‘US leadership has been sorely missed.’ Trudeau, Biden seek to repair alliance in first meeting
President Joe Biden held a virtual tête-à-tête with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday – his first bilateral meeting – focused on the response to COVID-19, economic cooperation and other shared interests among the two close allies.
In a brief statement afterwards, Biden called the meeting “very productive,” and said he and Trudeau agreed to work closely together on a wide range of issues, including the pandemic, the economic recovery and climate change.
He said the U.S. and Canada would launch a joint initiative to meet a goal of net-zero carbon emissions by the year 2050, agreeing to “double down” on climate change commitments “to spur other countries to raise their own ambitions.”
Biden also promised to take up an urgent Canadian priority: seeking the release of two Canadian men held in China, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. Chinese officials detained the two men last year in an apparent effort to pressure Canada to release a top executive of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou.
“The United States has no closer friend than Canada,” Biden said. “That’s why you were my first call as president, my first bilateral meeting.”
Trudeau thanked Biden for “stepping up in such a big way on tackling climate change.”
“U.S. leadership has been sorely missed over the past years,” he said.” via USA Today
Angry’s Thoughts: I don’t think it can be summed up any better than Trudeau’s closing statement. We haven’t been the “shining city on a hill” in quite some time, but maybe – just maybe – we can get back there.
FBI alert about possible ‘war’ against Congress reached D.C. and Capitol Police on eve of attack, deepening security questions
“Around 7 p.m. on Jan. 5, less than 24 hours before an angry mob overran the U.S. Capitol, an FBI bulletin warning that extremists were calling for violent attacks on Congress landed in an email inbox used by the D.C. police Department. That same evening, a member of the Capitol Police received the same memo.
But the alert was not flagged for top officials at either agency, according to congressional testimony Tuesday — deepening questions about the breakdowns that contributed to massive security failures on Jan. 6.
Both acting D.C. police chief Robert J. Contee III and former Capitol Police chief Steven Sund said the intelligence community at large failed to detect key information about the intentions of the attackers and adequately communicate what was known in the run-up to the Capitol riot.
“I would certainly think that something as violent as an insurrection at the Capitol would warrant a phone call or something,” Contee told lawmakers.
Sund cast the Capitol Police as a “consumer” of intelligence from 18 federal agencies.” via The Washington Post
Angry’s Thoughts: I agree with Sund here. If it’s true that they only received an email, that’s asinine.
“I hope this finds you well. We should do drinks soon! Oh! Almost forgot, a large, angry mob incited by the President’s irresponsible rhetoric might be planning to declare war on Congress tomorrow. Cheers!”
I mean, honestly, the entire premise that information that important was only sent via email and not immediately followed up on is borderline criminal.
On the other hand, the Capitol Police blaming this entirely on the IC is also asinine – there was plenty of open-source information that told us all exactly what this mob had planned. This was a multi-faceted failure and needs to be treated as such.
Johnson & Johnson to fall short of promised vaccine doses
“Johnson & Johnson expects to fall far short of its commitment to deliver 10 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine by the end of February, with under 4 million to be ready to ship after a hoped-for emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.
The disclosure of the shortfall by Johnson & Johnson is the first public measure of exactly how far the drug company has fallen behind its production goals. Johnson & Johnson promised to deliver another 25 million by the end of March.
“We will have 20 million doses of the vaccine to be made available by the end of March and we’re prepared to ship, immediately upon emergency use authorization, nearly 4 million doses of our vaccine,” Dr. Richard Nettles, Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Janssen’s vice president of medical affairs, told a House Energy & Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday.”
Angry’s Thoughts: What ever happened to under-promising and overdelivering? Everyone seems to have it backwards lately.
To be clear, this is still a mammoth amount of vaccine that will be available by the end of March. It would just be better to have accurate information from the beginning.
QAnon Shaman Wants Out of Jail; Says the Government Lied About His Flagpole and Finial
“Jacob Chansley, the pro-Trump Jan. 6 rioter dubbed the “QAnon Shaman,” wants out of jail. In service of that effort, defense attorney Albert Watkins enlisted the words of American master Mark Twain. Or, at least, a phrase commonly attributed to née Samuel Clemens.
A lie can travel around the world and back again while the truth is putting on its shoes,” the first line of Chansley’s 27-page (74 pages inclusive of exhibits) pretrial release motion philosophizes.
According to the filing, which was submitted with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday afternoon, the “lie” in question is a “miccharacterization” of a “flagpole” that was in Chansley’s possession during the attack on the U.S. Capitol Complex.
