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      in US Politics

      Joe Biden feels political ground shift as Israel-Gaza conflict rages on

      by

      In his staunch defence of Israel, Joe Biden is sticking to a course set decades ago as a young senator, and so far he has not given ground on the issue to the progressive wing of his party or many Jewish Democrats urging a tougher line towards Benjamin Netanyahu. Biden has even been prepared to face isolation at the UN security council, at the potential cost of his own credibility on multilateralism and human rights. But analysts say that as the death toll rises with no sign of a ceasefire, the domestic and international pressures on the president could become impossible to ignore.American Jews have grown increasingly sceptical of Netanyahu and his policies. A Pew Research Center survey published last week found that only 40% thought the prime minister was providing good leadership, falling to 32% among younger Jews. Strikingly, only 34% strongly opposed sanctions or other punitive measures against Israel.The liberal Jewish American lobby, J Street, has growing influence in the Democratic party and has urged Biden to do more to stop the bloodshed and the Israeli policies that have helped drive the conflict.“We’re also urging the administration to make clear publicly that Israeli efforts to evict and displace Palestinian families in East Jerusalem and the West Bank are unacceptable, as is the use of excessive force against protesters,” said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the group’s president.A prominent progressive Jewish writer, Peter Beinart, wrote a commentary in the New York Times last week arguing for the right of Palestinian refugees to return as the only long-term solution to the cycle of violence. “The East Jerusalem evictions are so combustible because they continue a pattern of expulsion that is as old as Israel itself,” Beinart wrote.Donald Trump’s unquestioning embrace of Netanyahu and his policies contributed to making Israel policy a partisan issue. Facing increasing opposition from American Jews, the former Israeli ambassador to the US Ron Dermer argued publicly last week that the Israeli government should spend more of its energy reaching out to “passionate” American evangelicals, rather than Jews who he said were “disproportionately among our critics”.US evangelicals such as Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo helped shape Trump policy on Israel. They are not a force in the Democratic party but a consideration in red and purple states Biden will have to win in next year’s midterm congressional elections to maintain a majority.However, he cannot afford to alienate the progressive wing of his own party. It was progressive enthusiasm, and the support of prominent figures such as Bernie Sanders, that helped Biden win the presidency where Hillary Clinton failed.Congressional progressives such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been more and more outspoken in their criticism of the Biden line of emphasising Israel’s right of defence “If the Biden admin can’t stand up to an ally, who can it stand up to? How can they credibly claim to stand for human rights?” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter on Saturday.This is happening with the support of the United States.I don’t care how any spokesperson tries to spin this. The US vetoed the UN call for ceasefire.If the Biden admin can’t stand up to an ally, who can it stand up to?How can they credibly claim to stand for human rights? https://t.co/bXY99O3Wqp— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 15, 2021
      Biden worked hard to cultivate the progressives during the campaign and afterwards, setting up policy workshops with them, but the current crisis has brought that honeymoon in an end.Most analysts, however, say Biden set his course on the Israel long ago and will be hard to shift. He was a staunch defender in the Senate for decades, supporting the Israeli bombing of a suspected nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981, for example, and labelling himself “Israel’s best Catholic friend”.His foreign policy outlook is based on the foundation of adhering to and strengthening America’s traditional alliances.“Biden has his own compass when it comes to the region, and is less susceptible to pressure from the left flank of his party,” said Carmiel Arbit, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. “Although there is some pressure within the Democratic party to take a less sympathetic stance towards Israel, and it is certainly starting to drive a different conversation, it is not driving policy on this issue.”Arbit added: “But a lot depends on the situation. If the conflict escalates, and casualty numbers rise significantly, Biden’s posture could change.”Daniel Levy, the head of the US/Middle East Project thinktank, agreed that the political ground is shifting under Biden’s feet. “It is premature to suggest that the special treatment Israel receives in American politics and policy, and that has previously traversed Republican and Democratic administrations, is definitively over,” Levy said. “Yet the dynamics are pushing in that direction and the signs of change are already visible – the question is how far and how fast those will move.”In the short term, he added, the key will be the views expressed in the Senate, which is split 50-50, with Biden’s agenda often dependent on Kamala Harris, the vice-president, casting the deciding vote. More

