Found this in the bu$ine$$ section of all places, page C3:
"Biden, top Democrats swing behind bipartisan virus aid bill" by Andrew Taylor Associated Press, December 2, 2020
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden swung behind a bipartisan COVID-19 relief effort Wednesday and his top Capitol Hill allies cut their demands for a $2 trillion-plus measure by more than half in hopes of breaking a monthslong logjam and delivering much-sought aid as the tempestuous congressional session speeds to a close.
Biden said the developing aid package ’'wouldn’t be the answer, but it would be the immediate help for a lot of things.” He wants a relief bill to pass Congress now, with more aid to come next year.
Biden’s remarks followed an announcement by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer in support of an almost $1 trillion approach as the basis for discussions. The announcement appeared aimed at budging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who so far has been unwilling to abandon a $550 million Senate GOP plan that has failed twice this fall.
The Democrats embraced a $908 billion approach from moderate Senators Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, and Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, among others. It would establish a $300 per week jobless benefit, send $160 billion to help state and local governments, boost schools and universities, revive popular “paycheck protection” subsidies for businesses, and bail out transit systems and airlines.
What isn't in it is any form of checks similar to the $1200 chump change they gave you up front.
Not one penny for the people of this country, and yet Hall of Fame QB Tom Brady got a $1 million dollar bailout, 'er, loan.
“In the spirit of compromise we believe the bipartisan framework introduced by Senators yesterday should be used as the basis for immediate bipartisan, bicameral negotiations,’' Pelosi and Schumer said. They said they would try to build upon the approach, which has support in the House from a bipartisan “problem solvers’' coalition.
The new plan includes a liability shield for businesses and other organizations that have reopened their doors during the pandemic. It’s the first time Pelosi and Schumer have shown a willingness to consider the idea.
That's fa$ci$m in its pure$t form, not the misnomered nationalism of the 1930s.
McConnell had dismissed the bipartisan offer on Tuesday, instead aiming to rally Republicans around the $550 billion GOP proposal, but McConnell himself endorsed a $1 trillion-or so plan this summer, only to encounter resistance from conservatives that prompted him to retrench. He has acknowledged that another infusion of aid to states and local governments, a key Pelosi demand, probably will pass eventually.
McConnell wouldn’t respond when asked about the Democratic statement. His top deputy, Senator John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said GOP leaders might agree to merging the bipartisan proposal with McConnell’s bill.
“I think there’s still time, although it’s short, to put a bill together,’' Thune said.
In the dead of night when the American people are asleep and no one is watching.
The bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed a split-the-difference solution to the protracted impasse, hoping to speed overdue help to a hurting nation before Congress adjourns for the holidays. It was a sign that some lawmakers are reluctant to adjourn for the year without approving some pandemic aid. They could have done that at anytime.
It was all to deny Trump, who foolishly thought the Republican e$tablishment that hates him would back him up when they have no problem falling on their $words.
Centrists such as Manchin and Collins hope to exert greater influence in a closely divided Congress during the incoming Biden administration.
Their proposal includes $228 billion to extend and upgrade “paycheck protection” subsidies for businesses for a second round of relief to hard-hit businesses such as restaurants. It would revive a special jobless benefit, but at a reduced level of $300 per week rather than the $600 benefit enacted in March. State and local governments would receive $160 billion.
There’s also $45 billion for transportation, including aid to transit systems and Amtrak; $82 billion to reopen schools and universities; and money for vaccines and health care providers, as well as for food stamps, rental assistance, and the Postal Service.
That's where my print copy concluded.
The new effort follows a split-decision election that delivered the White House to Democrats and gave Republicans down-ballot success.
Trump's empty-suited coattails, right?
At less than $1 trillion, it is less costly than a proposal from McConnell this summer. He later abandoned that effort for a considerably less costly measure that failed to advance this fall.
Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin struggled over a relief bill for weeks before the November election, discussing legislation of up to $2 trillion. Senate GOP conservatives opposed their efforts and Pelosi refused to yield on key points.
The bipartisan compromise is virtually free of detail so far, but includes a McConnell priority: a temporary shield against COVID-19-related lawsuits against businesses and other organizations that have reopened, despite the pandemic.