When originally subjected to a detention hearing by a magistrate judge in Arizona on Jan. 15, the government argued that Chansley used a “dangerous weapon.” According to the defense, the government’s argument “required characterization of the flagpole held by [Chansley]” on Jan. 6 as a “spear.”
The defense insists the government got that assessment all wrong.
“Since the original detention hearing, interaction by the defendant’s counsel with the Department of Justice, by and through its Assistant U.S. attorney, has made clear that the flag carried by the defendant on January 6, 2021, was adorned with a finial,” the motion argues.
A finial is an ornament that’s typically at the top, bottom or corner of another object. In other words: the defense claims that Chansley did not have a weapon, he just had a flagpole with a bauble.” via Law and Crime
Angry’s Thoughts: He also asked to get out because the organic food he’s being given caused “digestive issues.” Seriously.
With all due respect to his defense, I don’t really give a damn if prison food made his tummy hurt, and he can say whatever he wants about the “flagpole” but that was a damn spear.
Maybe consider your special dietary requirements before you storm the Capitol next time.
Ron Johnson just dropped a ridiculous conspiracy theory at the Senate Capitol attack hearing
“Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson has carved out quite a niche for himself in recent weeks: He’s the guy willing to push wild conspiracy theories about what happened before, during and after the January 6 riot at the US Capitol.
Johnson has previously suggested that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (California) impeached former President Donald Trump over his role in the riot as a way to cover up her own malfeasance on that day — although he’s never actually explained what Pelosi did wrong. And Johnson said last week that he didn’t believe that what happened at the Capitol was an “armed insurrection,” despite ample evidence that it was.
It shouldn’t surprise you one bit, then, that Johnson used his time in the first public Senate hearing on the Capitol attack to spread a single eyewitness account suggesting that there were professional provocateurs seeded in the crowd on January 6 that led the largely peaceful gathering to turn violent.
Johnson read excerpts from a piece by J. Michael Waller, which ran in The Federalist on January 14. (Waller works at the Center for Security Policy, a controversial think tank that has been accused of Islamophobia.)
In it, Waller claimed that “a small number of cadre appeared to use the cover of a huge rally to stage its attack,” suggesting that these “agents-provocateurs” were a) not Trump supporters and b) were primarily responsible for the violent storming of the Capitol.” via CNN
Angry’s Thoughts: Ron Johnson (Q-Moscow) is really getting on my nerves lately. He knows he’s lying – he’s personally seen the insurrectionists saying under oath that they were at the Capitol at Trump’s urging and that they believed the election was stolen.
It’s really incredible to me how many people are willing to utterly debase themselves for a twice-impeached, disgraced former President.
‘Bad politics for them’: GOP sneers at Dem Covid bill
“Republicans are making a risky but calculated bet: that voters won’t punish them for opposing a popular $1.9 trillion coronavirus bill.
With President Joe Biden and Democrats barely even seeking their input, Republicans are now gambling that there will be more backlash over schools staying closed, the Covid bill’s massive price tag and a partisan process. And with the GOP closing ranks to oppose the aid package, it could become the first pandemic relief plan that garners zero support from Republicans — following a year with five bipartisan bills and more than$3 trillion spent on fighting the virus.
“If it’s in its current contours, it’s hard to see many, if any, Republicans being for it,” said Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.).
Instead, Republicans are comfortable foisting blame on Biden for shutting them out of the legislative process and hammering Democrats over the slow pace of school reopenings across the country — an issue they think will become a potent political weapon, particularly in key suburban battlegrounds.” via Politico
Angry’s Thoughts: This bill has more bipartisan support than literally any Republican who is going to vote against it. That’s some pretty risky political calculus on their part.
U.S. Vaccine Production and Supply Increase After Snowstorms Caused Delays
“The White House said on Tuesday that weekly shipments of coronavirus vaccines to the states would rise by one million doses to 14.5 million, as vaccine manufacturers continue to ramp up production.
The figure was provided to governors in a call with Jeffrey Zeints, the president’s coronavirus response coordinator, said Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, on Tuesday. With tens of millions of eligible Americans waiting to get shots, state officials have been clamoring for more vaccine, saying health practitioners could easily double or triple the number of shots they are administering.
Ms. Psaki said the increase was the fifth boost in distribution in five weeks, and said it came just short of doubling the vaccine shipments underway at the time Mr. Biden took office on Jan. 20.” via The New York Times
Angry’s Thoughts: The snowstorm understandably caused delays with inoculations last week, but as of today, the United States has administered over 65 million doses. With the expected ramp-up next week–and Johnson and Johnson’s emergency use authorization looking likely–this is great news all around. The more vaccines we can get in arms now — while cases are declining across the board — the better the next wave will be.