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      in US Politics

      Joe Biden’s Venmo account discovered in ‘less than 10 minutes’ – report

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      Venmo accounts for Joe Biden and Dr Jill Biden were removed on Friday after BuzzFeed News said it easily found the US president on the payment app – a discovery it said raised national security questions.The website went looking for Biden’s account after it was mentioned in a New York Times report on White House conditions and working practices.Under the headline “Beneath Joe Biden’s Folksy Demeanor, a Short Fuse and an Obsession With Details”, the Times reported lengthy policy debates, angry outbursts at advisers and officials – and plenty of time spent with grandchildren.“They have been known to show their grandfather apps like TikTok,” the story said. “One adviser said he had sent the grandchildren money using Venmo.”The Trump administration wrestled unsuccessfully with the popularity of TikTok, an app for sharing short videos, over its ownership by a Chinese company, ByteDance.Venmo, which is owned by PayPal, enables simple payments between contacts. Transactions are public by default. They can be made private but contact lists remain visible. Biden’s payments were private. BuzzFeed did not publish names of his contacts.Reporters commonly scan Venmo for leads. The scandal engulfing the Republican congressman Matt Gaetz, for example, has included reporting on payments to women, allegedly for sex, made by a former associate.One recent Daily Beast headline read: “Gaetz Paid Accused Sex Trafficker, Who Then Venmo’d Teen”. Gaetz denies all such accusations.BuzzFeed said it took “less than 10 minutes” to find Biden’s account, “using only a combination of the app’s built-in search tool and public friends feature”.“In the process,” it said, it “found nearly a dozen Biden family members and mapped out a social web that encompasses not only the first family but a wide network of people around them, including the president’s children, grandchildren, senior White House officials and all of their contacts on Venmo.”The White House did not immediately comment. By late Friday, BuzzFeed said, accounts for the president and first lady had been removed.A Venmo spokesman said: “The safety and privacy of all Venmo users and their information is always a top priority, and we take this responsibility very seriously.“Customers always have the ability to make their transactions private and determine their own privacy settings in the app. We’re consistently evolving and strengthening the privacy measures for all Venmo users to continue to provide a safe, secure place to send and spend money.”In a 2018 Guardian report, Christine Bannan, then of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said: “Venmo is an unusual app because it combines social media with financial transactions.“One of those is usually fairly public and one is usually very private, so it’s hard to gauge consumer expectations of privacy.”Gennie Gebhart, acting activism director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told BuzzFeed: “Venmo’s privacy failures are already a big problem for everyday folks who use Venmo, and that’s been the case for years.“All of those problems are magnified when we’re talking about a major public figure.” More

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      in World Politics

      White America’s Burden in the Holy Land

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      Earlier this week, an Israeli military official evoked “a worst-case scenario” conducted by three Israeli infantry brigades that would amount to crushing Gaza on the ground rather than just bombarding it. Some observers have noticed that the current worse-than-ever-before-but-not-as-bad-as-what’s-to-come scenario has miraculously permitted Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to hang on to power after the March 23 election deprived him of the hope of heading a new coalition.

      The Future of Jerusalem Matters to Us All

      READ MORE

      Washington Post reporter Steve Hendrix notes that “the escalation of fighting brought a last-minute reprieve from what could have been the end of [Netanyahu’s] record run at the top of Israeli politics.” Hendrix quotes Gayil Talshir, a professor at Hebrew University: “The riot came just in time to prevent the change of government in Israel.” Despite this “coincidence,” Hendrix avoids suggesting what some suspect: that Netanyahu’s policies and recent actions may have been designed to provoke the current crisis.

      Rather than delve into history, reflect on the meaning or explore possible hidden motives, Hendrix prefers the approach that Western media have long preferred: presenting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a combined violent chess game and political popularity contest between two obdurate parties whose leaders are unwilling to compromise. Hendrix reduces an enduring historical drama of vast geopolitical dimensions to a petty game of leaders seeking electoral advantage by appealing to their base, à la Donald Trump. He calls the new wave of violence “a boon to the leaders of both camps — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas militants — who have been struggling and scraping to salvage their political standing.” That’s the kind of narrative that appeals to The Post’s readers living in their bubble within the Beltway. History be damned; this is electoral politics.