Nothing is ever temporary once they pass it!
His warnings of a wave of destructive suits hasn’t been borne out, and the provision is sure to drew opposition from the trial lawyers’ lobby, which retains considerable influence with Democratic leaders.
They are prosecuting the wrong people, and not a whisper of "him" in the web version, either, wow.
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Related:
He stands alone and will soon be in prison; why do you think they are making room?
Also see:
He thought Barr would protect him?
He never even moved on Antifa, folks.
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Trump did make the front page, of course, and above the fold at that:
"Trump’s attacks on Georgia Republicans roil GOP effort to keep control of Senate" by Victoria McGrane Globe Staff, December 2, 2020
“ ‘Cause hell’s broke loose in Georgia,” the late country music star Charlie Daniels once sang.
It’s a lyric that sounds downright prophetic to Republicans these days. Except in this case it’s Donald Trump, rather than the devil, dealing the cards.
The president, who lost the state to President-elect Joe Biden by more than 12,000 votes, has pummeled Georgia GOP officials with baseless claims that his loss is due to widespread voter fraud. He has assailed, in particular, Republican Governor Brian Kemp, whom he says he regrets endorsing, and Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whom he dubbed an “enemy of the people” for following state election laws.
The result has been chaos at a time when the party needs to pull together to win twin runoff elections next month — races that will determine which party controls the Senate.
Now, Trump is headed down to Georgia in person Saturday, allegedly to stump for the two Republicans seeking reelection, Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. It’s the sort of move that could make all the difference for Republicans, motivating the president’s diehard supporters to turn out Jan. 5.
That's where the turn-in came, and that's when I actually started reading it, fyi.
Or Trump could blow it all up.
“There’s a fear that Trump could come and screw this up big time,” said Allen Peake, a conservative Republican and former Georgia state representative.
The fix is in, huh?
That's how Pelosi KNEW he would be leaving! What will be difficult to explain will be his loss in-state when the expected massive crowd shows up, and they will.
Should Trump treat the upcoming rally as just another platform to air his lies that the election was stolen from him, and to continue to attack GOP officials, it could convince enough Republican voters to sit out the runoff elections that Democrats could prevail. That is the outcome many Republicans quietly worry about, and a handful have started to say it out loud.
Now the disingenuous and hypocritical Globe is projecting and calling him a liar!
The f**king gall!
“If Trump continues his incessant whining and complaining and baseless claims that fraud cost him the election, it’s only going to be a deterrent to helping Perdue and Loeffler win,” said Peake.
We all know it, the evidence is voluminous even as the Globe, et al, ignore it, attack it, and omit it.
“I’m hopeful he won’t. I’m hopeful he’ll man up, do the right thing, realize he lost the election, and focus on keeping whatever remaining positive legacy he might have by helping Republicans keep the Senate.”
Who gives a f**k at this stage?
Republicans, who have historically prevailed in Georgia runoffs with better base turnout, still hold the edge despite the turmoil, strategists in both parties agree. Even those GOP officials upset with Trump’s actions believe Loeffler and Perdue will most likely triumph over their respective Democratic opponents, the Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, but neither side can rest easy given Georgia’s solid purple hue, a new status underscored by Biden’s victory in a state that hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992.
“The last two elections have shown we’re a 50-50 state. That means that both parties must have total turnout of every element of their coalitions, and the president will be able to claim some credit for a Republican victory if he comes down here and does an event and really unifies Republican voters,” said Brian Robinson, a Republican strategist in Georgia.
“In a 50-50 state, no party can have a circular firing squad,” he added.
Good Lord, I hope no one shoots at him during his visit.
Robinson and other Republicans expressed optimism that Trump’s appearance could serve to unify the party’s base and help Loeffler and Perdue draw a clear contrast with their Democratic challengers.
“He can drive the message that his legacy is on the line, that Perdue and Loeffler are key to preserving some of the conservative victories over the last four years,” Robinson said.
Recent developments, however, have intensified the heartburn many Republicans are feeling about the race, and the president’s influence over its outcome.
That's the same feeling I get every morning between 6-8 a.m. while reading a Globe.
