RSN: FOCUS: Juan Cole | Biden's Moonshot: Announces Green Race With China for Electric Vehicle Dominance as MSM Misses Story

 

 

09 February 22

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FOCUS: Juan Cole | Biden's Moonshot: Announces Green Race With China for Electric Vehicle Dominance as MSM Misses Story
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
Cole writes: "The president of the United States announced a Green Race with Beijing for dominance of the electric vehicle manufacturing sector, in which the US is way behind."

President Biden admitted on Tuesday that, regarding electric vehicles, “China has been the — leading that race up to now. But this is about to change . . .” The president of the United States announced a Green Race with Beijing for dominance of the electric vehicle manufacturing sector, in which the US is way behind.

As a Middle East specialist, I’m deeply interested in this budding US-China EV Race because it holds the prospect of reconfiguring the economies and geopolitics of the Middle East. Oil giants like Saudi Arabia and Iran face a steep decline, while it could be that energy-poor countries like Turkey and Egypt will reemerge as regional hegemons on the strength of their populations and manufacturing.

So back to Biden’s plans to green US transportation:

Biden said that the Australian maker of electric vehicle chargers, Tritium, is opening a plant in Tennessee to produce 30,000 chargers a year, creating 500 jobs.

The President pledged, “They’ll use American parts, American iron, American steel. And they’ll be installed up and down the highways and corridors in our communities all across the country by union workers from the IBEW and the electric work- — and the electrical workers union.”

He continued, “these jobs will multiply in steel mills, small parts suppliers, construction sites all over the country in the years to come. And it’s going to help ensure that the American — America leads the world in electric vehicles.”

Biden said Tuesday, “When we wrote the — and passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we included $7.5 billion for electric vehicle chargers.”

He added, “later this week, we’re going to announce a state-by-state allocation for $5 billion of the funding for these chargers. So states can start making plans to build out what will become a national network of electric vehicle chargers.”

Biden has embraced some key elements of the Green New Deal as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez conceived it, expecially the notion that the rebuilding that confronting the climate crisis entails can be used to help the American working class. He said Tuesday, “In my first full year as President, the economy created 6.6 million new jobs. 6.6 million. That’s never happened before in American history. And that includes 375,000 manufacturing jobs. 2021 saw the highest increase in U.S. manufacturing jobs in nearly 30 years.”

Emphasis added. All the dreary reporting on the Biden economy by the for-profit press conveniently neglects these significant achievements. Sometimes I think it would be too cynical to argue that they miss the constant trolling of Trump and are hoping he gets back in for the sake of their bottom line. Sometimes I think it is the only explanation for how they always foregrounded Trump when mentioning good economic news but seldom even mention Biden in that context.

So here’s why the EV chargers of the sort Tritium will make in Tennessee are so important. Jarrett Renshaw and Nandita Bose report at Reuters that since Biden assumed the presidency in 2021, some $200 billion worth of domestic US investments in electric vehicles, batteries, semiconductors and aircraft have been announced.

Nives Dolsak and Aseem Prakash at Forbes point out that 28 percent of US carbon dioxide emissions come from the transportation sector. Most of that is automobiles and trucks burning petroleum. To cut C02 output by 50% by 2030, Biden will have to shift America into electric vehicles and improve public transport.

Dolsak and Prakash point to what is widely seen as a drag on EV adoption, which is the lack of fast public charging stations. Biden’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), passed last fall, contains incentives for the public to buy more electric vehicles but also the billions Biden just mentioned for a nationwide network of fast charging stations.

Biden underlined of his charging stations and attempt to boost EVs, “That’s also going to help save hundreds of billions of gallons of gasoline over time, serving — saving an average driver who chooses an electric vehicle up to $1,000 every year on fuel; making our country more economically competitive, lowering air pollution, and keeping families healthier as we tackle climate — the climate crisis.”

Biden is right about the cost savings, but why state the numbers on an annual basis? Most people keep a car for about 12 years or so once they buy it. Yahoo Finance confirmed last fall that the savings on fuel of an EV amount to nearly $12,000 during those twelve years.

