after rally with both the same explicit language and their support of Trump.

Aymann Ismail: The Times did catch a lot of flack for saying "racially charged" instead of just saying "racist." Do you have a stance now on that as it relates to Trump?

Astead Herndon: The use of euphemisms to talk about race exists throughout the industry at large, and at the Times, it's been eradicated. I know that we have guidance in our building now not to use that stuff, partly because people like me and others were saying that one, it's not clear, and two, it just tells you, the reader, that they won't say the word racist. We have standards about when we use racist, mostly for individual actions or rhetoric, rather than a person. But I got to be honest with you, I don't think it's that big of a deal. My stories very rarely use the word racist. And I actually don't think you need that moniker to do the work of reporting about, and writing about, even folks who are using what we would call a racist language. I used it in one spot because the guy said the N-word, right? That's racist. I used "nativist" when they were talking about banning immigrants. But I think that I have found that this question over-represents the importance of the word. You can write in ways that clearly communicate to readers what this is, and you actually don't need the description. What you should not do is use those descriptors that are bad and unhelpful, like "racially charged" and the rest of them. Avoid those, and write in a way that clearly communicates with folks what is necessary. I actually don't think the individual moniker of "racist" is the most important thing.

Aymann Ismail: One thing I've been thinking about a lot is how Trump changed me as a journalist. One thing that I've noticed on my end was there was more interest in my work on Trumpworld and my point of view, because I'm a journalist of color. And I wonder if you experienced something like the same. Did you feel any special significance to your work as a person-of-color journalist, or did you feel like maybe you had a special responsibility at all during the Trump era?

Astead Herndon: I feel that weight and responsibility, but it's not because of Donald Trump. It's that our communities deserve truthful and accurate reporting. And that is what I feel a responsibility toward. I don't consider being a person of color journalist as being oppositional to Trump. I think of being a Black journalist as being pro-truth, pro-accountability and succeeding the tradition of Black journalists who have pushed the industry on what that looks like. Also, racism isn't true. It's false. And so as a journalist, it's worth it to me to expose it as false, not as spite toward any one political actor. Trump certainly has changed the landscape, but my commitment to reporting does not change in a Biden era, because it's not like a more norm-abiding president has any monopoly on facts. It obviously changes how we're going to work, but my commitment to journalism will ground me much more than any type of resistance.

Aymann Ismail: I guess I feel a little out of place at Slate because I didn't go to journalism school. I didn't go to an Ivy League college, and I sometimes feel like an imposter, or an affirmative action hire. Like they needed a Muslim guy, and I got lucky. Do you ever feel that way at the New York Times?

Astead Herndon: I think that is a reflection on the institutions that have taken too long to change. But whether I would be here without Trump or not, I'm here. And you're here. And so let's do the work for the communities who deserve accurate reporting. I don't think that we can rid ourselves of other people's perception about us, because that's how under-representation functions. That's how power replicates itself. It requires minimizing the work of people of color and Black journalists and the value that they add to these organizations.
_________________________ 

Deandre Hunter attempts to dunk on Giannis, it does not end well for him
https://streamable.com/fy11te

Jaylen Brown ends the game vs Cleveland with 33 points in 19 minutes

Giannis gets the ball off the tip off and just absolutely bullies the rookie in the paint
https://streamable.com/460mt9

Knicks rookie Immanuel Quickley new career high in tonights close loss against the Blazers: 31 pts, 3 Reb, 4 ast, 9-18 from the field, 5-8 from downtown

Shaq wrongly continues to double down on his comments to Donovan Mitchell. Yet another baffling move from The Big Insecure in trying to tear down today's great young players for some odd reason. Shaq played with a HOF talent at guard basically his whole career, Mitchell hasn't
https://www.instagram.com/p/CKdNrEPFDfx/?igshid=h1m9m86dwd88

Damian Lillard recognises Immanuel Quickley's game as the rook gets 3 FTs, in a 6 point game, with a classic rip through move
https://streamable.com/h9zdnx

Lillard scores 66 straight free throws, a franchise record

The San Antonio Spurs (9-8) defeat the Washington Wizards (3-9) 121 - 101, behind 21 points from Patty Mills of the bench and Dejounte Murray's 2nd triple double of the season 121 - 101