On Tuesday, Georgia’s voting system manager, Gabriel Sterling, angrily condemned Trump and his allies, including Loeffler and Perdue, for the heated rhetoric and baseless claims of fraud, which have unleashed threats of violence against Georgia officials and even rank-and-file election workers.
False flags waving, can you see 'em?
“Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language. Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions. This has to stop, and if you’re going to take a position of leadership, show some,” said Sterling, a Republican.
Trump’s response? He retweeted a post about Sterling’s plea to double down on his baseless claims of “massive voter fraud” in the state and suggested that top Georgia Republicans are in on the conspiracy.
“Rigged Election,” Trump asserted without evidence.
What evidence does this Globe reporter have that there wasn't?
They haven't bothered to investigate anything, they have just hurled invective at those who even deign to question their veracity.
Earlier the same day, on Twitter again, Trump instructed Kemp to call off the Jan. 5 election because it “won’t be needed” — a far cry from a message focused on urging his supporters to turn out and vote that Republicans desperately want the president to deliver Saturday.
On Wednesday, Raffensperger said a second taxpayer-funded recount of Georgia’s 5 million ballots, requested by the Trump campaign, is on track to confirm Biden’s victory in the state, with “no substantial changes” in the initial tally.
All of a $udden they are worried about taxpayer money!
Trump’s attacks have often focused on demanding that Georgia elections officials verify signatures on absentee ballot envelopes. Election clerks in the state already undertook the signature matching process when absentee ballots were first received. They can’t redo it because state laws require the envelope with the signature to be separated from the ballot once the signature matching is completed, to ensure the secrecy of each voter’s ballot.
Such facts haven’t stopped Trump, nor have they stopped his supporters from believing him, and that has injected additional volatility into the Senate races.
At the extreme, some Trump supporters have vowed not to vote in the January runoffs because the election system can’t be trusted. Some are even attacking Loeffler and Perdue for being part of the problem.
Among them are L. Lin Wood Jr., a pro-Trump lawyer in Atlanta, who tried unsuccessfully to stop the state’s election certification, and Sidney Powell, a former member of the Trump campaign’s legal team, who has disseminated wild and false theories that Kemp and Raffensperger were paid participants in a conspiracy involving deceased Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez to steal the election from Trump.
I'm surprised to see those names in the paper, and it isn't really enough, is it?
The pair teamed up for a “Stop the Fraud” press conference in Alpharetta, Ga., Wednesday. Hundreds of people showed up and heard both effectively urge them not to vote in the runoff, unless the state completely overhauled its voting processes, according to reporters covering the event.
Yeah, press conferences will bust the Deep $tate and right this wrong.
The Globe doesn't dare mention the Dominion voting machines that were programmed to flip votes from Trump to Biden. They were so overwhelmed on election night that is why the counting stopped. The software crashed because the landslide was beyond anything imaginable by the coup plotters.
It remains to be seen how influential such voices are, and what exactly Trump will say when he travels to the state, but there’s no doubt in Democrats’ minds that the Republican disarray is a boon for their own fortunes.
Not only do the attacks from Trump and his allies threaten to depress turnout among the president’s most fervent supporters, the growing ugliness could also alienate more moderate Republicans who are disgusted with the unfounded fraud theories and intraparty violence, some analysts warn.
“It’s hard to look at the constant stream of pronouncements and campaign rallies and intraparty attacks and not see that there are two divergent camps within the Republican Party, and it’s always more difficult to be successful at the ballot box if you are of two minds,” said Howard Franklin, an Atlanta-based Democratic strategist.
Republican Party voters are solidly behind Trump not the e$tablishment!
How do you think he won the nomination?
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Also see:
Yeah, you gotta green things up and I didn't need to be told twice.
Putin will also be there after he ordered ‘large-scale’ vaccinations in Russia.
The report is by Maria Sacchetti of the Wa$hington Compo$t, formerly of the Globe.
So sayeth the Globe, and the the future of American democracy will not be resolved by Trump’s departure from the White House, it will require the party of Lincoln to again embrace democracy.
Trump says he will rise to record heights again like Barney's, but with hiring slowed in November we are tired of waiting for the play simulation and feel let down.
Rememeber this guy?
