The White House said Friday a new website, COVIDTests.gov, will begin accepting orders Jan. 19 for free rapid tests shipped to Americans' homes.
Why it matters: The White House emphasized the importance of testing during the Omicron surge, with President Biden on Thursday announcing plans for the government to have 1 billion tests.
Driving the news: Americans can order four tests per residential address beginning Jan. 19 from the website.
The tests will ship within 7 to 12 days of ordering, senior administration officials said during a press call Friday, but that timeline could shorten as the program ramps up.
The U.S. Postal Service will package and deliver the tests, with orders in the continental U.S. sent through first class package service.
There will also be a call line for Americans who lack internet access to order tests.
What they're saying: "There's lots of ways to get tests, and this is just one more," a senior administration official explained.
Flashback: The debacle surrounding the rollout of the HealthCare.gov website during the Obama administration looms over a new government website, but senior administration officials said they are confident the site will keep up with demand.
The U.S. Digital Service, a group of government technologists, has assisted the Postal Service with the website.
"We didn't start from scratch," a senior administration official said, adding that, the Postal Service already has a "website that does sell goods to the public and has for quite some time. Of course, every website launch poses some risks, we're quite cognizant of that."
So-So Typical for Trump's new apprentices like three of Arizona's U.S. Congress members Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar and Debi Lesko who got some fair treatment on Tuesday from Jonathan Swan:
Trump to elevate election deniers at Arizona rally
"Former President Donald Trump announced guest speakers today for his Saturday rally in Arizona, and most of them share a common trait: they led efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Why this matters: Trump, who remains the most powerful figure in the Republican Party, is making his false claims about the 2020 election the centerpiece of the GOP platform.
Between the lines: Trump has made clear to all who seek his endorsement that if they want his blessing, they need to make overturning the 2020 election as much of a priority as subverting future elections.
The details: The guest list for Trump's Arizona rally is a who's who of election deniers.
The headliner, Kari Lake, who Trump endorsed for Arizona's gubernatorial race, told OAN she wouldn't have certified Biden as the victor if she'd been governor.
State Rep. Mark Finchem, Trump's endorsed candidate to oversee Arizona's elections as Secretary of State, not only denies the 2020 election result but attended "Stop the Steal" rallies in January.
Arizona Reps. Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs and Debbie Leskoall voted on Jan. 6 to object to the certification of Joe Biden's victory.
Kelli Ward, chair of Arizona's Republican Party, pushed the false conspiracy theory that foreign powers manipulated Dominion voting machines to secure Biden's election victory.
Boris Epshteyn, who co-hosts Steve Bannon's podcast, uses his platform to promote Trump's claims about a stolen election.
And Mike Lindell, the CEO of MyPillow, is arguably even more committed than Trump is to overturning the 2020 election. He says he has spent $25 million so far on his campaign to undermine and subvert the election.
The one outlier in the speaking line-up is Alveda King, who is Martin Luther King Jr.'s niece. She is an outspoken Trump supporter, but unlike the other speakers, has not made it her mission to overturn the 2020 election.
The big picture: Trump is also working to install Republicans in election administration positions who could be well-positioned to overturn future elections.
And he is methodically driving out and destroying all Republicans who say President Biden legitimately won the 2020 election.
What we're seeing: To enforce party-wide obedience, Trump is jumping on anyone who contradicts his claims about election fraud. He punishes even the smallest of deviations. . .
[...]
The big picture: Trump is also working to install Republicans in election administration positions who could be well-positioned to overturn future elections.
And he is methodically driving out and destroying all Republicans who say President Biden legitimately won the 2020 election.
What we're seeing: To enforce party-wide obedience, Trump is jumping on anyone who contradicts his claims about election fraud. He punishes even the smallest of deviations.
On Sunday, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that after investigating the 2020 election they found no evidence of fraud that "would have changed the vote outcome in a single state."
On Monday, Trump sent out an email statement blasting Rounds as "woke" and a "RINO" (Republican In Name Only) and promising to never again endorse him.
These attacks come at a high cost. Republicans who've contradicted Trump on the 2020 election — from the highest-profile like Liz Cheney down to obscure state officials — have been inundated with threats to themselves and their families from angry Trump supporters.
