Forecasting Biden’s Foreign Policy in Southeast Asia

The day before John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961, he met with an outgoing President Eisenhower. According to the Pentagon Papers, “Eisenhower said with considerable emotion that Laos was the key to the entire area of Southeast Asia, that we should make every effort to persuade member nations of SEATO … to defend the freedom of Laos. President-elect Kennedy … asked if the situation seemed to be approaching a climax. Eisenhower stated that the entire proceeding was extremely confused.”

If, two months ago, a similar briefing had been given to a President-elect Biden by an outgoing President Trump, the details 60 years on would have been different, but the tone, tenor, and message strikingly similar. The main difference would have been a shift in focus from Laos—and by extension, Indochina—in 1961 to Thailand on the mainland and to the Philippines in maritime Southeast Asia. 

That is, a shift from countries six decades ago whose governments the U.S. was propping up to those today with which it has increasingly uncertain relations. And, of course, two weeks after that recent imaginary briefing, Myanmar would have been added to the list overnight.

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'Antithetical to the Gospel': Ex-Arkansas Gov. Huckabee slammed for racist tweet in attack on MLB, corporations

Former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee came under criticism Saturday for a tweet attacking Major League Baseball and several corporations that many found bigoted and insensitive.

"I’ve decided to 'identify' as Chinese. Coke will like me, Delta will agree with my 'values' and I’ll probably get shoes from Nike & tickets to @MLB games. Ain’t America great?" Huckabee wrote.

Huckabee's tweet, which he published amid a year of rising hate crimes against Asian Americans, was quickly condemned as racist, as many Asian Americans and anti-hate speech advocates have pointed to anti-Chinese rhetoric as a key driver in rising anti-Asian hate in the U.S.

  

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Trump calls for MLB boycott, warns ‘woke’ corporations after All-Star Game pullout

Former President Donald Trump fired a high, hard fastball at Major League Baseball on Friday night, urging fans to boycott the "national pastime" over its decision to pull this year’s All-Star Game from the Atlanta area.

Trump asserted MLB’s leadership was "afraid of the Radical Left Democrats," claiming the party pressured MLB to relocate its mid-summer game because of Georgia’s new election law, recently signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.

The former president also took aim at large "woke" corporations that issued statements against the Georgia law.

"Baseball is already losing tremendous numbers of fans," Trump wrote, "and now they leave Atlanta with their All-Star Game because they are afraid of the Radical Left Democrats who do not want voter I.D., which is desperately needed, to have anything to do with our elections.

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Capitol attack shatters sense of calm, raising fresh questions about security

The alert of another violent attack on the US Capitol grounds sent shockwaves through Washington, DC, Friday -- shattering the sense of relative calm at the start of the holiday weekend and reminding everyone that a nation just beginning to crawl out from under the pandemic's long shadow is also still under threat nearly three months after the January 6 insurrection.

In the weeks since former President Donald Trump left office and President Joe Biden took command, the seat of government had begun to take on a tenor of something akin to a humming efficiency. Covid-19 vaccinations are accelerating at an ever-increasing clip.

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Europe is torn over whether to take Putin's help on vaccines

Europe's lackluster vaccination program has presented one of the continent's greatest foes with a golden opportunity to score a serious diplomatic victory.

Earlier this week, the Kremlin released a readout from a video conference between French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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Madonna King: The 10 questions Jenny can answer to help PM understand

Prime Minister Scott Morrison recently put stock on the wisdom of his wife Jenny, taking her advice on how to respond with more empathy over the Brittany Higgins’ revelations.

As the scandal around his government deepens, it might be time for him to seek Jenny’s input on a host of other issues.

Here are 10 questions to discuss over dinner at The Lodge. 

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Doctor’s note lets Defence Minister Linda Reynolds skip parliament – and Senate grilling – for another month

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds will remain on sick leave for another month, amid calls for her to resign or be dumped from her portfolio by the Prime Minister.

The extended absence means she will miss the next fortnight of parliamentary sittings in Canberra, as well as the forensic scrutiny and interrogation often experienced during Senate estimates hearings. 

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Biden announces $1,400 payments will begin this month

President Biden on Saturday announced that the $1,400 coronavirus stimulus checks will begin being distributed in March.

The payments come after the Senate passed the nearly $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill Saturday in a 50-49 partisan vote. 

This is the first round of stimulus checks that will be given out under Biden. Former President Trump passed two stimulus checks last year, one for $1,200 and another for $600. 

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Albany Times Union editorial board calls for Cuomo's resignation

The Albany Times Union’s editorial board has joined in on calls for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) to resign amid a series of controversies surrounding the elected official, writing that Cuomo “has squandered the public’s trust at a time when it’s needed more than ever.” 