"When Goldman Sachs declared its intent to reclaim $67 million from five former top executives over the sprawling 1MDB corruption scandal, it made clear it had already pocketed the money from all but one of them. The lone holdout— Gary Cohn. Six weeks later, Goldman is still waiting on its former president to pony up the cash. The bank has failed to persuade Cohn to part with over $10 million in pay he’s already received, according to people with knowledge of the matter, and there’s little the firm can do if he simply refuses or offers up a discounted sum, they said. Cohn had been one of the most fabulously paid executives after a lucrative Wall Street career. When he joined President Trump’s White House in 2017 as director of the National Economic Council, the 60-year-old was able to immediately collect about $65 million in cash and stock tied to future Goldman performance, another $220 million of Goldman equity, and stakes in company-run investment funds."
This is really starting to stink like you know what so time to catch a flight outta here!
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NEXT DAY UPDATES:
He did get a mention in my page A2World/Nation lead today:
"Momentum builds for bipartisan $908 billion stimulus package as more GOP senators express support" by Jeff Stein, Mike DeBonis and Seung Min Kim Washington Post, December 3, 2020
WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke Thursday amid growing momentum for a targeted coronavirus relief deal, illustrating how Congress has snapped into action amid a surge in new cases and deaths.
They also discussed reaching a deal on a spending bill to avert a government shutdown on Dec. 11.
“We had a good conversation,” McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, said after his discussion with Pelosi.
The talks — their first since the Nov. 3 election — came shortly after a growing number of lawmakers have rallied behind a $908 billion bipartisan spending bill that would aim to buttress parts of the economy over the next several months. While some of these lawmakers stopped short of endorsing every part of the proposal, many said the offer was solid enough that it should be used as the basis for negotiations, a sentiment that Pelosi, Democrat of California, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, expressed on Wednesday.
Senators Joni Ernst, Republican of Iowa; Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa; Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina; John Cornyn, Republican of Texas; and Kevin Cramer, Republican of North Dakota, signaled their openness to the package, which had been unveiled by a group of moderate Republican and Democratic senators on Tuesday. The measure is more than what Senate Republicans had originally offered but less than what House Democrats had wanted, but it is designed to try and provide immediate relief to some parts of the economy as the pandemic enters a dangerous and increasingly deadly phase.
So when does the bioweapon get released?
Graham said he’s “never been more hopeful that we’ll get a bill ... the $908 billion bill, that’s the one I support.” He said he had talked to President Trump about the measure “extensively.”
The two top congressional Democrats — Pelosi and Schumer — on Wednesday called the bipartisan offer an appropriate basis for stimulus negotiations, a significant retreat from their previous demands for a much large stimulus package. President-elect Joe Biden has also urged lawmakers to come together on an interim deal during the lame duck session of Congress.
Trump on Thursday also backed quick approval of a stimulus package. A White House spokesman clarified that Trump was speaking in support of the narrow measure introduced by McConnell, not the bipartisan stimulus plan.
“I think we are getting very close. I want it to happen,” Trump told reporters.
On Thursday, Ernst and Cornyn expressed measured support for the developing talks. Ernst, a member of the Senate Republican leadership team, did not dismiss the viability of the $908 billion framework despite expressing concerns about some of its policy provisions. Cornyn also said senior Democrats’ embrace of the bipartisan plan “represents progress.”
“I think it’s moving in the right direction,” Cornyn said, adding he remained concerned about the structure of state and local funding.
Grassley, the chair of the Senate finance committee, also signaled he’d be willing to accept the bipartisan framework if the details are right. “It’s a little high for me but more important for me are the things that are in it, and if everything in it has bipartisan support ... the figure might not be the biggest thing,” he said.
Although there has been a sudden burst of bipartisan momentum for the package since Tuesday, it remains an incomplete legislative proposal that has not been drafted as a formal piece of legislation yet. Still, the rapid mobilization of support shows how lawmakers from both parties are trying to come up with a compromise quickly after months of inaction.
Because you-know-who is being ushered out the door after the election was stolen from him.
Coronavirus cases are surging across the US and concerns have intensified about the potential economic fall-out. Congress also faces a series of rapidly approaching economic deadlines, with aid programs for jobless Americans and renters set to expire before the end of the year.
