Early Warning

 It’s hard for anyone to sound the alarm about an upcoming potential coup without sounding like an alarmist, but writers in the next issue of The Atlantic are doing just that. 

Pulitzer Prize-journalist Barton Gellman with “Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun,” and National Book Award winner George Packer with “Are We Doomed?” lay out the case that Trump is poised for another Presidential run in 2024 and once again claim victory, regardless of the results, just as he did last year.

Trump lost the 2020 election and he’d probably lose again in 2024, but this time around, his party has eliminated the Constitutional barriers to reversing the result at the local level in key swing states.

Our democracy was saved in January 2021 when a handful of ethical county election officials in several of those states refused to bow to Trump’s pressure to decertify the legitimate results; and Vice-President Mike Pence, in perhaps the only principled moment of his career, refused to subvert the Electoral College vote.

It was only by the actions of these few Republican officials, therefore, that Trump’s first attempt at a coup ended in failure.

Still, there is something so strange and fantastical about talking about a “coup” in America that it’s difficult for me to use the word. But our election processes are vulnerable to subversion and that is exactly what Trump and his allies appear to be planning to do the next time around.

This wouldn’t be happening if not for the proliferation of disinformation promulgated by conspiracy theorists, i.e., that the 2020 election was “stolen” by Biden. That is a lie, of course, but it is by repeating such lies loudly and incessantly that the authoritarian forces have been able to seize power throughout history.

What can an honest, responsible citizen do about this? For now, perhaps our only option is to speak out — as loudly and repeatedly as possible.

Staying silent is not an option. Because not speaking out is choosing to stand by and allow American democracy to pass into the dustbin of history — on our watch.

I, for one, cannot and will not do that. 

TUESDAY’S HEADLINES:

• Seven days: Following Trump’s coronavirus trail — From the day of his first positive test until his hospitalization last year, the former president came in contact with more than 500 people in proximity to him or at crowded events, according to a Washington Post analysis. (WP)

• A Party, and Nation, in Crisis — The GOP’s leaders are ​​attempting to destroy the foundations of American democracy. (Atlantic)

• Inside the growing alliance between anti-vaccine activists and pro-Trump Republicans (NPR)

• Rep. Devin Nunes to leave Congress to become Trump media company CEO (WP)

• Trump’s Next Coup Has Already Begun — January 6 was practice. Donald Trump’s GOP is much better positioned to subvert the next election. (Atlantic)

• Are We Doomed? — To head off the next insurrection, we’ll need to practice envisioning the worst. (Atlantic)

• Top Pence aide cooperating with January 6 committee (CNN)

• Justice Dept. sues Texas over new voting maps, saying they discriminate against Latinos (WP)

• Police fired teargas and used water cannons to disperse protesters pelting officers with cobblestones and fireworks as a demonstration in Brussels over government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions turned violent. (Reuters)

• Trump Ally Sidney Powell’s nonprofit raised $14 million spreading falsehoods(WP)

• Stocks, Oil Rise on Hopes of Milder Covid Variant (WSJ)

• Dr. Anthony Fauci said "the signals are a bit encouraging" that the new omicron variant of the coronavirus doesn't have "a great degree of severity to it." But he and other health officials continued to urge Americans to remain vigilant and get vaccinated due to the variant's complexity in mutations. [HuffPost]

• U.S. coronavirus cases top 100,000 daily as delta remains dominant (WP)

• Next pandemic could be more lethal than COVID, vaccine creator says (Reuters)

• An examination of COVID-related American death data showed that the most strongly Republican counties had an October death rate six times higher than that of the most strongly Democratic, NPR reported. The single biggest factor in the difference was "misinformation" about COVID-19, which was linked to lower vaccination rates. [HuffPost]

• Pandemic stress weighs heavily on Gen Z: AP-NORC, MTV poll (AP)

• The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has spread to about one-third of U.S. states, but the Delta version remains the majority of COVID-19 infections as cases rise nationwide, U.S. health officials said. (Reuters)

• CNN fired anchor Chris Cuomo over the weekend, less than a week after documents revealed he was more involved than he previously revealed in helping his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, respond to sexual harassment allegations. Chris Cuomo also denied a new sexual misconduct allegation made against him. [HuffPost]