Damian Lillard with an efficient 39 points in tonights Blazers win against the Knicks: 11-17 from the field, 6-10 from downtown, 11-11 fts, 8 ast, and 5 Rebs

Covington passes to Kanter behind him while sitting on the ground
https://streamable.com/v7nyu5

The bank is open for Dame as he kisses it high off the glass
https://streamable.com/k0ek68

Julius Randle after loss to Portland: "They told me they got it wrong after the game...2 shots my way and a technical foul which is three points. We lost by three." Randle was given a flagrant 2 foul (he would've been ejected) after Kanter pushed his arm into Covington while fighting for a rebound. Knicks challenged the play and give it a normal foul, but Randle still fouled out. So according to Randle, the refs told him they made a mistake, and they should've called a foul on Kanter for shoving Randle. The weird part is the call was reviewed so they could've just corrected it during the game.
https://twitter.com/stevepopper/status/1353593177786245122
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDG5OmtfH1Q

Patrick Mahomes will play in 2 Superbowl's before ever losing an NFL game by more than 1 possession. The last time Patrick Mahomes lost by more than a possession. November 19, 2016 vs. Iowa State.
https://twitter.com/emmanuelacho/status/1353537258612117505

Patrick Mahomes on facing Tom Brady in the Super Bowl: "To go up against one of the greatest, if not the greatest quarterback of all-time in his 150th Super Bowl is gonna be a great experience."
https://twitter.com/MySportsUpdate/status/1353556757931565063

That toss at Okafor's head was one of the most accurate balls Josh Allen has thrown all night.
https://www.twitter.com/getnickwright/status/1353535205198483456

Mahomes is becoming this era's Brady. Meanwhile, the past era's Brady is still Brady. Insanity. When Tom Brady won his first Super Bowl, Patrick Mahomes was 6 years old. Now, they're facing each other in Super Bowl 55.

The Bills kicked field goals on:
- 4th & Goal from the KC2
- 4th & 3 from the KC8
- 4th & 3 from the KC33
You won't keep up with the Chiefs by settling for that LOL, especially when the Chief score 5 TDs LOL

Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo has done a hell of a job the last two years in reinventing what was the worst defense in the league.

Tyreek Hill goes off for a 71-yard gain
https://streamable.com/qqu6ex

As #Chiefs coach Andy Reid insinuated, LT Eric Fisher tore his Achilles last night and faces a long road of recovery, source said. KC heads to another Super Bowl, but it will do so without its standout O-lineman.
https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1353664508963729408

The Chiefs defense pressured Josh Allen on 47% of his drop backs. That is the most pressures for a QB in a playoff game since ESPN began tracking QB pressures in 2009.
https://twitter.com/WerderEdESPN/status/1353540911561633792

Brady/Mahomes to represent largest age gap between QBs in a Super Bowl, breaking Brady/Goff

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are 25-1 in their last 26 games, with the one loss being a 40-32 loss to the Raiders. Incredible.

Josh Allen sacked, fracas ensues
https://streamable.com/tq04ij

Patrick Mahomes underhand throws it to Travis Kelce for the touchdown
https://streamable.com/jwfynz

Remarkable what Josh Allen and the Bills achieved this season. It's just the start.

Patrick Mahomes has joined Kurt Warner, Tom Brady, and Russell Wilson as the only QBs to reach the Super Bowl twice in their first 4 NFL seasons. Mahomes will have to beat Brady to join him as the only QBs to win it twice in that span
https://twitter.com/nflresearch/status/1353541046865702912

The 55th Super Bowl will be the first Super Bowl where the primary color in both team logos is the same exact color: Chiefs Red is Buccaneers Red. Pantone 186C.

Does Chiefs DE Frank Clark have a message for Tom Brady? "Nah, I don't have anything to say to him. I'll see his ass on Sunday in the Super Bowl."
https://twitter.com/jeffdarlington/status/1353559617482141697

Tom Brady has now beaten 5 #1 seeds on the road 2001 Steelers (13-3), 2004 Steelers (15-1), 2006 Chargers (14-2), 2018 Chiefs (12-4), 2020 Packers (13-3)

Stefon Diggs is the only Bills player left on the field. He's watching the Chiefs ceremony.
https://twitter.com/diannaespn/status/1353541661624848385