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      The New York Times came closer to signaling Netanyahu’s implication in the current troubles. Isabel Kershner cites centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid, who “blamed the prime minister for the spiraling sense of chaos.” Kershner focuses on the likelihood that Israel will at some point in the near future have a coalition government including Mansour Abbas’ Islamic Raam party, which would mark a monumental change in Israeli politics. In the end, however, Kershner appears to believe that it’s still Netanyahu who will emerge from the rubble as the leader of whatever unstable political coalition he can cobble together.

      As the violence escalates, the world wonders what US President Joe Biden intends to do. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was the first to express the administration’s take, which for the moment sounds like an endorsement of the status quo: “There is, first, a very clear and absolute distinction between a terrorist organization, Hamas, that is indiscriminately raining down rockets, in fact, targeting civilians, and Israel’s response, defending itself.” The idea that Biden’s administration might try, for once, to play the role of honest broker would seem dead in the coastal waters of Gaza.

      Blinken’s recognition of Palestinian suffering only appeared when he claimed that Israel has “an extra burden.” This, of course, implies that its main burden consists of “targeting terrorists” in response to indiscriminately launched rockets. The “extra burden” consists of trying “to prevent civilian deaths, noting that Palestinian children have been killed in Israeli strikes.”

      Today’s Daily Devil’s Dictionary definition:

      Extra burden:

      A responsibility supplementing the one Rudyard Kipling famously identified as “the white man’s burden,” which consisted of dominating “sullen peoples, Half devil and half child,” the kind of people who for their amusement launch rockets indiscriminately at white people.

      Contextual Note

      Thanks to the growing realization that Israel is firmly set on maintaining an apartheid state, for the first time in decades, US politicians have begun to wonder whether it makes any sense to continue the nation’s unconditional support of every Israeli government. Israel has continued expanding its illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in direct violation of UN resolutions and the Geneva Convention. The current troubles began with Israel’s brazen attempt to evict Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem and replace them with Jewish settlers, followed by the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

      For Blinken, the social and historical context of these events simply doesn’t exist. He wants people to believe it all started with the launching of rockets by the Palestinians. Nor do context and historical reality interest Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, who insisted that details are irrelevant when the US has vowed “‘ironclad support’ for Israel’s right to defend itself.” This is totally consistent with Biden’s promise, in a phone call this week to Netanyahu, of “unwavering support” for Israel’s “right to defend itself.”

      Blinken showed less concern for the possible war crimes now taking place than for the bad PR they might generate. “[W]henever we see civilian casualties, and particularly when we see children caught in the crossfire losing their lives, that has a powerful impact,” he said. Blinken worries about what “we see” and its  “impact” in the media. This implies that if we didn’t see it and if the impact was reduced, all would be well. Ignorance is bliss.

      Biden reinforced everyone’s expectation that there would be nothing new under the shining sun of US diplomacy when he offered this comment: “My hope is that we will see this coming to a conclusion sooner than later.” What conclusion is he thinking of? And why is an American president just hoping that something good will happen? Why isn’t he intervening to facilitate not a “conclusion” but a resolution? Some will point out that every US president’s hands are tied by a status quo that holds as its first commandment, thou shalt never criticize Israel, its leaders or its policies.

      Historical Note

      Following World War II, Western nations assumed the entire civilization’s shame at the crimes of Nazi Germany. The British used the newly created United Nations as the instrument by which the West could atone for Germany’s racist sins through the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. 

      Once that was done, the die was cast. The West, led by the British — who had assumed “responsibility” for the region of the former Ottoman Empire — decided how and at whose expense (not their own) the surviving European Jews might be rewarded. Giving them Palestine seemed like the easy way out for the Western world as a whole. The British wanted out anyway. It also had the advantage of establishing a state in the Middle East whose culture would be basically Western and European.