• ‘This is a disaster.’: Severity of learning lost to the pandemic comes into focus(Politico)

• On Syria’s Ruins, a Drug Empire Flourishes (NYT)

• VIDEO: Pope Francis Criticizes an ‘Era of Walls and Barbed Wire’ for Migrants(AP)

• China Increasingly Obscures True State of Its Economy to Outsiders (WSJ)

• President Joe Biden is set to announce a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing sometime this week amid ongoing criticism over the country’s human rights abuses, according to multiple reports. The move would mean athletes could compete as normal, but no American officials would attend the games. [HuffPost]

• China attacks potential US diplomatic boycott of Olympics (AP)

• French far-right presidential candidate Eric Zemmour promised a "reconquest" against decades of decline at his first political rally, as scuffles with anti-racism protesters broke out on its fringes. With echoes of Donald Trump's first campaign for U.S. president, Zemmour promised to slash immigration and taxes to cheers from flag-waving supporters. (Reuters)

• What’s Driving Putin’s Ukraine Brinkmanship? (NYT)

• An Afghan family tried for months to flee to California. Their journey has stalled — Less than half a percent of applications from Afghan nationals who have applied to resettle in the U.S. are accepted. (SFC)

• Russia said it was reinforcing its military base in Tajikistan with 30 new tanks and that its forces at the facility had carried out exercises with missile defence systems, highlighting Moscow's concern about turmoil in Afghanistan. (Reuters)

• All coral reefs in western Indian Ocean ‘at high risk of collapse in next 50 years’ (Guardian)

• California consumes half the oil from the Amazon rainforest. (NBC News)

• Myanmar sentences Aung San Suu Kyi to four years in prison (WP)

• Should Investors Ride Tech Founders to the Moon? (WSJ)

• Fortress Europe: the millions spent on military-grade tech to deter refugees(Guardian)

• How TikTok Reads Your Mind (NYT)

• Historic playoff: Alabama-Cincinnati, Michigan-Georgia (AP)

• Michigan Is Playoff Bound and Life Will Never Be the Same (WSJ)

• Every Ingredient In Recipe Substituted To Avoid Trip To Store (The Onion)

TUESDAY’S LYRICS

“Someday We'll Be Together”

The Supremes

Songwriters: Bristol Johnny William / Fuqua Harvey / Beavers Robert L

I say it, say it, say it, say it again
(Someday, we'll be together)
Oh, yeah, oh, yeah

You're far away from me my love
And just as sure my, my baby
As there are stars above
I wanna say, wanna say, wanna say

Yes we will, yes we will
(Say, someday, we'll be together) Some sweet day
I know, I know, I know, I know

My love is yours, baby
Oh, right from the start
You, you, you possess my soul now, honey
And I know, I know you own my heart
And I wanna say

Some sweet day
Oh, yes we will, yes we will
(Someday, we'll be together) Tell everybody
Yes we will, yes we will

Long time ago, my, my sweet thing
I made a big mistake, honey
I, I, I say, I said, goodbye
Oh, oh, baby, ever, ever, ever
Ever, ever and ever since that day
All I wanna do, all I wanna do was cry, cry, oh

Hey, hey, hey
I long for you every, every night
Ooh, just to kiss your sweet, sweet lips, baby
Hold you ever, ever so tight
And I wanna say

Someday we'll be together
Yes we will, yes we will
Someday we'll be together
Yes we will, yes we will
Someday we'll be together
Someday we'll be together
Yes we will, yes we will

Seaglass Culture

How do we fix a broken society?
 

Many years ago, I gathered seaglass from beaches around the Bay Area and got pretty good at recognizing the best tides for finding it.

One section of Ocean Beach just south of San Francisco yielded a steady harvest of the blue, green, brown and white gems, and there was another nice spot on one edge of Angel Island.

What I loved about seaglass was that it had been smoothed and polished by the waves, sand, sun — transformed into jewels from what had once been simple trash.

You could say that that is the way of all garbage, indeed of all life. After all, the sum total of all of our ancestors, all other organic life forms, and “civilization” is a few inches of compacted topsoil clinging to a hard rock of a planet hurtling and twisting its way through space.

Destination unknown. 

