I just don't get it.
COUNTERPUNCH has this article online.
It's an embarrassing and piece of garbage article.
That's not why I'm bothered.
I'm bothered because the writer is Katrina vanden Heuvel.
When C.I. exposed THE NATION to Alexander Cockburn -- specifically, Katrina and her assistant Sam something -- this was back in 2008, ask C.I., she'll remember his name -- and how they were trashing Alex? Alex was furious and I'd never seen him so angry before.
Yet now COUNTERPUNCH is publishing Katrina? Katrina who bought control of THE NATION via the money her grandfather made (in part from ripping off African-Americans like Lena Horne -- who loathed the vanden Heuvel family -- Lena and C.I. were friends), money they went to court over so that they wouldn't have to pay taxes on it. That's who COUNTERPUNCH is publishing?
What a way to spit on Alex's memory.
"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
FORBES has a report that Joe Biden needs to read:
Omicron spawn BA.2.75, dubbed “Centaurus,” seemed like the COVID variant to watch this summer—one with the potential to wreak unprecedented havoc later in the year.
The World Health Organization announced in July it was tracking the concerning new variant, which had been identified in 10 countries, including the U.S., and was gaining ground against other transmissible strains of the virus like BA.5 in India.
But Centaurus is no longer a threat, Dr. Raj Rajnarayanan, assistant dean of research and associate professor at the New York Institute of Technology campus in Jonesboro, Ark., told Fortune.
Instead, one of its children, BA.2.75.2, has outcompeted it, eliminating Centaurus as a threat—but replacing it with a more formidable one.
It’s one to watch this fall, he says—for more reasons than one.
‘Extensive escape’
Among the concerning traits, BA.2.75.2’s spike protein binds to human cells tightly—better than any other variant so far, Rajnarayanan says. By doing so, it makes it more difficult for antibodies to successfully attack. And it’s picking up mutations that make it more similar to BA.5 and the deadly Delta variant of late 2021.
It’s just “a couple of mutations away from picking up increased transmission speed,” Rajnarayanan said.
To make matters worse, the new variant shows “extensive escape” ability, according to a new preprint paper released this week by researchers at the Imperial College in London and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. The paper has not yet been peer reviewed but has been widely cited by experts.
COVID deaths and infections continue to climb in the United States, with 400 people a day dying from the deadly SARS-CoV-2 virus and daily new infections averaging 60,000. Both figures are regarded as drastic undercounts since systematic daily reporting has been shut down in virtually every American state.
Yet President Joe Biden has continued to maintain his claim that “the pandemic is over,” despite the mounting deaths and widespread criticism of his comments by health experts. Biden first made the statement in an interview broadcast Sunday night on the CBS News program “60 Minutes.”
While walking with Biden through the expansive hall at the convention center in downtown Detroit hosting the North American International Auto Show, Scott Pelley of CBS News asked him, “Mr. President, [this is the] first Detroit auto show in three years. Is the pandemic over?”
Casually, Biden said, “The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We are still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over.” He added, “If you notice, no one is wearing a mask. Everyone seems to be in pretty good shape. I think it’s changing, and this is a perfect example of it.”
Biden’s own senior health officials, according to a report in Politico, only became aware of his comments from social media and headlines in the mainstream press leaving them in the lurch as they attempted to field questions about his remarks that reverberated across the world.
Amid commentaries by public health experts expressing surprise and even outrage at Biden’s remarks, the White House initially downplayed their significance. On Tuesday, speaking at a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee with big-money contributors, Biden sought to backtrack, but only slightly.
Noting that “I got criticized for saying the pandemic is, quote, ‘over,’” he sought to modify his language, conceding that many were still dying, “But it basically is not where it was.”
He went on to blame the victims of his own policy of “living with the virus,” saying that the problem was not the ending of all social mitigation efforts, but the failure of individuals to get the necessary vaccinations. “Guess what?” he said, “Over 65 to 80 percent of the people who died, of the 5,000 dying never got their shot, never got their booster shot.”