The bottom line: Trump's goal, his advisers say, is to either make life so miserable for them that they quit or end their careers by backing a successful primary challenge.
Trump's efforts are working. His few remaining opponents in the party are mostly either quitting out of exhaustion or choosing to keep their dissent to themselves."
Let's get into it - ". . .The Freedom to Vote Act was put together in a compromise drafted significantly by Joe Manchin, with [Sen.] Amy Klobuchar and others participating, so that Manchin could have something that he believed was not as wide-ranging and far-reaching as the original Protect the Vote Act. But that he was confident that this could be made bipartisan, because of course, there are Republicans who believe in the rule of law and fair elections.
And he’s gotten zero. So they’re seeing that that guardrail just isn’t going to apply, unless you can change the rules. . ."
Kyrsten Sinema’s opposition to filibuster reform rests on a myth
Senate rules are fostering obstruction — not bipartisanship.
(Image credit: Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) arrives to a caucus meeting with Senate Democrats on December 17, 2021 in Washington, DC.
"In a speech on Thursday, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) reiterated her commitment to preserving the filibuster by citing a familiar reason: bipartisanship.
The House passed voting rights legislation on Thursday in a way that is intended to set up a battle in the Senate over that issue as well as the filibuster.
The measure passed in a 220-203 party-line vote.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has vowed to put the measure to a vote in the coming days before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in a bid to highlight state laws approved by GOP-dominated state governments that Democrats say will make it more difficult for their supporters — including minority voters — to vote.
“Nothing less is at stake than our democracy,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
The manner in which the legislation was approved allows Schumer to bring it straight to the floor. But Democrats would need 60 votes — including 10 GOP votes — to get it to President Biden’s desk given the filibuster.
Two Democratic senators — Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — oppose making changes to the filibuster that would allow the voting rights measure to sidestep the procedural hurdle and be approved on a majority vote.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) doubled down on her support for the 60-vote legislative filibuster Thursday, roughly an hour before President Biden meets with Democrats to push for changing the Senate rule in order to pass voting rights legislation.
“I will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country,” Sinema said during a Senate floor speech.
She added that she has had “long-standing support” for the legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes for most legislation to advance in the Senate.
“It is the view I continue to hold. It is the belief I have shared many times in public settings and in private settings,” Sinema said. “Eliminating the 60-vote threshold will simply guarantee that we lose a critical tool that we need to safeguard our democracy.”
As Sinema was speaking, several GOP senators were on the floor listening to her speech: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Sens. John Thune (S.D.), Mitt Romney (Utah), Susan Collins (Maine), Ben Sasse (Neb.), Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), Tom Cotton (Ark.), Ted Cruz (Texas) and Thom Tillis (N.C.).
Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.), who spoke before Sinema, and Jeff Merkley (Ore.) were at their desks for Sinema’s speech.
This Vichy Democrat collaborator appeasing the enemies of democracy made the bullshit assertion that she supports the voting rights bills, but not more than she supports the Jim Crow relic Senate filibuster rule, or asking permission from the enemies of democracy who tried to overthrow American democracy on January 6, 2021. She does not support voting rights if she does not support doing what everyone knows is necessary to pass voting rights. Stop treating your constituents as if they are as ignorant and gullible as you are, Senator. They see right through your charade.
Sinema reiterated on Thursday that she supports the two voting rights bills and raised a red flag over the state-level changes to voting rules. . ."
As Norm Ornstein, a political scientist at the American Enterprise Institute, has emphasized, however, the belief that the filibuster fuels bipartisanship is one of many myths about the rule. The filibuster requires most bills to get 60 votes in order to proceed in the Senate, but it’s often used as a tool to obstruct legislation, not foster it.
“Certainly there was a time when we had well-established norms in the Senate that fostered problem-solving and bipartisanship,” Ornstein told Vox. “That time is long gone.”
Since Democrats took control of Congress following the 2020 elections, Republican filibusters have killed many of their bills. Democrats are now attempting, again, to pass major voting rights bills (the Freedom to Vote and John Lewis Voting Rights acts), and they are, again, expected to be filibustered by the GOP.