We’re all on the trip together, despite our various shapes, colors, orientations and other distinctions. As much as we see ourselves as individuals, we also are part of a much bigger unit. Our rough places will get smoothed over by time, whether we like that or not.

And much like seaglass, what’s left of each individual will have its own integrity, its own unique ability to reflect the sun when you hold it up to the light.

That could have added up to something nice.

But for now, the pandemic has helped to shatter us into jagged shards of glass, all too good at cutting each other rather than coming together. We’ve broken into tribes of one; even families have shattered. We are like a thousand rough pieces right now than any kind of beautiful whole. 

Acts of random cruelty outnumber acts of kindness. Extremes dominate. Hate is on the loose. Killers are on the road. Isolation rules. Collectivity is disparaged. There is no common square to be found, only acres and acres of silence.

As a result, there can be no beautiful whole. 

Isn’t that a pity?

MONDAY’S HEADLINES:

• How to Care Less About Work — As we peer around the corner of the pandemic, let’s talk about what we want to do—and not do—with the rest of our lives. (Atlantic)

• Voting Battles of 2022 Take Shape as G.O.P. Crafts New Election Bills — Republicans plan to carry their push to reshape the nation’s electoral system into next year, with Democrats vowing to oppose them but holding few options in G.O.P.-led states. (NYT)

• Pro-Trump news site targets election workers, inspiring wave of menace (Reuters)

• As Stacey Abrams enters governor’s race, Georgia becomes a key 2022 battleground (WP)

• Trump-backed former Sen. David Perdue will announce primary bid against Georgia governor this week (Politico)

• Josh Hawley and the Republican Obsession With Manliness — The Missouri senator is tapping into something real — a widespread, politically potent anxiety about young men that is already helping the right. (NYT)

• Bob Dole, longtime Senate leader and 1996 GOP presidential nominee, dies at 98 (Politico)

• Bob Dole Saw Every Stage of the GOP — From World War II to the election of Donald Trump, Bob Dole played a part in countless moments of American history. (Atlantic)

• Both sides planning for new state-by-state abortion fight (AP)

• Fearing a Repeat of Jan. 6, Congress Eyes Changes to Electoral Count Law

  — Members of the special House committee investigating the Capitol riot are among those arguing for an overhaul of a more than century-old statute enacted to address disputed elections. (NYT)

• Pope calls migrant crisis 'shipwreck of civilization' (Reuters)

• A decades-old killing may have been solved with new forensic tech and DNA from a conch shell (WP)

• There is an environmental impact each time you hit 'buy now'. Here's an alternative (NPR)

• Pacific Ocean garbage patch is immense plastic habitat (BBC)

• ‘Wall of secrecy’ in Pfizer contracts as company accused of profiteering (Guardian)

• The Variant Hunters: Inside South Africa’s Effort to Stanch Dangerous Mutations — Scientists in a cutting-edge laboratory do part of the work. Local health workers on foot do the rest. (NYT)

• Data on Omicron’s severity is ‘encouraging’, says US health chief (Financial Times)

• How scary is omicron? Scientists are racing to find answers. (WP)

• UK reports 43,992 cases and 54 deaths; protests in Brussels turn violent(Guardian)

• Pro-Trump counties now have far higher COVID death rates. Misinformation is to blame (NPR)

• Western countries express concern over Afghan reprisals, Taliban reject accusations (Reuters)

• From Serbia, Afghan boxers seek refuge, careers in West (AP)

• Afghanistan: Taliban warned against targeting former security forces (BBC)

• Taliban tighten restrictions on education, media (NHK)

• Facing Economic Collapse, Afghanistan Is Gripped by Starvation— An estimated 22.8 million people — more than half the country’s population — are expected to face potentially life-threatening food insecurity this winter. Many are already on the brink of catastrophe. (NYT)

• U.S. Space Force general warns of China's growing military space potential(Politico)

• French right hopes for reinvigoration with choice of Pécresse (Financial Times)

• Baseball’s Lockout Begins With ‘The Case of the Vanishing Players’ (WSJ)

• CNN Fires Chris Cuomo Amid Inquiry Into His Efforts to Aid His Brother

  — The network said it had “terminated him, effective immediately,” a move that came days after a lawyer for a former colleague accused the host of sexual misconduct.