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem asked a state ethics board to dismiss a complaint against her without a public hearing and to seal off certain records, documents released Friday by the state’s Government Accountability Board show.
The Republican governor, who is widely seen as eyeing a 2024 White House bid, argued in an April motion that the state’s attorney general, a fellow Republican who filed the complaint, was out for political retribution and should be removed from the complaint. Noem had pushed former Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg to resign and later for his impeachment over his involvement in a fatal car crash.
The attorney general’s complaint was sparked by a report from The Associated Press last year that Noem had taken a hands-on role in a state agency. Shortly after the agency moved to deny her daughter, Kassidy Peters, a real estate appraiser license in July of 2020, Noem held a meeting with Peters and key decision-makers in her licensure. Days after the meeting, Peters signed an agreement that gave her another opportunity to meet the licensing requirements.
She acted unethically. She didn't want a public hearing because the records are sealed and a public hearing would have revealed more. She has presidential ambitions. This should be hit on over and over so people know what's going on before she's mounting a presidential run.
In addition, you need to be calling out corruption. She misused her position to help her own daughter. Corruption needs to be called out and your operatives should be making her the face of corruption -- to tar and feather the GOP.
That's my in-kind donation and that's all you're going to get.
Joe Biden made idiotic and uncaring remarks. He said what he said and he deserves the pushback he's getting.
Mustafa al-Kadhimi is in the United States. Iraq's caretaker prime minister arrived for the UN meeting. Joe Biden was at the UN yesterday. He met with multiple leaders.
in New York
: AFP
: Kadhimi's office/Twitter
Intercontinental New York Barclay
New York, New York
5:39 P.M. EDT
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Cool. Fire away.
Q Well, what were the President and President Macron speaking about?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: They spoke about Ukraine primarily. And —
Q Are you “Senior White House Official” or “Senior Administration”? Just — sorry, for the —
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: “White House” is fine, I think. Right?
WHITE HOUSE AIDE: That’s fine.
SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Okay. They spoke about Ukraine primarily
because of, obviously, the developments that happened overnight. It was
meant to be a very brief conversation, but, you know, just because
there was a lot to cover and the two of them have the kind of
relationship where they really dig in and explore, you know, the options
available, the paths forward. They each had — obviously, had a number
of conversations over the last several weeks with different leaders, so
they were comparing notes and also talking about what the path looks
like for the weeks and months ahead.
And then President Macron
also talked to the President about his meeting yesterday with President
Raisi and what his impressions were based on that about the JCPOA.
So that’s basically what they talked about.
Q Can you tell us a little bit more about the latter — about what the impressions are for JCPOA and (inaudible) deal?
SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I don’t want to get into, you know, the
President Macron’s personal impressions of the meeting with President
Raisi. I think I have to leave that to him to do. I can’t read that
out secondhand.
I would say that the — in both his meeting with
Prime Minister Truss and with President Macron, it’s clear that the E3
and the United States are very much on the same page in terms of a clear
and consistent message that, really, the ball is in Iran’s court, that
there is a deal on the table and they should take it.
Q The
President got into this a bit in his speech about what Putin said about
the reservists and nuclear war. How do you interpret what Putin is
doing? Is it an act of desperation or what?
SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, what I said [redacted] is throwing
together a sham referendum on three days’ notice and abandoning all
pretense of legitimacy or seriousness is not exactly an act of
confidence or strength. In fact, it’s the opposite. It is an act of
weakness.
And declaring a mobilization and then refining the
declaration of mobilization to try to have it both ways — on the one
hand, indicate you’re calling a bunch of people up; on the other hand,
saying we’re not calling too many people up — that also indicates a very
pressurized environment in Russia.
And the fact that he has to
resort to something he clearly didn’t want to do is a reflection of the
fact that his campaign in Ukraine is failing. It’s failing to achieve
the strategic objectives he set out. And he is left with bad options,
one of them being the one he’s chosen to pursue.
And so,
fundamentally, this is the result of Russia and Putin being in bad
shape, not in good shape, when it comes to their military campaign in
Ukraine.