      Embed from Getty Images

      Neither the British, the Americans nor the French — all in various ways implicated in the new order to be established in the Middle East — imagined that Israel would evolve to become an aggressive nation increasingly focused on bullying its neighbors and claiming its own particular version of exceptionalism. French President Charles de Gaulle was the first to notice it, on the occasion of the Six-Day War in 1967. Western leaders may have naively believed that the same Arabs who allowed themselves to be bullied by the Turks for centuries would accept with docility the rule of their new masters, who claimed to be building a modern nation on socialist and egalitarian principles.

      In the first decade of Israel’s existence, the US refused to identify with the new nation’s interests, notably during the Suez Crisis in 1956 in which the Eisenhower administration countered the Franco-British alliance. It also viewed with hostility the presumed socialist ideology of Israel. At the time, the WASP (white Anglo-Saxon Protestant) elite maintained a lingering anti-Semitic bias. But as the Cold War evolved and the importance of the oil economy grew, leading to increasing tensions between the West and the Muslim world, by the 1980s, the US was on track formulating its current “unconditional,” “iron-clad” alliance with Israel.

      This gradual evolution toward a position of increasingly blind support of Israel has had a profound influence on Western media in its reporting on the enduring, increasingly unresolvable conflict between the Jewish state and its Arab inhabitants. Western news media have largely accepted the role of encouraging their audience to sympathize with white, essentially European and American Israelis who feel threatened in an alien, hostile Orient.

      Greg Philo in The Guardian shows that an analysis of Western media in its reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has, for decades, reflected “a strong emphasis on Israeli perspectives.” What better illustration than yesterday’s Washington Post: “Israeli jets strike Gaza; Hamas launches rockets as Israeli ground troops stand by”?

      *[In the age of Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain, another American wit, the journalist Ambrose Bierce, produced a series of satirical definitions of commonly used terms, throwing light on their hidden meanings in real discourse. Bierce eventually collected and published them as a book, The Devil’s Dictionary, in 1911. We have shamelessly appropriated his title in the interest of continuing his wholesome pedagogical effort to enlighten generations of readers of the news. Read more of The Daily Devil’s Dictionary on Fair Observer.]

      The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy. More

    • 213 Shares179 Views

      in US Politics

      ‘Today is a great day for America’: Biden removes his mask as CDC relaxes guidance – live

      by

      Key events

      Show

      5.46pm EDT
      17:46

      Unvaccinated Latinos in the US want the shot – but have trouble with access

      5.01pm EDT
      17:01

      Today so far

      4.03pm EDT
      16:03

      ‘Today is a great day for America,’ Biden says as CDC relaxes mask guidance

      2.31pm EDT
      14:31

      Vaccinated people can participate in indoor activities without masks or distancing, CDC says

      2.09pm EDT
      14:09

      Government to ease up guidance on indoor mask-wearing

      1.22pm EDT
      13:22

      Today so far

      12.33pm EDT
      12:33

      Colonial Pipeline now reaching full operational capacity but ‘hiccups’ likely, Biden says

      Live feed

      Show

      5.46pm EDT
      17:46

      Unvaccinated Latinos in the US want the shot – but have trouble with access

      Latinos in the US are reporting the lowest rates of vaccination. According to a new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, “one-third of unvaccinated Hispanic adults say they want a vaccine as soon as possible, about twice the share as among unvaccinated Black and White adults.”
      Among unvaccinated Hispanic adults, nearly two-thirds were worried about missing work due to side effects, and half were worried they’d have to pay for it, the survey found. About 40% were worried they’d have to provide a social security number in order to get a vaccine and 35% were worried that signing up could affect them or their family’s immigration process – a holdover from the Trump administration’s “public charge” rule that held back green cards from immigrants who used public services.

      5.17pm EDT
      17:17

      Chip Roy, a hardline conservative Republican congressman of Texas will run to replace Liz Cheney as GOP conference chair.
      Roy had raised concerns that Elise Stefanik, the New York representative who is poised to ascend to conference chair after Republicans in the House ousted Cheney over her refusal to endorse false Trump’s election fraud conspiracy theory, is too moderate.
      Despite Stefanik’s more moderate record on policy issues, the congresswoman has whole-heartedly embraced Trump and Trumpism, earning the favor of the former president. Roy, a member of the Freedom Caucus, wrote a letter to colleagues advising against electing Stefanik, based on her votes against Trump’s border wall and tax cuts, and her votes for climate action.
      Roy blamed members such as Stefanik for the party’s losses in 2018. It was members like her “playing footsie with Democrats on issues like HR5 (Equality Act) that led to Democrats steamrolling us in 2018” he said in his letter. The Equality Act would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity – most Republican lawmakers have staunchly opposed the anti-discrimination law, but Stefanik voted for it once.