With talks between congressional leaders stalled for months, a bipartisan group led by Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, unveiled the compromise measure on Tuesday aimed to restart negotiations. The plan would devote close to $300 billion in another round of small business aid; $160 billion for state and local governments; fund federal unemployment benefits at $300 per week; and devote tens of billions of dollars to other priorities, such as child care, hunger, and vaccine distribution.
It also includes a temporary liability shield to insulate firms and other entities from coronavirus-related lawsuits, a measure Democrats strongly oppose, although lawmakers were still hashing out details of that policy and others. The bipartisan proposal would not, however, include a new round of stimulus checks.
That means big bu$ine$$ will have legal immunity forever!
In a floor speech on Thursday morning, McConnell did not reveal his position on the bipartisan framework, but called for lawmakers to swiftly approve additional economic aid. McConnell on Wednesday circulated a separate plan that broke sharply with key Democratic priorities and proposed no additional spending on supplemental federal unemployment benefits.
“Compromise is within reach. We know where we agree. We can do this,” McConnell said.
Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discussed approving the government spending package and a coronavirus stimulus bill “as soon as possible,” a Pelosi spokesman said on twitter.
Pelosi expressed optimism a spending deal could be reached by Dec. 11: “We’ll have an agreement. I don’t know when.”
Because Wall Street needs more trillions.
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The co-lead, located below and to the left:
"Trump is silent on record virus deaths as he fumes over loss" December 3, 2020
President Trump is keeping largely silent about a surge in US coronavirus infections, hospitalizations, and deaths over the past week, instead focusing on unfounded claims that his November loss to Joe Biden was fraudulent.
They are not unfounded at all despite what the lying $hitbag pre$$ says.
A record 2,836 Americans died from the virus on Wednesday, data compiled by Bloomberg show, and the 205,000 new cases recorded in the United States nearly matched the record set five days earlier. Current hospitalizations from the virus topped 100,000 for the first time.
I'm sick of out of context numbers being hollered from a disingenuous and duplicitous pre$$, sorry.
While Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for scientific advances toward a coronavirus vaccine, he has mostly stayed out of the public eye since his election defeat.
He spoke to the press in the Oval Office on Thursday while awarding the Medal of Freedom to football coach Lou Holtz. The room was crowded, and very few staff and guests wore masks.
Oh, God, we are going to miss him if he is forced to leave.
The COVID tyranny will never end.
Trump made no mention of the pandemic but did take a moment to complain about his attorney general, William Barr, who this week said the Justice Department hadn’t seen evidence to support the president’s claims of widespread voter fraud.
I don't blame him one bit!
Justice Department officials “haven’t looked very hard, which is a disappointment to be honest with you, because it’s massive fraud,” Trump said.
Trump declined Thursday to say whether he still has confidence in Barr. ’'Ask me that in a number of weeks from now,’' Trump told reporters. ’'They should be looking at all of this fraud. . . . This is very bad criminal fraud.’'
Asked about Barr’s statements in an Associated Press interview, Trump said: ’'He hasn’t done anything. He hasn’t looked. . . . They haven’t looked very hard, which is a disappointment, to be honest with you.’'
Trump is now realizing just how deep the $wamp is, and is coming face-to-face with the raw power of the Deep $tate e$tabli$hment.
Trump remains livid at Barr, with one senior administration official indicating that Barr could be fired — not just for his public comments undercutting Trump’s unfounded claims of election-shifting fraud, but also for steps he did not take on a probe of the FBI’s 2016 investigation into Trump’s campaign. The person said several people are trying to persuade the president not to do so. Like others, the official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
It would be too little, too late, and it is telling that he hasn't fired Bloody Gina over at the CIA (we all know they integral to the election steal, as they brought what they do abroad home with Hammer and Scorecard).
On Wednesday, people familiar with the matter said Trump continued to complain about his attorney general, citing his comments from a day earlier that Barr had ’'not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election,’' among other matters.
Holtz, who was born in 1937, called Trump “the greatest president in my lifetime.”
Well, Lou is a little goofy, right?
Trump and his administration have made no visible efforts to curb the growth in virus cases, and the president continues to scorn public health precautions. Along with Trump’s refusal to advocate masks, the White House plans to host numerous indoor holiday receptions and parties this month as public health authorities urge ordinary Americans to avoid or limit gatherings.