Q But how concerned are you that, given that he’s
in such bad shape, that he could, you know, do something more drastic,
more — I mean, you know, is a frustrated Putin the more dangerous Putin?
SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Look, we have rested on two basic principles
from the very beginning: One, we are going to provide material support
to Ukraine — security support, economic support, humanitarian support —
for as long as it takes, and we will not be deterred in doing so by
anyone and certainly not by Putin. Second, we are not looking to end up
in a direct war with Russia. And we, of course, are attentive to
managing escalation in this conflict.
We believe that we have
been able to navigate those two basic lines for the last several months,
and nothing about what’s happened in the last 24 hours changes either
the President’s conviction to stick with Ukraine as long as it takes or
for us to pay close attention to all the various scenarios that could
unfold including escalation scenarios, and we are planning against
those. We are watching carefully to see for any signs of potential
escalation. And we are sending very clear and strong messages to Russia
about the consequences of escalation.
So, really, this is
another episode in what has been a series of episodes over the course of
this war where Putin has tried to rattle his saber, tried to scare us
off, tried to make us think twice about our strategy. He has not
succeeded before; he won’t succeed now. But that doesn’t mean that, you
know, we’re blind to the dynamics that could relate to escalation and
that we aren’t thinking carefully through, in close consultation with
our allies and with the Ukrainians, how we would deal with that.
Q
Is there anything on that though that you’ve seen any signs that have
changed your level of concerns of him doing something drastically
imminent with either on nuclear or unconventional weapons?
SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: We don’t see anything in terms of specific
information, signals, or moves that would indicate that. And we have
heard him before wave around the nuclear card, and we heard it again in
his speech today. And, in fact, the language and formula he used today
is quite similar to how he’s spoken before.
Q Does the
mobilization change anything on the battlefield in the near term? Or
does it take so long to call up and train any potential forces that it
really doesn’t have an impact on the lay of the land right now?
SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, there’s an obvious trade-off: The speed
with which they move forces to the front will dictate the effectiveness
of those forces. If they go fast, it means they’re throwing a bunch of
folks who have not had fresh training or integration into an effective
joint force structure. And the more they do to train and integrate, the
longer it’s going to take.
So this is a basic problem of arithmetic and time for Putin, and neither of them are really on his side right at the moment.
Q
Can you talk a little bit about the meeting with Liz Truss and, more
specifically, how you would characterize the discussion about the
Northern Ireland Protocol?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: It
was a candid discussion in which the Prime Minister laid out her view,
and the President made very clear what he said publicly, which is that
protecting the Good Friday Agreement and the gains of the Good Friday
Agreement is a matter of bipartisan importance in the United States and a
matter of personal importance to him as President. And he was very
clear about that.
The Prime Minister read out to him her conversations of — on the subject with both Ursula von der Leyen and with the Taoiseach.
And
I think the two of them left understanding each other well. And now
we’ll see how things develop with respect to potential discussions
between the UK and the EU on the protocol.
Q Looping back to
Russia for a moment, are you and your team inferring anything from the
specific words that Vladimir Putin used this morning? Like,
“territory,” about — about “integrity.” I can’t remember exactly, but
he —
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: You mean talking about, “This is going to be Russian territory and…” —
Q His, sort of, phraseology. What do you think he meant by that?
SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The Russian approach to this war has been
quite legalistic from the beginning, and terming it a “special military
operation” rather than a “war”; you know, trying to describe a casus
belli rooted in these ridiculous, fanciful claims of genocide. They’ve
tried to construct legal rationales for basically everything they’ve
done, and the world has seen through them: 141 votes at the General
Assembly when he went in.
So now we have a new construction
even more farcical and fanciful than some of the previous ones, which is
that, magically, these contested territories of Ukraine are going to
vote in this thrown-together referendum and then be annexed into
Russia. And, oh, presto, now they’re part of sovereign Russian
territory.