      Updated
      at 5.29pm EDT

      5.01pm EDT
      17:01

      Today so far

      That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
      Here’s where the day stands so far:

      The CDC said fully vaccinated Americans no longer had to wear masks in most settings, marking a crucial moment in the country’s return to normalcy more than a year after the start of the coronavirus pandemic. “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic,” said CDC director Rochelle Walensky.
      Joe Biden celebrated the new CDC mask guidance, saying, “Today is a great day for America.” The president delivered remarks on the CDC news in the White House Rose Garden, notably not wearing a mask as he spoke to the American people. “For now, after a year of hard work and so much sacrifice, the rule is very simple: get vaccinated or wear a mask until you do,” Biden said.
      Biden said the Colonial Pipeline is now reaching full operational capacity, after a ransomware attack shut down the pipeline for several days. The president warned that it may take a few days to see the effect of the pipeline coming back online, as there could be “hiccups” as it resumes normal operations. Several east coast states have suffered gasoline shortages in recent days, as Americans went into panic-buying mode because of the shutdown.
      House speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned Republicans’ “sick” efforts to downplay the violence of the 6 January insurrection. The Democratic speaker addressed the comments from Andrew Clyde, who said yesterday that the footage of the insurrection looked like “a normal tourist visit”. “I don’t know a normal day around here when people are threatening to hang the vice-president of the United States or shoot the speaker in the forehead,” Pelosi said. “It was beyond denial. It fell into the range of sick.”
      Liz Cheney did not rule out the possibility of launching a presidential bid against Donald Trump to prevent him from returning to the White House. Speaking to the Today show shortly after she was removed as House Republican conference chair, Cheney said of Trump, “He must not ever again be anywhere close to the Oval Office.”

      Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

      Updated
      at 5.05pm EDT

      4.43pm EDT
      16:43

      House speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN that she will not be relaxing the rule requiring masks in the chamber because not all members have been vaccinated, even though they have been eligible for months.

      Manu Raju
      (@mkraju)
      Speaker Nancy Pelosi told me “no” she isn’t changing the rule requiring masks on the House floor.“No,” Pelosi said. “Are they all vaccinated?”

      May 13, 2021

      The Democratic speaker said two weeks ago that about 75% of House members have been vaccinated, a number that was virtually unchanged from a month earlier.

      4.31pm EDT
      16:31

      The mayor of Washington said she and her public health team are reviewing the new CDC recommendations to determine whether to relax the city’s guidance on masks.
      “Consistent with past practice, we are immediately reviewing the CDC guidance and will update DC Health guidance accordingly,” Muriel Bowser said on Twitter.
      The Democratic mayor added it is “critical that every resident, worker and visitor get vaccinated to help us crush the virus”.

      Mayor Muriel Bowser
      (@MayorBowser)
      1/ Consistent with past practice, we are immediately reviewing the CDC guidance and will update DC Health guidance accordingly.

      May 13, 2021

      4.20pm EDT
      16:20

      Joe Biden took a few questions from reporters after concluding his prepared remarks on the new mask guidance from the CDC.
      Asked about his meeting with Senate Republicans today to discuss his infrastructure plan, the president said they had a “very, very good” conversation.
      “I am very optimistic that we can reach a reasonable agreement,” Biden said, adding that both sides have engaged in a “good-faith effort” to find a compromise on an infrastructure package.
      With that, Biden and Kamala Harris walked out of the Rose Garden without wearing masks.