Biden’s remarks on Tuesday did not get much TV coverage beyond the event itself, and I fear that their significance was not fully appreciated by the inside-the-beltway reporters. The Chinese bought over 3 million EVs last year, while Americans bought 434,879. The goal Biden set, of outstripping China in the electric vehicle field, is a moonshot aspiration.

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POLITICO NIGHTLY: Russia and China break the ice in Beijing

 

BY RENUKA RAYASAM With help from Chris Suellentrop NOT JUST FUN AND GAMES — The geopolitical significance of the 2022 Winter Olympic games, whose Opening Ceremonies are Friday in Beijing, extends far beyond which country takes home the most gold medals. The U.S. and its allies, including the U.K., Australia and Canada, have imposed a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Games because of China’s human rights record, which includes genocide against Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang and a crackdown on anti-government voices. India joined the boycott today, after a Chinese soldier involved in a border skirmish took part in the Olympic torch relay. China’s president Xi Jinping seems to have shrugged off the boycott. He said today in a video message to the International Olympic Committee, “The world is turning its eyes to China, and China is ready.” A potential Russian invasion of Ukraine also looms in the background of the games, further threatening its peaceful tenor. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Xi plan to meet before the Opening Ceremony in a public display of their deepening ties. Nightly chatted with China Watcher host Phelim Kine over Slack today about this strange moment for the Olympics, and the world. This conversation has been edited. How is Russia using the Beijing Games to advance its agenda? Putin will be the first foreign leader to have one-on-one, in-person face time with Xi since he effectively went into seclusion in China at the start of the pandemic. Both Russian and Chinese media are depicting Putin’s visit as proof of bilateral warmth and solidarity and partnership against Western country leaders who are staying home. That gives Xi a breather in terms of China’s diplomatic isolation during the Games, and it also provides Putin a narrative of him as an international statesman who is reinforcing ties with the world’s second largest economy in the face of a potential barrage of damaging economic sanctions by the U.S. and the E.U. if Putin does indeed take military action against Ukraine. Athletes from The Netherlands sit at the edge of the ice during a practice session ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. | AP Photo/Ashley Landis But U.N. Sec. General Antonio Guterres will also be at the games? Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) told me during a POLITICO Twitter Spaces event that Guterres’ decision to attend the Games meant that “the U.N. has basically failed in its human rights role here and it’s shameful for Guterres to appear at the Games.” Guterres’ presence at the Games compounds the damage that the U.N. has been taking for delaying the release of what is expected to be a damning report on human rights abuses against Uyghurs in Xinjiang. There is speculation that the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, is holding back the report pending long-awaited official permission from Beijing for an official visit to Xinjiang. The Chinese Foreign Affairs ministry has made clear that any such visit will be strictly on its terms and that it will not tolerate what it describes as “political manipulation.” What has changed since 2008, when the Summer Games were held in Beijing, with relatively little controversy? Back in 2008 there were reasonable hopes that China was on the path toward becoming a gentler, kinder authoritarian one-party state, with greater respect for human rights, wider space for freedom of expression and association. Instead what happened is that Xi Jinping came to power in 2013 and has piloted a drastic worsening in human rights abuses, particularly in Xinjiang, and has rolled back even what limited space existed for honest dialogue about the country’s problems and direction. The hope is gone, replaced by the emergence of a totalitarian surveillance state helmed by Xi who models himself the heir to Chairman Mao Zedong, complete with a budding personality cult. Sen. Merkley compared the 2022 Beijing Games to the 1936 Berlin Olympics “when you had Hitler proudly flying the Nazi flag next to the Olympic flag.” That rhetoric underscores how drastically international perceptions of the Chinese government and its role in and perceived threat to what the Biden administration calls “international rules-based order” has shifted for the worse since the 2008 Games. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Medicare enrollees will now be able to get eight free Covid tests a month, the same benefit that the Biden Administration has already provided to those with private insurance. Flashback to our piece highlighting the gap in Biden’s testing plan. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at rrayasam@politico.com, or on Twitter at @renurayasam. WHAT'D I MISS? — U.S. alleges Russia weighing fake video as pretext for war: The Biden administration alleges the Kremlin could create a pretext for a Ukraine invasion by distributing a fake video of Kyiv’s forces targeting Russian territory or Russian-speakers — thereby giving Putin what he needs to send troops rolling over the border. A senior administration official told NatSec Daily that Moscow has already recruited people to be in the video and that Russian intelligence officials are “intimately involved” in the plot. — Senators worry Russia will invade Ukraine before they finalize sanctions bill: Senators in both parties emerged from a classified briefing on Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine today with fresh doubts about whether a legislative response would come together in time to deter an invasion. While upper-chamber negotiators insist they are close to an agreement on a bill to sanction Moscow and boost U.S. support for Kyiv, the briefing from top Biden administration officials — while designed to heighten lawmakers’ sense of urgency — left some concerned that the talks are moving at too glacial a pace. — Biden targets gun violence in New York City visit: President Joe Biden called for more funding for law enforcement and anti-violence programs during a visit today to New York City to grapple with increasing crime. Mayor Eric Adams joined Biden, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Attorney General Merrick Garland on a stop by police headquarters in lower Manhattan, where they planned to attend a meeting on gun violence strategies between local and federal law enforcement. — IRS shuffling workers to cut giant mail backlog: The IRS is returning employees who used to process tax returns and other paperwork back to their old jobs for the next eight months to help the agency cut through its massive backlog, Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in an internal email Wednesday night. Current resources aren’t enough to overcome the challenge, he said, so he’s pulling people out of their new posts to leverage their prior experience. — Staff at Dem firm revolt over work for Sinema: Since the beginning of 2020, Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s reelection campaign has paid the Democratic consulting firm Authentic nearly a half million dollars for digital work and list acquisition. Inside the firm, staffers have revolted over the contract, expressing shock and agitation that a company that professes fidelity to a set of progressive values has worked alongside a lawmaker many believe are standing in the way of progress on those values. “I am doing the devils work,” said one employee at Authentic of the work done for Sinema, according to internal union messages reviewed by POLITICO. — Adams defends dinner with Cuomo: New York City Mayor Eric Adams defended his decision to have dinner this week with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who resigned from office in August after the state attorney general corroborated claims he had sexually harassed multiple women. “I’m going to sit down with everyone. No stone will be left unturned to get my city back up and operating,” Adams said this morning in an interview on PIX11 News in New York. Adams and Cuomo dined Tuesday night at Osteria La Baia in midtown Manhattan. AROUND THE WORLD President Joe Biden delivers remarks at the White House on a U.S. Special Operations raid targeting ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi. | Win McNamee/Getty Images U.S. STRIKES ISIS IN SYRIA — Biden heralded the success today of a large-scale counterterrorism raid carried out by U.S. special operations forces in northwestern Syria that resulted in the death of Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, the leader of the Islamic State militant group, Quint Forgey writes. “Thanks to the bravery our troops, this horrible terrorist leader is no more,” Biden said in an address delivered from the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Biden also said he directed the Defense Department “to take every precaution possible to minimize civilian casualties” during the operation. “At a much greater risk to our own people,” Biden said, he ultimately decided to authorize a special operations raid rather than an airstrike in an effort to preserve the lives of innocents. Biden announced in a statement earlier today that all Americans involved in the operation returned home safely. But first responders at the scene — in the village of Atmeh near the Turkish border — reported that 13 people were