That’s complete farce and absurdity on its face, and
it’s not going to change dynamics on the ground with respect to
Ukrainian operations. It’s not going to change our support for
Ukraine. I think it will lead to different rhetoric and different legal
framing from the Russian side. But, fundamentally, the Russians need
to understand that the United States, our allies and partners, and,
frankly, the overwhelmingly vast majority of countries in the world,
they’re not going to recognize any of this as legitimate.
So we have confidence that the ploy he’s trying to undertake here is not ultimately going to succeed.
Q
But specifically though, do you think that what he’s saying is “If
these areas join our country — Russia — through these referenda, and if
you then tried — or if Ukraine or anyone tries to attack them, we can
use non-conventional weapons for that”?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION
OFFICIAL: Well, I think you’d have to look back at his precise
formula. He didn’t say “non-conventional weapons” in that particular
formula. He said, “We can use all tools at our disposal,” which could
imply what you say. But I don’t think he used that exact phrase.
Look,
here’s how we look at it. Think about his legal rationale when he
started the war: He recognizes independent countries, then says Russia
has a security obligation to defend those countries — a sort of bizarro
Russian version of Article 5 for these sham republics. That didn’t stop
Ukraine from fighting on the territory of those two oblasts, Luhansk
and Donetsk. It hasn’t stopped them from retaking some territory in
Luhansk and Donetsk.
And so there is, in our view, one world —
the fictitious Russian legal world — and then there’s the real world.
And the thing that is incumbent upon us is to ensure that as we work
with the international community, the community of nations who signed up
to the U.N. Charter, that the smallest number of countries possible
even entertain the idea of recognizing this as legitimate. We think
that that number of countries will be vanishingly small, because —
And
if you saw what China said today, they didn’t say, “Oh, hey, yeah, you
know, it kind of makes sense. It’d be interesting once they annex and
it’s Russian territory.” They said, “Hey, knock it off. Ceasefire,
please.”
So — and if you look at what happened with the
experience with Crimea and how recognition went with respect to Crimea
and the international community and the vote in the General Assembly
following that, we think that — we are confident that he will not be
able to sell to the world some kind of credible argument that this
actually is Russian territory. And as a result, the play he’s running
here is not going to succeed.
Q Did you get the sense that
the countries that were sitting on the fence when the U.N. held that
vote, have they since come around? Are you bringing them around to
condemning Russia and acting, you know, in the way that you would like
them to?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: You know, look, we’ve
taken a position from the start that we are not going to — we were not
going to come with a heavy hand on every country that abstained on the
General Assembly vote. We were going to let countries reach their own
conclusions. We were going to shape the arguments for them, and we were
going to point out to them the reality of what was happening.
And
if you heard the President’s speech today, it wasn’t hectoring or
demanding of the world. It was just a simple laydown of the truth and
the facts. And we think that that has borne fruit insofar as you are
seeing increasing signs of countries that did abstain, to include
countries like India speaking out in a different way, including directly
in front of Putin. And, you know, we’d like to see more than that,
obviously, in the days ahead.
But our focus is on ensuring,
specifically on this question of these referendums and this potential
annexation, that the world roundly rejects the notion that this is
legitimate. And we have every reason to believe, based on recent
history and on the simple fact that it’s just so absurd and so counter
to the U.N. Charter, that that’s how things will end up bearing out.
Q
This protest that we saw in Russia — I mean, I don’t know how
widespread it is or how many number of people are involved, but what
does that tell us about the situation inside Russia?
SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think it’s too soon to tell. You know,
we’ve seen reports of protests in several cities, and we’ve seen the
detention of individuals who participated in those protests.
But,
you know, this is the kind of fog-of-protest moment right now. It’ll
take a little while for us to really understand what the dynamics are in
the street and then, of course, what the dynamics are among the various
key stakeholders in Russia, whether it’s the business elite or the
security services or others. And that’s something we will continue to
watch in the days ahead.
Q On the Iranian drones — you know,
as you guys were rolling out the intelligence you guys had on that, it
seemed more about the desperation that the Russians were showing where
they had to basically go to a pariah bazaar to pick up their weaponry.