Most Democrats, including President Joe Biden, have had enough. The party’s now pushing for filibuster reform — and a vote on altering the rule is imminent. But moderate Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sinema have resisted calls to make changes. Thursday, Sinema made it clear she wants the filibuster to stay the way it is.
“I will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country,” Sinema said in remarks emphasizing her support for the filibuster. Sinema’s speech, which effectively dooms Democrats’ chances at a rules change since they need all 50 members on board, rests on the idea that keeping the vote threshold would encourage more compromise and less division.
In a conversation this week, Ornstein spoke with Vox about why this idea is mistaken, why the Senate needs a rules change, and why many arguments against it deserve more scrutiny.
This transcript has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Li Zhou
"You’ve pushed for filibuster reform for a long time, but such calls have intensified in recent months as states have passed new laws restricting voting rights. What is different to you about the political moment we’re in right now?
Norm Ornstein
First, we’re finally seeing, I think, a level of frustration, over the misuse of the filibuster, not as an infrequently applied tool by a minority on an issue about which they feel very, very strongly, but as a cynical weapon of mass obstruction. And that started with increased vengeance in the Obama years. But it’s continued. And it means if you don’t have more than 60 of your own party members, you’re just dramatically limited in what you can do in policy terms. And it’s basically because you have a minority party that’s not looking to solve problems, but to figure out how to block anything of significance in your own agenda, and make sure problems fester so that they have more traction to gain political advantage.
That’s different. It’s been different, really, for the last almost 15 years. And it’s reached a point of deep frustration. . .
[...] If you’re going to have to go to the floor and defend the indefensible, explain why you’re with the NRA gun manufacturers and not 90 percent of Americans, at some point you’re probably going to say, why don’t we have a compromise on this? So, part of the argument to Sinema and Manchin is if you want incentives to compromise, there are zero now. But you can have an incentive to compromise if they’re going to have to go through pain and defend things that don’t have majority support even within their own ranks."
Moscow will continue to ignore American demands that it stops military exercises near the country’s border with Ukraine because nobody has the right to dictate what Russia can do inside its own territory, the Kremlin has said.
"Wednesday, presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov commented on the current talks between the US and NATO, in which the American side seeks to restrict troop movement near the Russian-Ukrainian frontier.
“We are still talking about our units and our military districts on the territory of our country. Military construction and military training have continued, are continuing and will continue – this is the normal practice of any armed forces,” he said, repeating a line he has used many times regarding Russia’s right to move its own troops wherever it sees fit. . .
The suggestions include a prohibition on NATO expansion, restrictions on missile placement, and a halt to the stationing of NATO troops on the territory of former Warsaw Pact countries. Following the talks, US State Department spokesman Ned Price suggested that Washington would be open to reciprocal agreements on missiles and transparency of troop movements.
According to Peskov, Russia is firmly in favor of coming to an agreement with NATO. “The president said that there is not and cannot be room for any ultimatums,” he said.
“The situation has simply reached such a critical point in terms of pan-European security and in terms of the national interests of our country, which are an integral part of Europe and the European security architecture, that unfortunately we cannot delay further and must respond concretely to the concerns that have been voiced to us.”
Needless to say, how you use language and what you call it shapes and defines the parameters and perimeters of perception. Period.
Go on...All the world's a stage and the media is the message.
There are good actors and bad actors.
Case in point: spokespersons - the chosen ones for in front-of-the-camera on-air talent.
When and where they say it matters, but finding any information clear and concise and right-to- the-point when we're all bombarded and bamboozled all the time? Forget about that!
Whose court is the ball in anyway?
The court of public opinion cuts both ways in a constant back-and-forth volley
US claims Russia planning ‘false-flag’ operation to justify Ukraine invasion
Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Friday. Moscow has persistently portrayed the crisis as a military threat from Ukraine against Russia. Photograph: Mikhail Metzel/AP
Officials: Moscow has already positioned saboteurs in Ukraine
Allegation arrives on day Ukraine hit by ‘massive’ cyber-attack
First published on Fri 14 Jan 2022 10.54 EST
"The US has alleged Russia has already positioned saboteurs in Ukraine to carry out a “false flag” operation to use as a pretext for a Russian attack, which Washington says could begin in the coming month.