killed, including six children and four women, according to The Associated Press. Senior administration officials said al-Qurayshi died in the same manner as former Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who detonated a suicide vest — killing himself and three children — after he was cornered in a tunnel during a U.S. raid in northwestern Syria in 2019. NIGHTLY NUMBER 15 The number of days until government funding runs out. Democratic leaders have started a now-familiar song and dance: preparing to pass a continuing resolution to punt the funding deadline for a few more days or weeks, to avoid the risk of a government shutdown come midnight on Feb. 18. Congress has already passed two of those funding patches since the new fiscal year started in October. PARTING WORDS THE COVID DOCTOR IS IN … THE CAMPAIGN — The pandemic has turned the intensive-care unit doctor into a cultural superstar on the order of Peloton and Zoom. ICU docs are everywhere: in your Twitter feed, on your cable news channel, on your op-ed page. They’re saving lives, sure, but they’re also a new brand of public intellectual — and political candidate. There’s even one running for governor of Tennessee. Nightly editor Chris Suellentrop talked to Jason Martin, a 46-year-old critical care doctor from Nashville who’s never run for public office before, last month about his quest to win the Democratic nomination this summer in the party’s long-shot bid to unseat the incumbent Republican, Bill Lee. This conversation has been edited. Do you agree that the pandemic has changed the perception of the ICU doctor in our society? I joke with my friends that this is an opportunity for me to get involved, because no one is ever going to care what a pulmonologist/critical care doctor thinks in a year or two. There’s some credit here that we can spend. So I think that’s totally true. I lost my dad in an ICU in 2014. That was a life-changing, and career-changing, experience for me. Being on the other side allows you to know what empathy means. The right answer is not always clear. You have to try different things. You have to listen to people. You have to put together a plan and a collaborative group. Those are skills that translate directly to government. People ask me all the time: “You’re not a chief executive. You don’t have business experience. What makes you think you can jump into being governor?” I tell people: Government is not a business. Government exists to solve big problems that we can’t solve on our own. And that’s exactly what I do in the ICU every single day. What was the start of the pandemic like for you? For seven, eight weeks, I was completely separated from my family. We were hit very early on with a nursing home outbreak. So in like three days time, we got 100 octogenarians, basically, admitted to our hospital. And it’s a 100-bed hospital. We were overwhelmed at the outset. This was the first time since training, since I was an intern, that I walked into the building and everything looked unfamiliar. How does that compare to how the pandemic feels right now? We are way understaffed. We can’t hire or keep nurses. And it’s not the administration’s fault. It’s a national problem. We’ve got three dozen nurses out with Covid, currently, because it’s so rampant in our community. In mid-January, we were down to one ventilator in the hospital. We’ve got a contingency plan. The state will bring us more ventilators. It’s not like someone’s going to go without a ventilator. But that’s where we were. Our supply of 18 ventilators for an 18-bed ICU was down to one. And the curve and tendency was still straight up. And all this is happening in the setting of nobody caring anymore. I don’t mean for me. I feel this, too. People are fatigued. They’re over it. In the improbable circumstance that you become the governor of Tennessee, what policies would you adopt to manage that tension, that there’s an ongoing health care crisis at the same time that people are really tired of the pandemic and want things to be normal again? I think there needs to be someone who is not actively working against us. What we were feeling was never matched by our governor. I think school districts should have some local control. If you feel like masks are necessary in your schools to keep your students and your kids safe, the governor should not override that with an executive order, which is what happened here. I would not threaten to defund the Department of Health for vaccine outreach to minors. Getting people vaccinated is the way we reduce severe and life-threatening disease. I tell people all the time that freedom without responsibility is not liberty. It’s adolescence. And that’s what we’re dealing with right now in state government.   Follow us on Twitter Chris Suellentrop @suellentrop Tyler Weyant @tweyant Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam Myah Ward @myahward   FOLLOW US