• Plankton May Have Escaped ‘Survival of the Fittest’ — Scientists have a new theory about why the ocean has so many types of plankton. (Atlantic)

• National Association Of Corpses Express Outrage At Still-Living Actors Getting Cadaver Roles On ‘CSI,’ ‘Law & Order’ (The Onion)

  MONDAY’s LYRICS:

  “Isn't It a Pity”

  George Harrison

  Isn't it a pity now isn't it a shame
  How we break each other's hearts
  And cause each other pain
  How we take each other's love
  Without thinking anymore
  Forgetting to give back
  Isn't it a pity

  Some things take so long but how do I explain
  When not too many people
  Can see we're all the same
  And because of all their tears
  Their eyes can't hope to see
  The beauty that surrounds them
  Isn't it a pity

  Isn't it a pity isn't it a shame
  How we break each other's hearts
  And cause each other pain
  How we take each other's love
  Without thinking anymore
  Forgetting to give back
  Isn't it a pity

Who Are the Taliban?

Afghan Conversation #19

This is the 19th in a series of letters and conversations with a young Afghan friend of mine about life under Taliban rule. We are protecting his identity for his safety.

In my life under the previous government, prior to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, I probably saw members of the Taliban three or four times. I read about them in journals, and heard people talking about them, but they were not everywhere as they are now. I’d like to explain what I’ve learned about them over the last three months, now living under their rule.

 

Let’s start with some history. Back in about 1993 or 1994, during the Afghan civil war, we first heard whispers of a group of radical religious students in Saudi-sponsored schools in Pakistan. The group called itself the Islamic Tehreek-e-Taliban (Taliban Islamic Movement). Before long, this extremist movement had infiltrated Afghanistan from the southern border, spreading the slogan "Implementing Islamic Sharia," fighting what it called evil and corruption in Afghanistan, and waging war with Afghan citizens. 

Over the years, despite the U.S. invasion in 2001 and ensuing 20-year military intervention, Taliban forces continued to gather strength. By 2021, having summarily invaded cities and provinces throughout the country, they finally overthrew the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and took control of the government. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is now in power.

 

Also, some terminology is in order. A “Talib” is defined as a religious student. The Taliban (a plural or collective form of the word) consider themselves clergy. From their point of view, their words are the words of truths because they represent God and speak the words of God.

 

Facts and figures

 

No precise figure is available, but estimates put the number of Taliban to between a hundred and two hundred thousand. The vast majority of them, probably 99 percent, are from the Pashtun ethnic group. Non-Taliban citizens are considered slaves who must always be obedient.

 

The Taliban have taken over all high-ranking positions in the government, including the ministry and the directorate. Only the lowest-ranking officers are former officers. Many top Taliban officials are former peasants or peddlers who have risen the ranks based on their religious zealotry. On the reverse end, many former officials are now relegated to construction work.

 

Government positions are also inheritable. That is, if a Talib becomes the head of an organization, he can hand it over to his son or brother.

 

Perilous times

 

The Taliban are not a people of discourse and logic. If a Talib says that the color of milk is black and you don't agree, he will insult and threaten you. After all, he believes he is God’s representative on Earth. Who dares not accept the word of God in such a land as Afghanistan?

 

A few days ago, I learned, a person named Navid from Helmand province wrote on his Facebook page “The Taliban don’t pay teachers. They are beggars who collect money themselves from our homes.” Because of his post, he was captured and brutally killed by the Taliban. His body was dumped in the lake..

 

The people of Afghanistan are starving because of the draconian rule of the Taliban. The United Nations has said that the Taliban have to create an inclusive government, that girls must go to school and women should be allowed to work, but no such actions have taken place. There is not even one Hazara in their cabinet; girls are still banned from going to school; women are not allowed to work. Every day the Taliban are killing the soldiers of the previous government. According to Human Rights Watch, more than a hundred former government soldiers have been killed during the first three months of the Taliban government. Many other innocent citizens are also being killed.

 

This is who the Taliban are. An irrational, fearsome force for evil.