That's because the testing is going through the ceiling, with 97% of the cases resulting in false positive for non-infectious people, and I'm sick of repeating myself.
On Wednesday in a briefing for reporters, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany criticized lockdown measures in some parts of the country.
“The president stands with you, your freedom, your ability to decide how to best protect your health. We all know how to protect ourselves from COVID-19: wash your hands, socially distance, wear a mask,” said McEnany, whose husband attended the briefing without wearing a mask, “but as one federal court put it, ‘There is no pandemic exception to the Constitution.’ ”
Later Wednesday, Trump released a 46-minute video in which he recycled a series of unsubstantiated allegations of widespread voter fraud in key states. He offered no new evidence to support his argument that the election results should be overturned.
It was the most important speech he ever made and the pre$$ buries it in the second-to-last print paragraph as they ignore the statistical impossibilities in Biden's alleged win.
The United States now routinely registers more than 100,000 cases a day — a level unseen as of a month ago — and has twice topped 200,000. More than 273,900 people have died from the virus in the United States, which leads the world in both recorded cases and deaths.
Vice President Mike Pence, who chairs the administration’s coronavirus task force, acknowledged at an event Thursday in Tennessee that “with cases rising across the country, we’re still going through a challenging time,” but he heralded vaccine distribution — which he said was “just a matter of days away” — as a signal that the nation’s fortunes were turning. “Help is on the way,” Pence said.
I can't tell you how disappointed I am to read that, and he of all people should know about the Mark of the Bea$t.
Health officials have warned, though, that a vaccine isn’t a silver bullet and that people will need to continue to take preventive steps, such as wearing masks.
Then you can STICK your vaccine, you sick f**ks!
“If you’re fighting a battle and the cavalry is on the on the way, you don’t stop shooting,” Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a Nov. 19 press briefing — the last time Trump’s coronavirus task force held such an event. “You keep going until the cavalry gets here and then you might even want to continue fighting.”
He says that after a 2008 paper he authored that proved masks caused bacterial pneumonia and the majority of deaths during the "Spanish Flu" epidemic.
What a lying little weasel, and the Wa$hington Compo$t reports that he will stay on in new administration.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield said Thursday that while the vaccine is a “game changer,” Americans needed to continue practicing precautions such as social distancing and only gathering outdoors. He said masks offered “an exceptional defense against COVID.”
Someone write that f**ker a letter.
Fauci was due to meet with members of Biden’s transition team on Thursday afternoon, a person familiar with the matter said. Biden has made the coronavirus response a pillar of his candidacy and his transition, but there’s little he can do before his inauguration beyond imploring Americans to wear masks.
He would have done no different than Trump other than to let China still fly here.
McEnany was asked Wednesday why the president has made no public comments about the latest surge.
“He gave a press conference about two weeks ago, I believe, on the vaccine, which he has done at warp speed because he’s torn down bureaucratic barriers,” she said. “The work he’s done speaks for itself.”
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Related:
The "not credible" Wa$hington Compo$t claims she loudly insisted, without proof, that tens of thousands of votes had been counted twice.
Yup, was the cleanest election ever thanks to US Cyber Command!
"US cyberforce was deployed to Estonia to hunt for Russian hackers; Operation ahead of November election was part of stepped-up efforts by the military to stop Moscow’s interference in domestic politics" by Julian E. Barnes New York Times, December 3, 2020
WASHINGTON — The United States deployed operatives to Estonia in the weeks before the November election to learn more about defending against Russian hackers as part of a broader effort to hunt down foreign cyberattacks, US and Estonian officials said.
Estonian officials believe the growing cooperation with the United States will be an important deterrent to any attacks by neighboring Russia, while US officials have used the collaboration to help bolster their election defenses.
Estonia has one of the more sophisticated network defenses in Europe, offering US military personnel a chance to work with specialists with experience discovering and defending against Russian attacks. US officials also deployed such teams during the midterm elections in 2018, but previous deployments have been to countries with relatively undeveloped digital defenses.
The deployment in Estonia allowed US Cyber Command, which runs the military’s offensive and defensive operations online, to broadly observe Russian techniques in Estonia and compare them with Moscow’s tactics used in the United States, said Brigadier General William J. Hartman, the commander of the Cyber National Mission Force.
