Monday News & Notes
JUNE 14, 2021 -- WARREN G. HARDING IS FIRST PRESIDENT BROADCAST ON RADIO, 1922
Today on the home page, read our preview of Thursday’s Braver Angels National Community Debate on the role of violence in our political system. The debate will be 8-10 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, June 17, 2021 on Zoom, and is free, but you must register in advance: https://braverangels.org/event/community-debate-national-debate-violence-in-the-political-process-ba-national-debates/
Biden Embraces NATO – Swiftly reversing the Trump administration’s attitude toward the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), President Biden arrived in Brussels from the G7 summit to embrace the 30-member nations’ efforts to counter an “aggressive” Russia and a “rising” China, The New York Times says.
Biden called the NATO alliance “critically important for U.S. interests,” after arriving from England, where he spent the last three days with fellow members of the G7 economic alliance, the U.K., the European Union, Germany, France, Italy and Japan.
The “Carbis Bay G7 Summit Communique” released yesterday describes Russia as exhibiting “destabilizing behavior and malign activities” and calls on China to “respect human rights and fundamental freedoms.” The G7 notes it will “strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo and increased tensions” in the East and South China Seas.
NATO Secretary Gen. Jens Stoltenberg notes that China’s military budget is second in the world to the U.S., and is rapidly building its military forces, including its Navy, with advanced technologies.
Biden will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.
Note: There’s an opportunity here for “traditional” Republicans to repudiate ex-President Trump’s isolationism by taking advantage of NATO’s warning about a high-tech Chinese Navy and push for some fresh U.S. military spending. How does “military infrastructure” sound? Anyway, look for neocon poster boy and former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton to pop up on cable news networks tonight.
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Biden, Suga Embrace Coal – The U.S. and Japan blocked a G7 proposal to set an end-date for use of coal as a power source at their summit last weekend in Cornwall, England, Politico reports. Why? Japan has shifted interests back to coal from nuclear power since the 2011 Fukishima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster. Consequently Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga is not in a position to oppose the fossil fuel. In the U.S., coal is still big in West Virginia, and West Virginia is represented in the U.S. Senate by Democrat Joe Manchin III and Republican Shelley Moore Capito.
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Netanyahu Pulls a Trump – We’d call it an “Arnold,” though former Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwartzenneger, a never-Trumper, might get upset. Benyamin Netanyahu vowed “I’ll be back” Sunday when the nation’s Knesset approved a new parliamentary government by a 60-59 vote that removes the hard-right leader after 12 years in office. During the last two years Netanyahu survived four elections despite being investigated in a bribery and fraud scheme. He didn’t make five.
Netanyahu has been replaced by a former ally and harder conservative, Neftali Bennett. Bennett serves as prime minister for two years of the coalition government, with liberal leader Yair Lapid as his foreign minister, Haaretz explains. Then, Lapid becomes PM and Bennett serves as his interior minister.
Note: President Biden reportedly called Bennett immediately Sunday after he was sworn in as Israeli PM, NPR says, and Biden’s cabinet members phoned their various counterparts in the Bennett cabinet. The Biden administration did not reach out as quickly last January to Netanyahu, who, along with former President Trump, strongly criticized the Obama administration’s nuclear arms deal with Iran – which Biden now hopes to reinstate. But America’s hard-right might be ready to move on from Netanyahu; Haaretz reports that Sen. Ted Cruz, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley “and other GOP leaders applaud Netanyahu for his achievements but bid welcome to the Bennett and Lapid government.”
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Apple Subpoenaed for McGahn Info by Trump DoJ — Apple received a subpoena from the U.S. Justice Department for the data of Don McGahn, former Trump White House counsel, in February 2018, according to The Washington Post. McGahn joins two House Democrats from California, Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, whose records were also sought that same month.
Note: Two things to keep in mind here. One is that the request for McGahn’s data could have come from the investigators working for Robert Mueller, not necessarily as a result of pressure from the Trump White House. The other is that it seems almost natural that the Trump White House would have been looking into even its own people, given the perceived levels of its use of the Department of Justice as its own investigative tool. Sad, but not surprising, that odds seem better it is the latter rather than the former.
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A Fourth Vaccine Proves Effective – A two-shot COVID-19 vaccine from Maryland biotech company Novovax has proven 90% effective in a 30,000-person trial in the U.S. and Mexico, The Washington Post reports, and could be approved for use next month. Novovax is expected to produce 100 million doses per month at the start.
“It is very important for the world’s population to have, yet again, another highly efficacious vaccine that looks good in its trial to have a good safety profile,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Immune Responses told the Post.
Note: As demand for COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. wanes now that much of the populous who believe in such vaccines have taken them, the Novovax medicine may become more important on a global scale. Last week, the G7 nations agreed to supply 1-billion full doses to the rest of the world, including 500 million already pledged by President Biden.
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