      4.15pm EDT
      16:15

      Joe Biden reiterated the new CDC guidance that fully vaccinated people are no longer required to wear masks in most settings.
      “For now, after a year of hard work and so much sacrifice, the rule is very simple: get vaccinated or wear a mask until you do,” Biden said.
      The president was also careful to encourage people to be kind to those who still feel more comfortable wearing masks.
      “We’ve had too much conflict, too much bitterness, too much anger, too much politicization of this issue about wearing masks,” Biden said. “Let’s put it to rest. Let’s remember we’re all Americans. Let’s remember that we are all in this together.”

      Updated
      at 4.17pm EDT

      4.10pm EDT
      16:10

      Joe Biden celebrated the new CDC guidance on mask-wearing, but he also emphasized that the country had much more work to do to get the virus completely under control.
      “The safest thing for the country is for everyone to get vaccinated,” Biden said.
      The president noted it was easier than ever to get vaccinated, as all American adults are now eligible to receive a shot.
      “We’re still losing too many Americans because we still have too many unvaccinated people,” Biden said.

      4.07pm EDT
      16:07

      Joe Biden noted that this “great day” has come at a great cost to country, which has lost more than 580,000 people to coronavirus.
      The president expressed his condolences to all Americans who had lost loved ones to coronavirus, and he expressed hope that their memories would soon bring more happiness than sadness.

      4.03pm EDT
      16:03

      ‘Today is a great day for America,’ Biden says as CDC relaxes mask guidance

      Joe Biden and Kamala Harris walked out to the Rose Garden without wearing masks, after the CDC announced that fully vaccinated people did not have to wear masks in most settings.
      As Biden walked up to the podium with an uncovered face, Harris could be heard telling him, “Great smile.”
      Biden began his remarks by saying, “Today is a great day for America in our long battle against coronavirus.”

      Joe Biden
      (@JoeBiden)
      Today is a great day for America in our long battle with COVID-19. Just a few hours ago, the CDC announced they are no longer recommending that fully vaccinated people need to wear masks.

      May 13, 2021

      The president said this “great milestone” was made possible by the country’s great success in getting hundreds of millions of vaccine doses to the American people.
      As of today, more than 250 million shots have been administered since Biden took office in January.

      Updated
      at 4.07pm EDT

      3.58pm EDT
      15:58

      The White House Rose Garden is all set up for Joe Biden’s remarks on the coronavirus pandemic and the CDC’s new guidance on mask-wearing.

      Steve Holland
      (@steveholland1)
      Nice day in the Rose Garden pic.twitter.com/FBMi7DjzC5

      May 13, 2021

      It’s 70 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny in Washington, so it’s a beautiful day to announce that fully vaccinated people no longer have to wear masks in most settings.
      Biden was supposed to start speaking about 15 minutes ago, but as per usual, he is running late, so stay tuned for updates.

      3.41pm EDT
      15:41

      Shelley Moore Capito said her group of Senate Republicans had a “very productive” meeting with Joe Biden to discuss the president’s infrastructure plan.
      “We did talk specifics,” Capito said. “And the president asked has asked us to come back and rework an offer so that he could then react to that and then re-offer to us, so we’re very encouraged.”
      She added that she was “grateful to the president and his staff for the give and take that we shared in the Oval Office”. Capito described Biden as being “very much desirous of striking a deal”.

      Updated
      at 3.47pm EDT

      3.31pm EDT
      15:31

      Joe Biden and Republican senators took their masks off during their infrastructure meeting after hearing about the new CDC guidance, according to Shelley Moore Capito.
      “We heard all about it,” Capito said of the CDC update after leaving the meeting. “The president took his [mask] off too.”

      Jennifer Jacobs
      (@JenniferJJacobs)
      “We did,” @SenCapito tells me when I asked of they all took their masks off in Oval. “We heard all about it” she said of new CDC guidance. pic.twitter.com/LHJM5BlWv9

      May 13, 2021

      Updated
      at 3.37pm EDT

      3.13pm EDT
      15:13

      Ben Wakana, a member of the White House pandemic response team, said the CDC could relax the mask guidance for vaccinated Americans because the vaccines have proven effective and those who have been vaccinated are unlikely to spread coronavirus.

