The last man standing

Dr. Anthony Fauci confirmed today that he has accepted President-elect Joe Biden's offer to become his chief medical adviser and to stay on as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases—a position he has held since 1984 across six administrations. Fauci also praised Biden's proposal for all Americans to wear face masks for the first 100 days of his incoming administration. Biden announced the proposal yesterday, saying he would ask Americans to cover their faces in public for "just 100 days … not forever." He predicted that widespread adoption of the personal mitigation measure would result in a "significant reduction" in COVID-19 caseloads. —Politico

• — Probably should have listened to Fauci. The story of the coronavirus in Iowa is one of government inaction in the name of freedom. Gov. Kim Reynolds never imposed a full stay-at-home order for the state and allowed bars and restaurants to open much earlier than in other states. She didn't impose a mask mandate until this month and has publicly questioned the science behind wearing masks at all. Throughout November, Iowa vacillated between 1,700 and 5,500 cases every day, and this week, the state's test-positivity rate reached an astounding 50%. —The Atlantic
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• — California will lock down again. California is paying attention. The first state to tell residents to stay home to fight the coronavirus pandemic is about to do it again. With cases soaring, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he will impose shelter-at-home orders on a regional basis once hospitals start running short of intensive-care capacity. Four of the state's five areas may hit the threshold within a day or two, he said at a briefing yesterday. "The bottom line is if we don't act now, our hospital system will be overwhelmed," he said. —Bloomberg
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• — Churches may be exempt. The U.S. Supreme Court told California judges yesterday to take another hard look at state pandemic rules that ban most indoor worship services in California. Last week, the justices in a 5-4 decision lifted tight restrictions on churches and synagogues in New York City, saying they violated the 1st Amendment. Rather than issuing a separate decision in California, the high court issued an order telling federal judges in the Los Angeles area to reconsider the state's restrictions on worship services. —The Los Angeles Times

The high price of White House loyalty

The president is not pleased with his attorney general right now. Long one of Trump's most faithful officials, Bill Barr is not supporting Donald Trump's claims of massive fraud in the election, stating earlier this week that the Justice Department has uncovered no evidence of fraud that would change the election outcome. Trump and Barr then had a lengthy and "contentious" meeting in the West Wing, during which the president reportedly erupted at Barr. Questioned by a reporter about Barr yesterday, Trump wouldn't say whether he has confidence in him. "Ask me that in a number of weeks from now," he said after a long pause. —CNN

• — Georgia. Georgia Republicans find themselves in a bit of a conundrum. On one hand, Trump is insisting that the state's electoral system is rigged—with the help of Republican state officials—but on the other hand, the party has two runoff races it wants to win in January to maintain GOP control of the Senate. To vote or not to vote? Further, Trump is traveling to the state this weekend, ostensibly to campaign for incumbent Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. But the rally could also be the first of a possible 2024 comeback bid. Stay tuned... —NPR
  
  — Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court yesterday refused to halt its previous ruling rejecting a last-ditch Republican bid to prevent further action on the certification of the 2020 election results in the state. Gov. Tom Wolf certified President-elect Joe Biden's win early last week. Still, GOP challengers filed an emergency injunction request to the U.S. Supreme Court before filing a more formal appeal request to the justices. —The Hill
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• — Wisconsin. Also yesterday, the state Supreme Court in Wisconsin rejected a request by Trump to revoke the certification of his loss to Biden. The 4-3 decision left room for Trump to bring a new challenge to the election results and the president quickly did so. But the high court's ruling provided a serious setback for him because even some of the dissenting justices signaled they do not support Trump's call for throwing out hundreds of thousands of ballots. —Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Shepard: Trump's claims recall 2014 Afghanistan election

"'Calling an election unfair does not make it so,' as federal appeals court Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote last week in his decision handing Trump another legal defeat in his futile effort to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 win. But what Trump and [Afghan politician Abdullah] Abdullah's claims do is sow doubt about the underpinnings of free and fair elections. The only difference is that Abdullah probably had a stronger case than the United States president, given long-standing corruption in Afghanistan." —Alicia Shepard in USA Today

Alicia Shepard was an election monitor during the 2014 Afghan presidential election, which involved accusations of fraud, recounts, and threats of violence.

MORE: Constanze Stelzenmuller: The West must live up to its own principles on democracy —Financial Times

DOJ sues Facebook

Following a two-year investigation, the Justice Department sued Facebook yesterday, accusing it of being un-American by intentionally favoring H1-B visa-holders and other temporary immigrant workers over U.S. workers. According to its complaint, the department's civil rights division alleges that Facebook "refused to recruit, consider, or hire qualified and available U.S. workers" for more than 2,600 positions, with an average salary of $156,000.