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POLITICO NIGHTLY: The Covid lull is coming

BY MYAH WARD Presented by AT&T People walk through Grand Central Terminal in New York City. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images ‘WE’RE NOT SURE JUST WHAT THAT MEANS YET’ — After weeks of skyrocketing Omicron cases and feeling like everyone you know, and their brother, has Covid — a surge that has led deaths to surpass 2,100 a day, the highest since early 2021 — experts are saying that a period of reprieve is in sight. Even Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist at the University of Minnesota who is known for never celebrating victory against Covid too early and correctly projecting Omicron’s destructive path as a “viral blizzard,” says we may have a moment to breathe in a few weeks once the new variant completes its rapid burn through the country. Nightly talked with Osterholm about what we know about the approaching lull in the pandemic and how it should inform our behavior and public policy. This conversation has been edited. Describe the lull that you and other experts say is in sight. When we talk about a lull, we’re not sure just what that means yet. Maybe case numbers will come back down to baseline and what they were before Omicron showed up, but maybe they’re not going to be. But nonetheless, they’ll still be substantially lower in incidence than we saw in December, early January. We’re following closely what’s happening in countries that experienced Omicron before we did, and it’s notable. If you look at South Africa right now, the number of cases increased dramatically from a baseline, hit the peak and then came down sharply. But if you look today, they still have almost 12 times as many cases a day as they did before Omicron occurred. But what’s even more concerning is what we’ve seen in the United Kingdom. If you look there, and it appears to be tied to school kids and their parents — we saw cases come down 10 days ago, we saw them level off, and go back up again. Over the last two days, they’re going back up, not dropping. And so that could also signal that this tail is going to be more volatile than you might imagine. I think that we could very easily see another variant emerge. I don’t know that to be the case, but I don’t know any scientific evidence would support it wouldn’t. I know you don’t have a crystal ball, but how long do you expect this lull to last before we see another variant?  I actually do have a crystal ball! It’s just coated in 5 inches of mud. But we don’t know. This is where humility has to be the main point we keep reinforcing. I saw some of the talking heads six weeks ago who said, “Well, don’t worry, this surge won’t be that bad because we have vaccines. It’s not going to be like 2020.” Some of them now are the very people saying how bad this is. Anybody who does any model that predicts more than four weeks out, be careful. Because their models are based totally on pixie dust. If in the first week of November, just as Omicron was emerging, someone said, “I’m going to model it for the next 30 days,” you would have never picked up any of this. Is that what we should expect at this point in the pandemic — a period of reprieve and then a new variant? I see people wanting to immediately say we’re heading to the endemic stage. I’m a card-carrying epidemiologist of 46 years. I’ve written a lot about epidemics, and pandemics and endemics, and I can’t tell you for the life of me what the hell endemic means right now. If we go into a four-month period of relatively limited transmission, is that endemic? Well, then what happens if in September, we see a new variant emerge that suddenly causes an Omicron-like situation? We have to be careful about the choice of terms. Is this virus going to go away? The answer is no. Will it cause future challenges? The answer is likely yes. We will not likely see the kind of immunity that will come from either vaccination or from previous infection that will be sustainable. You saw the Israeli data today; they’re recommending a fourth dose for everybody 18 years of age and older. Only a third of people who have had two doses of vaccines — so they’re vaccine friendly — have gotten a booster, which we know has been important in reducing the risk of serious Omicron infection. So do you think we’re going to do better with a fourth dose? We’re going to have to learn to live with this virus. But at the same time, I’m optimistic that if we can really put in place very aggressive and well-described systems for testing and drug deployment, we can surely do a lot to reduce serious illness. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. We had a couple more questions for Osterholm, including on Omicron-specific vaccines and what life will look like in The Lull. Read on, and reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at mward@politico.com, or on Twitter at @MyahWard.   A message from AT&T: Accessible, affordable broadband helps communities reach their American Dream. That’s why we’re making a $2 billion, 3-year commitment toward helping close the digital divide, so more low-income families have the ability to succeed. Learn more.   Speaking of vaccines — Pfizer announced today it’s starting clinical trials for an Omicron-specific vaccine. Shouldn’t we be more worried about the next variant?  That’s exactly it. First of all, companies should not be deciding what the next vaccine should be. They should be manufacturing the vaccines that the public health and regulatory world determine are important. So I think this is putting the cart before the horse to have companies out there pursuing, and even in a sense promoting, vaccines for specific variants. When the lull comes, what should our behavior look like? Should this period affect vaccine and mask mandates and other public health measures?  I think most mandates are going to go out the window. I think society is going to demand it. I think most of the behaviors — it won’t matter what we say — they will be, in a sense, an attempt to be as normal as they were before Omicron hit, or for that matter, before Covid hit. We might not like the wind, but it’s going to blow. We can’t stop it. And so I think the challenge is going to be: Will we at that time continue to do everything we can to get more people vaccinated, particularly kids, to get people who are at high risk to get their additional booster dose? We’re going to have to continue that. The second thing is we need to do everything we can to continue to expand testing capacity. What I don’t want to see happen is: We may not be using all the tests, so we throw them away. No, at this point, we’ve got to have a surge capacity and be prepared for what happens if we do see an Omicron-like surge in the fall. What will we be doing for the health care workers? Will we have more? I think salaries, and we’re looking at benefits, for health care workers to stay on the job. What kind of support can we provide health care workers, many of them who are suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome? Then if another surge doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. You can say it was wasted. I would rather always be sorry for something I did rather than something I didn’t do.   