SUNDAY’S HEADLINES:

• Inside a Sequencing Lab on the Front Lines of America’s Search for Omicron(NYT)

• Scientists race to gauge omicron variant’s true threat — Is it more transmissible? Does it make people sicker? How well do vaccines fare against it? Scientists hope to have answers to some of their questions within weeks. (WP)

• Expert: Omicron not likely mutated from Delta (NHK)

• WHO says no deaths reported from Omicron yet as Covid variant spreads (Guardian)

• Omicron possibly more infectious because it shares genetic code with common cold coronavirus, study says (WP)

• Omicron complicates puzzle over at-home Covid pill (Politico)

• US vaccinations rise as Omicron cases spread (NHK)

• The Mississippi Abortion Case and the Fragile Legitimacy of the Supreme Court (New Yorker)

• Facing Economic Collapse, Afghanistan Is Gripped by Starvation (NYT)

• Afghanistan: Macron reveals plans for joint European mission (BBC)

• Islamic countries to meet on Afghanistan crisis on Dec. 19 (Reuters)

• Afghan judges in Brazil still fear the Taliban (AP)

• Arab Gulf States Compete for Influence in Taliban-Ruled Afghanistan (WSJ)

• In Afghanistan, ‘Who Has the Guns Gets the Land’ — A decades-long fight over land has been reinvigorated as Taliban leaders look to reward their fighters with property, even if that means evicting others. (NYT)

• Iran nuclear talks to enter critical phase (NHK)

• Russia planning massive military offensive against Ukraine involving 175,000 troops, U.S. intelligence warns (WP)

• US warns Russia could invade Ukraine in early 2022 (Financial Times)

• MH370: Could missing Malaysian Airlines plane finally be found? (BBC)

• A Billion Sea Creatures Cooked to Death — This summer’s historic heat wave in the Pacific Northwest was an ecological catastrophe. (Atlantic)

• Stuck jet stream, La Nina causing weird weather (AP)

• Grab your camera and help science! King tides are crashing onto California beaches — The unusually high and low tides will be affecting coastal communities over the weekend. Scientists are calling on residents and visitors to help document the phenomenon. (NPR)

• Bitcoin Price Tumbles After Wall Street Selloff (WSJ)

• Bitcoin falls by a fifth, cryptos see $1 billion worth liquidated (Reuters)

• How DNA Solved One of the Final Mysteries of Pearl Harbor — Nearly half the crew of the USS Oklahoma was buried in unknown graves — until the military found a pioneering way to decipher a forensic puzzle. (Politico)

• TV news crews are rethinking how to do their jobs safely as violent robberies persist (SFC)

• English Teenager Finds Bronze Age Ax Using a Metal Detector — On her third day out with a metal detector, Milly Hardwick, 13, found a hoard of items from more than 3,000 years ago. (NYT)

• Clearview AI on track to win U.S. patent for facial recognition technology(Politico)

• Trump rails against Meadows for revealing Covid test cover-up – report (Guardian)

• Brazil's Rio cancels New Year celebration as pandemic continues (Reuters)

• Biden and businesses agree on one thing: U.S. needs immigrant workers(Politico)

• Museums for tragedies like 9/11 face a new challenge: Visitors too young to remember (WP)

• Billions for Climate Protection Fuel New Debate: Who Deserves It Most — The $1 trillion infrastructure law funds programs that tend to favor wealthy, white communities — a test for Biden’s pledge to defend the most vulnerable against climate change. (NYT)

• Elite Preschool Boasts 95% Of Graduates Go On To Kindergarten (The Onion)

• In football, Michigan is the Big Ten Champion after beating Iowa 42-3 on Saturday night! (DW)

SUNDAY’s LYRICS

“Can’t Find My Way Back Home”

Blind Faith

By Steve Winwood

Come down off your throne and leave your body alone
Somebody must change
You are the reason I've been waiting all these years
Somebody holds the key

Well, I'm near the end and I just ain't got the time
And I'm wasted and I can't find my way home

I can't find my way home
But I can't find my way home
But I can't find my way home
But I can't find my way home
Still I can't find my way home

And I've done nothing wrong
But I can't find my way home

What's Next: A New Political Chapter

 

As 2022 approaches, the political situation in the U.S. is unsettling. As I noted in my recent post, “Sharp Right Turn,” the activist base of the Republican Party remains in the grip of Trump extremists who feed off of the toxic wave of entrenched white grievance.