They follow a week of failed diplomacy with abortive talks in Geneva, Brussels and Vienna, which did nothing to defuse the crisis provoked by Russia’s massing of more than 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s borders. Moscow has persistently portrayed the crisis as a military threat from Ukraine against Russia, without providing any evidence.
“We have information that indicates Russia has already pre-positioned a group of operatives to conduct a false flag operation in eastern Ukraine,” Jen Psaki, the White House spokeswoman, said. “The operatives are trained in urban warfare and using explosives to carry out acts of sabotage against Russia’s own proxy forces.”
The allegation was echoed by the Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby, who said that Russia was preparing “an operation designed to look like an attack on ... Russian-speaking people in Ukraine, again as an excuse to go in.”
A US official claimed that social media disinformation had been stepped up well in advance, saying: “The Russian military plans to begin these activities several weeks before a military invasion, which could begin between mid-January and mid-February.”
Russian-language posts on social media accusing Ukraine and its western backers of planning attacks appeared at the rate of 3,500 a day in December, a 200% increase from the daily average in November, the official said.
Ukrainian officials had claimed that the provocation could take the form of a violent incident at the Russian embassy or consulate, which Moscow could then blame on far-right Ukrainian extremists.
The presidential spokesman in Moscow, Dmitry Peskov, rejected the claims as “unfounded and completely unconfirmed”.
On the same day as the allegations, Ukraine was hit by a “massive” cyber-attack, with the websites of several government departments including the ministry of foreign affairs and the education ministry knocked out.
The hackers left a message on the foreign ministry website, according to reports. It said: “Ukrainians! … All information about you has become public. Be afraid and expect worse. It’s your past, present and future.”
Andriy Yermak, the head of the presidential office in Kyiv said, “practically 90%” of the affected websites were back online by mid-afternoon.
“The most strategic infrastructure in Ukraine was not be destroyed by this attack. This is a very [well] protected,” Yermak told a meeting of the Atlantic Council thinktank from Kyiv. He said Ukraine was working with the US and the UK to confirm who was behind the assault.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said that initial investigations suggested that “hacker groups associated with the Russian secret services” were responsible. The White House, however, could not immediately confirm that.
“We don’t have an attribution at this time,” a US official told reporters. “While we continue to assess the impact with the Ukrainians, it seems limited so far, with websites coming back online. We will consult with allies and partners including Ukraine.”
[...]
On Friday, there was more confirmation of Russian forces being moved towards Ukraine from across the country. The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab analysed pictures posted on TikTok and other social media this month, which it said showed Iskander mobile short-range missiles and T-72 tanks being transported westwards from the far east.
The Kremlin has demanded an assurance Ukraine and Georgia will never join NATO. It wants NATO to remove troops and equipment from its member states in eastern Europe, and to return deployment to 1997 levels, before NATO expanded.
On Friday Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Moscow would not wait indefinitely for a response. “We have run out of patience,” he said at a news conference. “The west has been driven by hubris and has exacerbated tensions in violation of its obligations and common sense.”
Meanwhile, Moscow said it had carried out a special operation against the ransomware group REvil following a request from the US. The FSB spy agency which Vladimir Putin used to run said it had detained and charged the group’s members.
In Washington, a US official praised the arrests, saying that one suspect was behind the disruptive hack of the Colonial Pipeline, but separated the issue from tensions on Ukraine, according to Agence France-Presse. “I want to be very clear – in our mind, this is not related to what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine. I don’t speak for the Kremlin’s motives, but we’re pleased with these initial actions.” AFP did not name the official.
The US embassy in Moscow had no immediate comment. But the move appears to be part of carrot and stick operation following the latest cyber-attack on Ukraine, designed to wrong-foot the Americans. Thus far, the Kremlin has made little effort to curb hacks on western targets by Russia-based cyber-criminals.
Yermak said that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had proposed a three-way summit with Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin in an effort to end the crisis.
“We’re still waiting for the reaction to this from the Russian side, but our American partners take our proposal with some interest,” Yermak said, warning of the potential cost of failure to prevent a war.
“If it’s happened, it will be a big tragedyandyouunderstandit will be big war because … most citizens of the Ukraine will fight against aggressors,” Yermak said.
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