But it seems that these drones are becoming useful tools in the fight
for Russia. There’s been a lot of reports about — I think we’ve seen
some, like, HIMARS that were taken out by these drones. How concerned
are you guys about this as, you know, a good weapon for them?
SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: The United States has faced attacks from
these one-way Iranian attack drones. So if there was anybody suggesting
these are not seriously lethal tools of war, I don’t know who that
person is, but they clearly haven’t been paying attention with respect
to the U.S. government.
It still is an act of desperation
insofar as they are stuck with Iran and other outlier states, in terms
of getting weaponry, because China is not giving it to them, India is
not giving it to them, Turkey is not giving it to them, et cetera.
This
is a serious weapon, just as the weapon it’s intended to replace, which
is the precision-guided munitions that the Russians had depleted was a
serious weapon. And the logic behind what the Russians were trying to
do — you know, get something precision-guided to be able to hold at-risk
Ukrainian command and control and Ukrainian weapon systems is — you
know, understandable logic.
But we do not believe that — you
know, that Russia can, through the acquisition of arms from Iran, you
know, fundamentally alter its strategic circumstance on the
battlefield.
And so, it’s something we need to deal with at a tactical level, and we’re working with the Ukrainians to do that.
One
of the things that was in either the last PDA or the one before it —
they’re coming so steadily now and with so much packed into them, and I
can’t recall which — was a significant number of counter-UAS systems,
which we’re providing to the Ukrainians so that they have
countermeasures against these drones.
Q On climate change, I
don’t know if you saw that there’s been some news about David Malpass
refusing to say whether or not he’s a climate change denier. And there
are some critics who are calling for him to step down from the World
Bank and be replaced at the World Bank. Any discussion on that at all
yet?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I’ve only seen that
secondhand, so I don’t want to comment on it until I get the chance to
read the full account and also consult with colleagues who’ve obviously
processed it to a greater extent than I have. But I intend to do that
in short order because it’s obviously — it obviously raises eyebrows.
Q
What do you think it’s going to mean for European unity on Ukraine and
just, you know, U.S.-Italy relations if Meloni wins this weekend?
SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: We will have to — whoever ends up as the new
prime minister of Italy, the President will have to have an early
conversation and then take measure of that person and make a
determination about what it’s going to mean. It’s a little hard to tell
right now in the heat of a political campaign, without knowing how a
coalition comes together, exactly what this is going to look like. So I
don’t want to predict or characterize because there’s so many uncertain
variables.
What I will say is this: We do not believe that, no
matter how this turns out, Italy is somehow going to drop out of the
Western coalition of countries supporting Ukraine, and I don’t think our
key partners in Europe believe that either.
So that doesn’t
mean it’s going to be exactly the same as it was under Draghi. But I
think this kind of “sky is falling” narrative out there about the
Italian election doesn’t square with our expectations of what’s likely
to unfold.
But more specific than that, I think it will be
important to see how things play out, see how — whatever coalition comes
together. And then, I can tell you, the President will be eager to
have an early and substantive conversation to try to ensure that the
cohesion that’s been so important to the strategy in Ukraine remains
steadfast.
Q At the end of the Global Fund event, it looked
like the President had a pull-aside. Do you know anything about that?
Was — we’ve been hearing he was going to meet with the South Koreans
today.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yes, he had an
opportunity to engage with President Yoon. And we’ll put out a readout
of that at some point soon, as soon as we pull that together.
Q Can you talk a little about the Philippine meeting tomorrow?
SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Yeah, this will be his first opportunity to
meet with President Marcos. He spoke with him briefly on the phone the
night that he was elected, and we’ve had good engagement at senior
levels of our Cabinet in the Philippines.
And the President
will be eager to talk to him about a range of issues, including
obviously the state of the global economy and how it’s impacting the
Philippines and how the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework can help us
collectively improve the rules of the road in the Indo-Pacific. They’ll
talk about the South China Sea. They’ll talk about the security
relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines and the full breadth
of issues in the alliance.
But it will be a good opportunity for
a treaty ally of the United States with a new president who’s making
his first trip to New York to have his first meeting with President
Biden, who obviously has never had the opportunity to sit down with him
before. So we’re really looking forward to that discussion.