Meanwhile, the activist base of the Democratic Party remains relatively uninvolved and nonchalant about the Biden Presidency. He has never been the charismatic type like Sanders or AOC, but a pragmatist trying to prevent the existing sharp political divisions splinter the country into unreconcilable fragments.

To his credit, he has overseen an economic recovery, the successful vaccination of most of the population, and a relatively peaceful international scene, although trouble looms on all fronts.

If Russia attacks Ukraine, or if China attacks Taiwan, all bets are off in the global cold wars. Regarding the pandemic, some think Omicron, Delta and as-yet unidentified Covid variants will upset the economic recovery, but I’m not among those.

I expect the recovery to continue, the stock market to boom, and unemployment to remain low, which should in normal times guarantee Biden’s re-election in 2024. The midterms will be another story.

Among the impacts of the pandemic may be increased political extremism, and if so, we’ll get an early indication next year in the mid-term elections.

If Republicans regain control of Congress, that will effectively end Biden’s opportunity to get anything substantial done on the domestic front.

Accordingly, global issues will take over, which in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing. The U.S. economy and military are so overwhelmingly the largest on the planet that the case can be made that any U.S. President ought to be governing not from a national perspective but much more from a global perspective anyway.

And what is best for the whole is not always what is best for the folks back home.

That is a difficult case for any politician to make. And that is why the Republicans are stuck with the likes of Kevin McCarthy and Ted Cruz — spineless nobodies who pander to the historically pampered.

White grievance is nothing more than spoiled-kid syndrome. The world has changed. America is changed. It is not a white, Christian, male-dominated society and never will be again.

Get over it or get out of the way. That is the message a true Republican leader would deliver. But where is a conservative politician like that?

As for the activist wing of the Democrats, restless with Biden’s approach, is the country ready for them? A new generation led by AOC, Omar, Mayor Pete, Beto and the like are poised to replace Sanders as charismatic leaders.

But is the country ready for them?

SATURDAY’S HEADLINES

• Why Didn’t the U.S. Detect Omicron Cases Sooner? (NYT)

• Covid live: Omicron variant could cause ‘large wave of infections’, UK scientists warn; Switzerland tightens restrictions (Guardian)

• New rules requiring international air travelers arriving in the United States to obtain a negative COVID-19 test within one day of travel will take effect Monday at 12:01 a.m. ET. (Reuters)

• Omicron covid variant three times more likely to cause reinfection than delta, S. Africa study says (WP)

• New York confirmed five cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, bringing the number of states with cases of the troubling strain to five as Biden announced new measures to combat a winter surge in COVID-19 infections. Researchers are still racing to learn more about the omicron variant, however, and much remains unknown about its capabilities. [HuffPost]

• Omicron-stricken South Africa may be glimpse into the future (AP)

• Despite shutting its borders to travel from high-risk southern African countries, Australia became the latest country to report community transmission of the new variant, a day after it was found in five U.S. states. (Reuters)

• The Atlantic Daily: Omicron Could Be Bad, or Really Bad—Or Maybe Good

  Delta anxiety, meet Omicron anxiety. If you’re feeling spooked by the sudden rise of the latter, remember that our tools for combatting the coronavirus are much more advanced than they were in the pandemic’s dark early days. (Atlantic)

• Study suggests past COVID infection may not fend off omicron (AP)

• For a City That Followed Covid Rules, Will Omicron Change the Playbook? — San Francisco has endured mask mandates, vaccination requirements and lockdowns. Now with the first U.S. case of the Omicron variant, no one’s sure what comes next. (NYT)

• WHO says measures used against delta should work for omicron (AP)

• COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna that use mRNA technology provide the biggest boost to antibody levels when given 10-12 weeks after the second dose, a British study published has found. (Reuters)

• Covid-19 Vaccine Demand Strains CVS, Walgreens (WSJ)

• ‘The fire that’s here’: US is still battling delta variant (AP)

• Beijing Olympic officials concerned about Omicron (NHK)

• How Pfizer developed a COVID pill in record time (NPR)

• Omicron threatens to stoke US inflation, warns top Fed official (Financial Times)

• Donald Trump: Superspreader in chief (Edit Bd/WP)