JOIN NEXT FRIDAY TO HEAR FROM GOVERNORS ACROSS AMERICA : As we head into the third year of the pandemic, state governors are taking varying approaches to public health measures including vaccine and mask mandates. "The Fifty: America's Governors" is a series of live conversations featuring various governors on the unique challenges they face as they take the lead and command the national spotlight in historic ways. Learn what is working and what is not from the governors on the front lines, REGISTER HERE.     WHAT'D I MISS? — Hoyer: Voting rights bill, BBB ‘very much alive’: House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer remains optimistic that Democrats will pass the voting rights legislation and the Build Back Better bill despite roadblocks but offered few details about how that could happen. “I do not buy your characterization of the Voting Rights Act being ‘dead’ in the Senate,” Hoyer told POLITICO Playbook co-author Rachael Bade. “It certainly is not in the shape I’d like it to be in, but we’re not going to forget about that.” — Rep. Jim Cooper retires after Tennessee district dismantled: Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper, a 32-year veteran of Congress, will retire at the end of this year, after Tennessee Republicans shredded his Nashville-based district into three pieces in redistricting. He is the 29th House Democrat to leave the chamber to retire or seek higher office during this Congress. — Judge presses ahead with April trial for several Oath Keepers: A federal judge insisted today that the first criminal trial for Oath Keepers who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 open in Washington this April, a timeline he said he was committed to despite vocal objections from some defense attorneys who worry they wouldn’t have enough time to wade through a massive — and growing — trove of digital evidence. Judge Amit Mehta set the April 19 date for a subset of the 22 Oath Keepers charged with a sweeping conspiracy to obstruct the transfer of presidential power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. — Cuellar on FBI raid: I intend to win reelection; the investigation will clear me: A defiant Rep. Henry Cuellar declared that he would seek — and win — reelection, six days after an FBI raid of his home and campaign offices. In a video statement recorded outside of his childhood home, the senior Texas Democrat vowed that his name would be cleared in the probe and thanked supporters. But he offered no explanation for why the FBI searched his property less than six weeks before he faces a tough primary against progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros.   A message from AT&T:     AROUND THE WORLD U.S. Embassy Charge d'Affaires Kristina Kvien and Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Rostyslav Zamlynskii speak to the media following the unloading of weapons, including Javelin anti-tank missiles, and other military hardware delivered on a National Airlines plane by the United States military at Boryspil Airport near Kyiv in Boryspil, Ukraine. | Sean Gallup/Getty Images TENSIONS HEADACHES — Biden said he told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the United States would deploy thousands of troops to Eastern Europe if Russia continues its military buildup along Ukraine’s border or mounts a renewed invasion of the country, Quint Forgey writes. But the American president also said he would not send troops into Ukraine, even as the White House warned that Russia was likely to move its forces across the border at any moment. Biden’s remarks came after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin placed the roughly 8,500 troops “on a heightened preparedness to deploy,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said at a news briefing on Monday, with the “bulk” of those troops intended to bolster the NATO Response Force. NATO has not yet activated that multinational force in response to Russia’s aggression, although the alliance announced on Monday that several of its European member states were deploying additional ships and fighter jets to Eastern Europe and putting new forces on standby. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday accused the United States of “escalating tensions” by putting the troops on high alert, telling reporters that Moscow was “watching these U.S. actions with great concern.” NIGHTLY NUMBER 62 percent The decrease in OpenTable restaurant reservations in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 24, 2022 compared with Jan. 24, 2019.   STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.     PARTING WORDS FILLING IN THE GRID — The launch of the website Grid earlier this month represented the latest bet that the market for explainer journalism still exists in the digital space. But unlike others in the field, Grid has a unique origin story, one that involves early ties to a global consulting firm best known for its crisis communications management and lobbying work on behalf of foreign governments, most notably the United Arab Emirates, Max Tani and Daniel Lippman write. Months before Grid brought on board any writers or staff, the new digital media organization hired APCO Worldwide to help with its launch. The global marketing and consulting firm, which is headquartered in D.C. but is a registered lobbyist for various clients based in the UAE, confirmed to POLITICO that it “provided consulting services for Grid during the first half of 2021.” A spokesperson said it has no continuing role with the digital news organization, which launched earlier this month. And Laura McGann, Grid’s top editor, said in a statement that APCO did not win a competitive bidding process for a PR contract for the site. The contract, instead, has gone to DKC News, which does public relations work for Grid. But Grid maintains links to APCO, which represents a number of major UAE clients, including the company’s state-owned oil company.   A message from AT&T: Brooke Dryden’s daughter was diagnosed with learning disabilities at an early age. She requires an individualized education plan and weekly therapy with speech specialists. However, rural Colorado does not have the kind of specialists she needs. With the help of accessible and affordable broadband, Brooke is able to ensure that she receives regular virtual therapy and never falls behind. Brooke’s dream is to see her daughter not just survive but thrive in the world. That’s why AT&T is dedicated to helping close the digital divide with a $2 billion, 3-year commitment, so more low-income families like Brooke's can achieve their American Dream. Learn more.     Follow us on Twitter Chris Suellentrop @suellentrop Tyler Weyant @tweyant Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam Myah Ward @myahward   FOLLOW US