Q
Were the recent Chinese comments or lack of support for Russia’s moves
part of the reason why the President went a little easier on China in
his speech today than he normally does in these international settings?
He only spoke about China for, you know, 30 seconds or something — a
minute.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, actually, I think
if you look back at his remarks last year, I’m not sure that the word
“China” appeared in his remarks. It’d be worth taking a look at that,
but I don’t believe that they did.
The U.N. General Assembly is
just a different kind of audience to address. And so, everything he
said is consistent with what he said before. And the themes and the
thrust of his commentary — whether it’s on the contrast on
infrastructure or the contrast on values, the pushback on coercion, the
embrace of freedom of navigation — that was all there, but the framing
and method of argument in the speech was meant to try to explain the
U.S. position in a way that he thought would be most effective with a
diverse audience of countries from around the world.
And he
thought it was very important to say two things: One, we’re not seeking
conflict or a new Cold War, and, two, we’re not asking countries to
choose sides.
But then he went on to say we’re unabashed that
we think ours is the right vision for the world, and we want to make the
case to the countries of the world to join us in trying to advance that
vision.
So the answer to your question is just: No, it’s not
he went easier on China because of what they’re doing on Ukraine, or
even that he went easier on China, per se. It’s more: Getting up and
making this speech about “U.S. versus China” we don’t think would
advance the fundamental objective of, you know, how we’re trying to
relate to all the other countries in the world, even on the question of
U.S.-China competition, if that makes sense.
Q When the President talks about UNSC reorganization or expansion —
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Reform. Yeah.
Q
“Reform.” I’m sorry. And he said, “opening it up to Asian countries,
to African countries” — did he — do you have a framework in mind? How
many countries? What would that look like?
SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: So we’ve had many conversations about what the
framework would look like. I would not say that we fixed on a precise
formula, largely because this has got to be done in consultation with a
lot of countries. And, you know, there are challenges in figuring out
what exactly does African representation look like; what does
representation from Latin America and the Caribbean look like.
You
know, we have historically and continue to stand behind the idea that
Germany, Japan, and India should be permanent members of the Security
Council. And then the question is: For the announcement today that the
United States supports a Latin American and Caribbean country and an
African representative, what exactly that looks like, we would want to
work through.
But I think him getting up and saying more
non-permanent members and more permanent members, including with broad
representation — that’s new. That’s something an American President has
not stood before the U.N. General Assembly and said before. And it’s a
good way to take us down a path towards ultimately getting reform.
And
the question now really is where do China and Russia land on this
question, and then how do we deal with competing claims to regional
representation from different actors — which, you know, has been a
continuing issue with the whole question of Security Council reform and
expansion for many years.
Q Did you guys talk about Taiwan at
all in either — I guess, in any of your discussions today? With him
and the leaders, did Taiwan come up?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION
OFFICIAL: Yes. It came up in the conversation with both the UK and
with France. And I’m not actually sure — because I personally wasn’t
present for the discussion with President Yoon — whether it came up yet
or not. So I’m waiting to get a readout on that.
But, I mean,
this is a significant issue — the potential for instability in the
Taiwan Strait and what it could mean for security in the Indo-Pacific
and for the global economy. I mean, this is going to be an issue that
the President talks about with, you know, allies and partners alike.
Q Was there any discussion about joint or combined training exercises with Taiwan?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No.
Q
Did Truss bring up this idea of seizing — of seize property — using
that for reparations or to pay for the war? Did that come up at all?
SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: That did not come up today. They did have a
discussion about what the long-term needs would be for Ukraine in terms
of reconstruction.
The Prime Minister made the point — and I
don’t think I’m betraying any confidence by saying this — that only a
fraction of Ukrainian schools are open right now and that, you know,
this is a good individual example of the larger challenges facing the
Ukrainian economy and Ukrainian society, even as they’re dealing with
violence and war crimes and atrocities. But they didn’t get into
specific payment mechanisms, like the frozen assets.