• The Gateway Pundit, which started as a tiny opinion blog, saw readership surge to 50 million views a month as it amplified Donald Trump’s false stolen-election claims. Reuters documents the impact:25 election workers targeted by more than 100 violent threats or hostile messages citing the pundit. (Reuters)

• Trump faces flurry of investigations beyond Jan. 6 probe (AP)

• How the Politics of Abortion Are Poised to Intensify (NYT)

• What Roe Could Take Down With It — The logic being used against Roe could weaken the legal foundations of many rights Americans value deeply. (Atlantic)

• The Women's Health Protection Act would protect the right to access legal abortion care across the country by providing safeguards against state bans and medically unnecessary hurdles. It passed with historic support in the House — but the filibuster may need to be eliminated for it to get through the Senate. [HuffPost]

• What Happened to Amazon’s Bookstore? (NYT)

• Suspect’s parents charged in Michigan school shooting (Politico)

• Russia has massed more than 94,000 troops near Ukraine's bordersand may be gearing up for a large-scale military offensive at the end of January, Ukraine's Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov told parliament, citing intelligence reports. (Reuters)

• Astronomers discover hot, dense planet with eight-hour year (Phys.org)

• Biden warns Russia’s Vladimir Putin against Ukraine invasion (AP)

• Scars of remote schooling linger in a San Francisco high school (WP)

• With No Resources, Authority or Country, Afghan Ambassador Presses On — Adela Raz arrived in Washington just before her country fell and has struggled to keep her embassy going. A dinner with U.S. veterans was a priority. (NYT)

• Afghanistan's Taliban government released a decree on women's rights, which said women should not be considered "property" and must consent to marriage but failed to mention female access to education or work outside the home. (Reuters)

• Turkey’s Economic Turmoil Sends Desperation and Inflation Soaring (WSJ)

• A Slow-Motion Climate Disaster: The Spread of Barren Land — Brazil’s northeast, long a victim of droughts, is now effectively turning into a desert. The cause? Climate change and the landowners who are most affected. (NYT)

• Snowfall may be nearly zero for years at a time in Mountain West because of climate change, study finds (WP)

• A group of Senate Republicans seeking to dramatize their dislike of President Joe Biden's efforts to encourage vaccination against COVID-19 backed down from their threat to hold up a government funding bill, after the idea proved unpopular. “I am glad that, in the end, cooler heads prevailed, the government will stay open," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). [HuffPost]

• A map that contains a description of Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor is on display at the US Library of Congress in Washington D.C. This month marks 80 years since the attack occurred. (NHK)

• The Tech Moguls Are Looking for a New Playground — Jack Dorsey’s decision to leave Twitter, like Mark Zuckerberg’s pivot to the metaverse, shows us where the internet is heading. (Atlantic)

• ‘Flash mob’ robberies spike at outlets piled high with holiday inventory (WP)

• Oregon police seek clues in poisoning of eight wolves (BBC)

• Baldwin: ‘Someone is responsible’ for shooting, but ‘not me’ (AP)

• Soon when you walk down the street, 3-D creatures could try to sell you something (WP)

• Michigan vs. Iowa: Prediction, pick, Big Ten Championship (CBS)

• A vision realized: Aidan Hutchinson’s relentless pursuit of greatness (Michigan Daily)

• Party Evacuated Following Reports Of Host Assembling Some Sort Of Activity (The Onion)

SATURDAY LYRICS:

“Reflections of my Life”

Songwriters: William Campbell Jr / Thomas McAleese

The changing of sunlight to moonlight
Reflections of my life
Oh, how they fill my eyes

The greetings of people in trouble
Reflections of my life
Oh, how they fill my eyes

Oh, my sorrows
Sad tomorrows
Take me back to my own home

Oh, my crying (Oh, my crying)
Feel I'm dying, dying
Take me back to my own home

I'm changing, arranging
I'm changing
I'm changing everything
Everything around me

The world is
A bad place
A bad place
A terrible place to live
Oh, but I don't want to die

Oh, my sorrows
Sad tomorrows
Take me back to my own home

Oh, my crying (Oh, my crying)
Feel I'm dying, dying
Take me back to my own home

Oh, my sorrows
Sad tomorrows
Take me back to my own home