• — President Trump has been a vocal critic of temporary worker visas. In October, his administration announced new rules for the H1-B program, substantially raising the wages that U.S. companies must pay foreign hires and narrowing eligibility criteria for applicants.
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• — The DOJ found that between Jan. 1 and Sept. 18 last year, Facebook routinely put H1-B and other immigrant temporary workers on a track for permanent employment that was not available to U.S. citizens. The company also used less effective methods to advertise jobs to U.S. workers, including declining to promote the positions on Facebook.com/careers.
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• — Though the hires make up only about 5% of Facebook's total workforce of 50,000 employees, the DOJ says Facebook violated federal labor laws that require employers to make permanent employment opportunities as easily available to U.S. workers as they are to foreign visa-holders. —The New York Times

The Economist: What to do about Iran

"Biden should demand that [Iran] forswears long-range rocket launches and the transfer of missiles to regional proxies. In return he could gradually ease Iran's economic pain and throw in sweeteners, such as access to dollars and more civilian nuclear co-operation. There are steps Biden can take in the meantime to lower tensions with Iran, such as lifting Trump's more symbolic sanctions. But he should drive a hard bargain with the mullahs. He is in a position to negotiate a broader, longer-lasting deal with Iran. He should take advantage of it." —The Economist

MORE: After nuclear scientist's brazen killing, Iran is torn over a response—restraint or fury? —The Washington Post

Around the world

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, a fierce Trump loyalist, warned in a Wall Street Journal op-ed yesterday that the U.S. needs to take more seriously the threat China poses "economically, militarily, and technologically," and redirect more resources to combating it. The Trump Administration has ratcheted up pressure on China in recent weeks, using economic, diplomatic, intelligence. and military tools, in an apparent attempt to prevent the incoming Biden Administration from resetting President Trump's Beijing policies. —U.S. News & World Report

• — Australia and China try to mend fences. A diplomatic war of words between the two trade partners seems to be cooling down. Earlier this week, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison demanded an apology from China for a tweet posted by a Chinese official that showed a fake image of a grinning Australian soldier holding a bloodied knife to a child's throat—taking aim at alleged killings and abuses by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. China refused. Yesterday, Morrison took a different approach, telling reporters his aim was for the two countries to have a "happy coexistence." —Associated Press
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• — Dissident remains imprisoned in Hong Kong. Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai was charged with fraud and denied bail yesterday, ensuring that one of the region's loudest pro-democracy voices will be behind bars until his next hearing in April. The decision sidelines one of the most prominent critics of the Hong Kong government and its backers in Beijing. The founder of the media company Next Digital, Lai is best known for publishing Apple Daily, a popular tabloid openly critical of the Chinese Communist Party. —NPR
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• — The UAE and Israel's honeymoon. The process of normalization between Israel and the United Arab Emirates has "blossomed," according to U.S. officials. It is being pursued so quickly and with such enthusiasm, that the UAE appears to have dropped any effective objections to Israel's occupation of Palestinian lands—once a point of unanimity in the Arab world. With self-interest beating out old alliances and causes, Trump's foreign policy approach has apparently found fertile ground in the Gulf. —CNN

Livingston & Bennett: Will GOP continue down illiberal path?

"Liberal democracies limit the power of rulers and protect individual rights through rule of law and the practice of democratic norms by authoritative institutions. Illiberal democracies emerge when autocrats reach office through nominally democratic means and dismantle apolitical civil services, independent media, and impartial judiciaries. Conspiracy theories and disinformation fill the remaining epistemological void, violating shared norms for settling differences and rewriting the narratives about who we are as a nation." —Steven Livingston & W. Lance Bennett in The Boston Globe

Steven Livingston is a professor and the founding director of the Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics at George Washington University. W. Lance Bennett is a professor of political science at the University of Washington. They are co-editors of "The Disinformation Age: Politics, Technology, and Disruptive Communication in the United States."

MORE: Fareed Zakaria: Trump shows that we need to reform U.S. democracy —The Washington Post

A mom away from mom

When Nanci Bramson's daughter Sabrina tested positive for the coronavirus while far away at school in Michigan, it threw a fright into the Washington, D.C., resident. But thanks to a group of parents who came together to help support University of Michigan students in Ann Arbor while they are sick or quarantining, Bramson was able to sleep at night.

• — Known as the "aMAIZEing Blue Crew"—a nod to the school's colors—the group was started by Sherry Levine of Rye Brook, N.Y., who's also the mother of a Michigan student. After she spread the word on social media, local volunteers stepped up to help ailing students by dropping off prescriptions, groceries, or supplies. Other parents donate money to offset costs.
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• — "Having a sick child when you're an out-of-state parent is the scariest thing," Levine said. "And it's also really scary for these students, who may be living on their own for the first time." Bramson agrees. When Sabrina was sick, "I knew that these people were surrogate parents to her," Bramson said. The help "just restored my faith in humanity a little bit."
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• — "It's turned into this sort of really cool network of parents who are kind of all in the same boat with college kids during a pandemic," says volunteer Erica Stowe, who helps monitor email requests and makes deliveries. "We're all just trying to do our best for our kids and for the school community." —Associated Press

Once again, there are news stories of people who refuse to wear masks in retail establishments, reacting with assaults (verbal and/or physical) and claims that they have a "right" to shop and not wear a mask. Really? I wish they'd explain where that "right" exists. I can assure those people—people who have never read the Constitution, for instance—that it is not in the Constitution. Yet these are the "law and order" folks, who prove they are not interested in law and order. They are only interested in their so-called "privilege." This is akin to someone who claims they have a right to smoke in your home though you ask them not to do so. Retailers are not government establishments; they can set their own rules. Abide by them, or take your business and your attitude somewhere else. —Bill T., Arizona

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