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Racist politicians and racist redistricting

 

2022 has given state legislators the opportunity to redraw Congressional maps, oftentimes to tip the scales, protect political power, and institutionally disenfranchise Black, brown, and low-income voters.

Gerrymandering is the new Jim Crow, and its effects are being seen across the country as legislators divide diverse communities into separate congressional districts in order to dilute the collective strength of Black and brown voters.

In Nashville, Republicans have redrawn Justice Democrat Odessa Kelly’s Congressional District. The GOP broke up Nashville into different House districts that favor Republicans in order to destroy a progressive stronghold in the South. Racist politicians have been carving out electoral districts and suppressing the vote at the expense of Black and brown voters for decades, enabled by weak national voting rights laws and the filibuster.

Will you help us fight back? At this moment, we need our movement to stand up against unfair election maps, keep Odessa in the fight, and ensure Black and brown voices are heard in Nashville. That is why we’re asking you to split a contribution between Justice Democrats and Odessa Kelly’s campaign — so we’re ready for whatever comes next.

Nashville is just one example of the impact of gerrymandering, and the need for national comprehensive voting rights legislation. That is why Justice Democrats are working hard, not just to elect Odessa Kelly, but to fight voter suppression and abolish the racist filibuster.

The politicians drawing up these maps know that the collective power of our movement is unstoppable. But at this moment, we need to use that power to fight these racist maps and elect working people to Congress. Will you join us by splitting a contribution between Odessa’s campaign and Justice Democrats?

In solidarity,

Justice Democrats

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Top US generals sound alarm over next MAGA coup

US children hospitalized with COVID in near-record numbers

Today's Top Stories:

Generals warn the US military could lead a coup after the 2024 election
Gens. Paul Eaton, Antonio Taguba, and Steven Anderson made their case in a WaPo op-ed. "In short: We are chilled to our bones at the thought of a coup succeeding next time."

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Fast-spreading wildfires destroy hundreds of homes, displace tens of thousands in Colorado
Combined with relative humidity below 20% and ongoing drought conditions, extreme 80-100 mph winds were fueling rapid fire spread... in December.

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Joe Manchin pulls bombshell holiday stunt
No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen: Unreal.

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Biden and Putin exchange warnings during phone call amid rising Ukraine tensions
Thursday’s talks, requested by Putin, were the leaders’ second conversation this month but, the White House said, consisted of both men restating their positions — including Biden warning of severe consequences if Putin decides to invade.