Estonian officials said Russia did not attack its military networks while the US team was deployed there, from Sept. 23 to Nov. 6.
If you like fiction, this is great stuff.
US officials have previously noted that they have expanded the number of teams of specialists from Cyber Command that they have sent overseas, but they identified only broad regions, not specific countries. The teams generally comprise more than a dozen operatives, officials said.
On several of those deployments, US operatives identified new kinds of malware used by Russia that the US government then released publicly, blunting their effectiveness, according to defense officials.
No foreign power was able to disrupt the American vote, either by hacking into election systems or spreading vast amounts of disinformation. That was partly because of increased federal help protecting state and local government networks, and partly because of more aggressive Cyber Command operations.
The New York Times is basically a mouthpiece for the CIA and Deep $tate these days, which is why it reads like laughable shit.
Military officials now see election defense as a core mission that requires constant efforts to learn what foreign powers may be attempting. Officials said the overseas deployments to places like Estonia are critical to the surveillance of Russian hackers.
Sure looks like a MILITARY DICTATORSHIP to me, and aren't stolen and fraudulent elections what they do?
That's what my pre$$ has told me for decades!
Estonian officials believe their aggressive actions have helped deter Russian attacks, and the expanding partnership with the United States is also reinforcing that deterrence.
Thankfully, that was where my print cut it off.
Estonian officials said Russians used to use their country to test new and different attacks, both hacking operations and attempts to spread disinformation.
That changed in recent years. As Estonia has become more aggressive at sharing information about Russian tactics, Moscow has shifted its focus to other countries to preserve the effectiveness of its arsenal of exploits and malware, Estonian officials said.
“If we discover the malicious activity and we share it with the world, our partners, then attacking is more expensive,” said Mihkel Tikk, the deputy head of the Estonian Defense Forces’ Cyber Command, “so the adversary has to start making decisions and making choices about who they attack.”
Estonian officials are eager for more deployments of US operatives, or even a permanent detachment from US Cyber Command to be stationed in the country. Russia has long aimed cyberattacks at Estonia and other neighboring countries.
US officials said they plan to continue the short-term deployments of teams around the world.
The operations are important in helping to control escalation with adversaries, said Thomas C. Wingfield, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy. When the United States can find ways to make cyberattacks and cyberoperations by adversaries like Russia and China less effective and more expensive, it will prevent those countries from escalating their attacks, he said.
“Inaction in cyberspace contributes to escalation, more than reasonable action in cyberspace,” Wingfield said. “States like Russia and China are deriving significant strategic gains from what we consider to be aggressive, irresponsible, and destabilizing cyberactivity that is relatively cheap and easy for them to perpetrate.”
If you are looking to set up WWIII, we gonna lose it.
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Who will be calling the shots by then?
"Kamala Harris names chief of staff, other key positions" by Chelsea Janes Washington Post, December 3, 2020
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will name Tina Flournoy chief of staff, the transition team announced Thursday, tapping a trailblazer with decades of Washington experience to help run the vice presidential operation.
Harris’s longtime aide Rohini Kosoglu will serve as domestic policy adviser, and former ambassador to Bulgaria, Nancy McEldowney, will advise her on national security.
Flournoy had been serving as chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton, hovering out of the direct Washington spotlight for a few years after serving in several prominent roles in the Democratic party throughout the 1990s and 2000s.
She served as deputy campaign manager to the 1992 Clinton transition, general counsel to the 1992 Democratic National Convention, finance director to Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, traveling chief of staff to 2000 vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman, and more.
She is one of a group of pioneering Black women, including Donna Brazile, the Rev. Leah Daughtry, and others, with long resumes at the highest levels of Democratic politics who coalesced as advisers to the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s campaign in the 1980s and have referred to themselves as ’'the Colored Girls’' ever since. More than one of them has played a major role in pushing the Biden administration to appoint Black women to key positions in recent weeks.
Former Hillary Clinton adviser Minyon Moore, has emerged as something of a gatekeeper in the Biden transition, serving as a point of contact for Black organizers and helping usher women of color into key roles in Harris’s office and beyond.