The editorial board in a Saturday opinion piece specifically cited revelations of Cuomo’s administration intentionally withholding coronavirus death toll numbers in nursing homes, as well as multiple allegations of sexual harassment against the governor. 

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Another former Cuomo aide accuses him of harassment

A third former aide of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has come forward with allegations of sexual harassment, including inappropriate remarks and unsolicited touching while she worked in his office. 

Ana Liss, who served as a policy and operations aide in Cuomo’s office from 2013 to 2015, told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Saturday that Cuomo asked if she had a boyfriend and also called her “sweetheart.” 

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Biden to sign executive order aimed at increasing voting access

President Biden on Sunday will sign an executive order leveraging federal resources to protect and strengthen access to the ballot as Republican legislatures around the country seek to restrict voting rights in the wake of the 2020 election.

Biden will sign an order that will direct agencies to increase access to voter registration materials and reduce barriers to voting for certain groups, including military and overseas voters, Native Americans, people with disabilities and Native Americans. 

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Advocates warn restrictive voting bills could end Georgia's record turnout

Georgia voting rights advocates are worried Republicans are clawing back hard-won progress made in the state after it saw record turnout among voters in November’s general election and the Senate runoffs earlier this year.

A new batch of bills making their way through Georgia's legislature are raising red flags among voting rights groups who say the state might not have seen the record turnout it did in the recent races if the bills were in place.

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Sinema pushes back on criticism of her vote against $15 minimum wage, implying that it's sexist

Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's (Ariz.) office is pushing back against criticism of her Friday vote to reject a $15 minimum wage bill, with a spokesperson for the senator calling commentary on the way in which she cast her vote sexist.

Sinema was among eight Democrats who voted against the legislation, which was sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in an effort to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.  

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Why Establishment Conservatives Still Miss the Point of Trump

The debate on “What conservatism means after Trump” has begun. Some people want to return to the status quo ante, and others realize that it is dead—but don’t agree on what should replace it. 

It’s in this spirit that Avik Roy, president of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, has published an interesting essay in National Review, outlining what he believes should define conservatism after 2020. 

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State Department aide appointed by Trump stormed the Capitol, FBI says

A former State Department aide in president Donald Trump’s administration has been charged with participating in the deadly siege at the Capitol and assaulting officers who were trying to guard the building, court papers show.

It’s the first known case to be brought against a Trump appointee in the January 6 insurrection, which led to Trump’s historic second impeachment.

Federico Klein, who also worked for Trump’s 2016 campaign, was seen wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat amid the throng of people in a tunnel trying to force their way into the Capitol on January 6, the papers say. 

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Cuomo accuser Charlotte Bennett discusses allegations in CBS interview: 'He felt like he was untouchable'

Charlotte Bennett, a 25-year-old former aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who accused him of sexual harassment, said during a televised interview Thursday night that she believed the 63-year-old governor propositioned her for sex during a workplace meeting.

"Without explicitly saying it, he implied to me that I was old enough for him and he was lonely," the 25-year-old former Cuomo aide told Norah O’Donnell of "CBS Evening News". 

She said the governor, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, felt emboldened as his national profile rose amid his daily televised outbreak updates. 

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National People's Congress: China plans 'green transformation' of economy

The National People's Congress, China's annual parliamentary event, opens Friday in Beijing. For the second straight year, it will be a mostly virtual event because of the coronavirus pandemic.   

Although the NPC is China's main legislature, the Communist Party ensures that important decisions are made long before any proposals reach the body.

The party sometimes uses the NPC to reveal major policy and personnel changes. 

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Self-Proclaimed Billionaire Trump Now Begging Small-Dollar Donors For Money

ORLANDO, Fla. ― After years of claiming he was so rich he didn’t need anyone else’s money for his political campaigns, Donald Trump is officially asking small-dollar donors ― many of them lower income and older ― to send him cash, potentially hurting the Republican Party’s small-dollar program.

The request was tucked in near the end of his first public appearance since leaving the presidency Jan. 20, a 90-minute speech Sunday that largely recycled his oft-repeated lies about the November election and his record in office. 

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House Passes Landmark Voting Rights Bill, Setting Up First Major Filibuster Fight

The House of Representatives passed a landmark bill on voting rights, elections, campaign finance and ethics reform by a vote of 220-210 on Wednesday.

The For the People Act, congressional Democrats’ top legislative priority, passed with 220 Democrats in support and one Democrat (Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi) and 209 Republicans in opposition. (Two Republicans did not vote.) This encapsulates a major contrast between the nation’s two major political parties: One is pushing to expand access to the ballot, the other is trying to restrict it. 

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Interior Secretary Nominee Deb Haaland Clears Senate Committee

Interior Secretary nominee Rep. Deb Haaland moved one step closer to confirmation on Thursday, after a Senate committee voted to advance her nomination to the full chamber.

One Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), joined Democrats in voting to move forward with Haaland’s nomination. 

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