Q Is that something that you think is doable? Or is it problematic?
SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think that it has to be subject to an
extremely careful review and examination and close consultation with all
of the countries who would be implicated in it and by it. And it is an
area to proceed with extreme care. And I guess I’ll leave it at that
for now.
Q Has the term “special relationship” officially been retired?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Oh, because it didn’t come up today?
Q Yeah.
SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No. In fact, I’m quite certain we’ve used
the term “special relationship” in the last couple of weeks — I hope.
If we haven’t —
Q But the Brits don’t love it, right?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Oh, they don’t?
Q Truss doesn’t like it.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Oh, she doesn’t?
Q Truss doesn’t like it.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Is that true?
Q Yeah.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I didn’t even know that. Okay. (Laughter.)
Q She finds it a little bit demeaning. Like, you know —
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Demeaning of who?
Q Of them.
Q She says she wishes Biden would stop using the phrase.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: She said that?
Q Yes.
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: It’s not — I mean, Joe Bien didn’t invent the phrase. I don’t und- — (laughter) —
Q Winston Churchill did. Right?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I — well, you guys have just broken news to me. I actually was not aware of that.
So,
I have no further comment — (laughter) — until I can, you know — what’s
the phrase? “We’ll shut it down until we can figure out what’s going
on.” (Laughter.) Yeah, no, I’m just kidding.
Q But it
doesn’t sound like she made any concessions today on this Good Friday — I
mean, it — both sides remain where they were.
SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Here’s the way that I would characterize it:
Is she, I think, sounded a constructive note about her engagements with
both the European Union and the Republic of Ireland, and now we have to
see where things go.
This was not a set to or a digging in.
Q Fair enough.
SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: It was, you know, a suggestion that there
should be able to be a way forward here. And now we have to see whether
that plays out. I don’t mean we, the United States; I mean, we — the
U.S., the UK, the EU, the Republic, the people of Northern Ireland.
This now has to — has to proceed.
Q And then lastly, did he say no trade treaty between U.S. and UK if Good Friday gets blown up?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No. He did not say that.
Q
Was there any consternation about the President’s recent remarks about
Taiwan from either the French President or the UK Prime Minister?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: No.
Q Or the South Korean leader?
SENIOR
ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, I don’t know, but I doubt it. But I
haven’t — like I said, I haven’t had a chance to get a readout from that
conversation yet.
Okay, thanks. Thanks, guys.
6:08 P.M. EDT
Today, Thursday, September 22, at 6:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, UAW presidential candidate Will Lehman will participate in a debate against UAW President Ray Curry and bureaucrat Shawn Fein. The debate is organized by the court-appointed monitor overseeing the election as a result of the massive corruption scandal that has engulfed the UAW apparatus.
Lehman challenged Curry to debate him in a public statement issued last week, and Curry’s participation has since been confirmed by the Detroit News.
The debate will be streamed live at WillForUAWPresident.org/debate.
In a statement to the World Socialist Web Site, Lehman explained what is at stake in the debate.
“I am eager to have the chance to present my program to the working class,” Lehman said. “We must break up the UAW apparatus and give power to the rank-and-file workers on the shop floor. This debate is a historic event. For the first time, a rank-and-file worker will be able to tell the UAW bureaucracy what we think of them.
“The UAW is not promoting this debate at all. It doesn’t want workers to know it is even happening. This isn’t surprising, considering the bureaucracy opposed the idea of direct elections in the first place. The only reason this debate is even happening is because the UAW leadership was convicted of robbing workers of our dues money and selling us out to the companies.
“I have received messages of support from workers across the country heading into the debate, urging me to confront the bureaucracy about the conditions we workers face, both in auto as well as health care, education and other sectors.
“Even though I was not given time off to prepare for the debate (I had to use one of my few personal days to attend the debate itself), I feel confident because I know I have the support of the rank and file.
“I encourage everyone to watch the debate, which begins at 6:00 p.m. and will last until 8:00 p.m. You can watch the debate live at WillforUAWPresident.org/debate.”
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