We all knew it was the Clinton-Obama crime cabal behind him, and hell, he is part of the corrupt crime ring.
Earlier this week, the transition team announced that two more Black women, Symone Sanders and Ashley Etienne, would serve as Harris’s spokeswoman and communications director, respectively. Sanders was courted by more than a handful of top Democrats as they launched presidential campaigns last year, and her pairing with Harris gives the vice president-elect (and potential 2024 hopeful) one of the party’s more prominent, up-and-coming media envoys. Etienne served as a trusted adviser to both President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and she has established a reputation as a savvy behind-the-scenes operator.
The $wamp $tench is overwhelming and unbearable.
Adding Flournoy to an office including Etienne and Sanders signals a desire to surround Harris with Washington experience. Well-connected among California’s political powerbrokers and hardened by the state’s rough-and-tumble Democratic politics, Harris is still relatively new to Washington. She had served about three years in the Senate when she joined the Democratic ticket, and she lacks the sprawling Washington roots that people such as Biden had cultivated over decades.
Those close to Harris expected her former Senate and campaign chief of staff Kosoglu to take a major role in the office of the vice president, and she will do so as Harris’s primary policy adviser. Kosoglu became Harris’s deputy chief of staff when Harris first joined the Senate in 2016 and has moved up the ranks of Harris’s inner circle in the years since.
That circle has remained small as Harris, who aides have described as slow to trust, has jumped from fresh-faced senator to vice president-elect. She will now be surrounded by operatives with lengthy Washington tenures, but little history with Harris herself.
Flournoy, Sanders, Etienne, and others will now help Harris navigate what will likely be one of the more high-profile vice presidencies in recent history.
Activists from a variety of communities that have never been represented in that executive office hope she will use the job differently than many of her predecessors who served more as team players than agents of change. Women, Black leaders, and many others all see the potential for Harris to break away from destructive norms at the highest levels of government.
She buried exculpatory evidence regarding sex abuse and other crimes she prosecuted during her term as Cal AG, so..... sigh.
She will also be inaugurated as the understudy to a 79-year-old president who described himself as a ’'transitional’' figure, cast by Republicans as the Democrats’ heir apparent to the presidential throne.
Did they just crown her queen?
She is an early front-runner for the 2024 Democratic nomination should Biden opt out of a second term, making her conduct in the vice presidency crucial to remodeling her national brand.
Yeah, it's all a SALES JOB, folks.
Still, Biden allies will expect her to be loyal to the man who chose her as his running mate, all of which combines to place Harris at the nexus of several cross-currents through which even the most experienced DC operatives have rarely had to paddle. In Flournoy, Etienne, Sanders, and the rest, Harris has surrounded herself with a multigenerational cohort of prominent Democratic operatives who paved the way for Black women in politics and will now advise Harris, who will become the most powerful Black woman in American history when she is inaugurated in January.
So much for the $y$temic $exism and racism, huh?
--more--"
The Globe is of the opinion that Trump is losing the battle with reality in a fatal collision with the truth as the CDC warns that between 9,500 and 19,500 Americans could die of COVID-19 during Christmas week, according to the Wa$hington Compo$t, and the New York Times denounces protesters of a Staten Island bar’s closing.
Also see:
It could be Trump’s last addition to the central bank, says the Wa$hington Compo$t.
Related:
"U.S. stock indexes closed mostly higher on Thursday after a late stumble pulled the S&P 500 just short of its third straight all-time high. The benchmark index slipped 0.1% after spending much of the day higher. It’s on track for its second weekly gain as Wall Street continues to coast following its rocket ride last month powered by hopes for coming COVID-19 vaccines. The Nasdaq composite set a record high for the second straight day. Two reports on the economy that were better than expected helped support stocks. One showed that growth in the U.S. service sector, including health care and retail, was slightly stronger last month than economists expected. A separate report said fewer U.S. workers filed for unemployment benefits last week than forecast, though economists cautioned that the number may have been distorted by the Thanksgiving holiday. Investors have also been encouraged this week by signs that Democrats and Republicans in Washington may get past their bitter partisanship to reach a deal to provide more financial support for the economy......"
It's the latest sign that the U.S. economy and job market remain under stress.