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Marjorie Taylor Greene calls for a national divorce between Republican and Democratic states
Reminder: Greene's home state of Georgia once tried to implement a "national divorce" so wealthy White people could keep owning Black people as slaves. It didn't work then, either.

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New documents prove Tennessee county disproportionately jails Black children, and it’s getting worse
In an earlier story, ProPublica and Nashville Public Radio chronicled a case in Rutherford County in which 11 Black children were arrested for a crime that does not exist.

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Colorado Gov. Jared Polis cuts truck driver's sentence from 110 to 10 years for fatal 2019 crash
The "arbitrary and unjust sentence" was a result of Colorado's mandatory minimum sentencing laws, the governor wrote.

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WATCH: Democratic star Richard Ojeda shares resolutions for 2022
No Dem Left Behind: The 2022 midterms are just months away. The Army veteran is resolved to fight the GQP and WIN ... are you?

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Trump’s legal bills are costing the GOP a fortune: "There is no precedent for this"
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

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Eric Swalwell asks Twitter to help ID Tucker Carlson fan who wanted him shot
"The lies from Tucker and others are radicalizing people across not just America but the world," Swalwell wrote. "The lies are inspiring people to make threats of violence against lawmakers. Tucker & Co. know this. And that’s why they tell their lies. They want to incite the mob."

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Prince Andrew told he will face justice after Ghislaine Maxwell verdict
The Duke of York has been warned that the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell proves that justice will prevail "whether you’re a president or a prince."

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Marjorie Taylor Greene calls Kwanzaa "fake religion" created by a "psychopath"
Kwanzaa is a holiday, not a religion. But let's not let facts get in the way of racist broadsides.

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Seriously?

Brother of Ghislaine Maxwell: Epstein's crimes 'not committed by my sister'

China bans tattoos for national soccer players

Khashoggi's Saudi killers are living in luxury villas

Yes. Seriously.

Omicron surge is 'unlike anything we've ever seen,' expert says

Police fatally shoot tiger attacking man at Florida zoo

Unvaxxed parents of 4 die of COVID on same day

Hope...

GoodGoodGood: Desmond Tutu's climate activism

WHO, Dr. Fauci say omicron appears to be milder... so far

South Africa lifts curfew as 4th COVID wave peaks

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Today’s Action: Protect yourself — and others — this New Year’s!

Tomorrow is the start of a new year! But thanks to the omicron variant, lack of mask-wearing and other precautions, and continued vaccine refusal by an alarming number of Americans, it’s easy to feel like we’re still at the beginning of the pandemic with a record surge in COVID cases. While new cases — and certainly hospitalizations and deaths — are dominated by the unvaccinated, breakthrough cases have also continued to rise. Luckily, we have more tools in the fight against COVID than we did at the start. 

By making sure you and your family members are masking up in public spaces and getting your boosters, you’re saving lives this holiday season – it’s really that simple. 

Here are a few more tips to reduce your chances of catching or spreading the virus:

Mask up. Larger indoor parties are just not safe right now, and even smaller ones require precautions. In a room full of strangers, you can’t be sure who’s vaccinated (let alone who might be sick.) Since you can’t rely simply on symptoms to tell you who may be contagious, staying home with close friends this New Year’s could be your best bet to stay safe. You can take extra precaution by opening windows, masking up, and running an air purifier that has a HEPA filter. 

Get tested. Testing demand is certainly higher in certain parts of the country, especially following the holidays, but getting tested before gathering with friends and family is critical in the fight against COVID. Some communities have initiatives like Say Yes! Covid Test that are distributing free home tests in select areas, and packs of two tests go for $25 in stores. Try to plan ahead to find a rapid, PCR, or at-home test before your New Year’s plans. Most importantly, if you’re sick – stay home.

Get boosted. Staying up to date with your COVID shots and making sure your friends and family are getting vaxxed is the best thing you can do to slow the spread. While breakthrough cases are possible, it’s the unvaccinated that are overwhelming our healthcare system.

We may still be in the thick of the pandemic, but we can all take measures to make our first post-vaccine holiday celebrations as safe as they can be!