      Ben Wakana
      (@benwakana46)
      Here are the reasons why the masks can come off now:1. Vaccines are effective in the real world2. Vaccines work against the variants3. Vaccinated people are unlikely to spread COVID

      May 13, 2021

      3.05pm EDT
      15:05

      Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell was seen exiting the chamber without a mask on, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed its mask guidance for fully vaccinated Americans.
      “Free at last,” the Republican leader told reporters on Capitol Hill.

      Nicholas Fandos
      (@npfandos)
      “Free at last,” says a maskless Mitch McConnell, as he exits the Senate for the week. pic.twitter.com/YfbWekZ9BW

      May 13, 2021

      2.55pm EDT
      14:55

      The White House has informed staffers that they no longer need to wear masks at work if they are fully vaccinated, according to the Washington Post.

      Tyler Pager
      (@tylerpager)
      NEWS: The White House just sent an email to staff that masks are no longer required on campus for those who are fully vaccinated.

      May 13, 2021

      2.50pm EDT
      14:50

      This is the exact wording from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the new guidance for fully vaccinated Americans:

      Risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection is minimal for fully vaccinated people. The risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission from fully vaccinated people to unvaccinated people is also reduced. Therefore, fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance. Fully vaccinated people should also continue to wear a well-fitted mask in correctional facilities and homeless shelters. …
      CDC prevention measures continue to apply to all travelers, including those who are vaccinated. All travelers are required to wear a mask on all planes, buses, trains, and other forms of public transportation traveling into, within, or out of the United States and in U.S. transportation hubs such as airports and stations.

      2.42pm EDT
      14:42

      This new graphic from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention demonstrates the importance of the agency’s new guidance for fully vaccinated people.
      On the righthand side of the visual, it shows that fully vaccinated people can safely go without masks in almost all settings.

      Ed O’Keefe
      (@edokeefe)
      HELPFUL VISUAL AID via @CDCgov: pic.twitter.com/PYfmEbgwu1

      May 13, 2021

      2.38pm EDT
      14:38

      Despite the encouraging new guidance, Dr Rochelle Walensky said fully vaccinated Americans should continue to wear masks when on modes of public transportation, such as airplanes, buses or trains.
      But fully vaccinated people are not required to wear masks in almost any other setting, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
      Asked how fully vaccinated people should handle situations where they are not sure if everyone around them has been vaccinated, Walensky noted it is the unvaccinated people (not the vaccinated people) who are assuming some risk in that scenario. More

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      in World Politics

      What the State Department and the Media Get Wrong About the JCPOA

      by

      Just as President Joe Biden’s administration waited till the very last minute to define its position of vaccine patent waivers, imperiling the effective impact on a pandemic of whatever agreement is finally reached, it has played for time with the Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). This may prove costly because of Iran’s tight electoral calendar. The failure to act quickly with the current negotiation-minded regime in Tehran, which insists on returning to the accord from which Donald Trump withdrew, risks reinforcing the Iranian hardliners in the country’s June 18 election.

      The quandary the Biden administration is dealing with may now have more to do with saving face than achieving an accord. In a New York Times article on the state of negotiations, reporters Steven Erlanger and David Sanger claim that American and Iranian leaders “share a common goal: They both want to re-enter the nuclear deal that President Donald J. Trump scrapped three years ago.” The easy path for a president who presumably represents everything Trump opposed would be simply to rescind the withdrawal. But Biden’s advisers appear to believe that returning to the old deal would make the president appear weak and unmanly after the virile performance by his predecessor who pleased his audience by taking a roundhouse punch at the hornet’s nest.

      Can the US and Iran Compromise in Vienna?

      READ MORE

      The Times reporters describe the situation in these terms. If Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken can’t come home with what he termed in January a “’longer and stronger accord’ — one that stops Iran from amassing nuclear material for generations, halts its missile tests and ends support of terrorist groups,” the US appears poised to accept Trump’s fait accompli. Republicans routinely accuse Democratic presidents of being weaklings. They believe that US presidents must perform with brio and show their muscles. Like George W. Bush in Iraq, to avoid appearing weak, Biden needs a pretext for a photo-op declaring the mission accomplished.

      According to Erlanger and Sanger, Biden “knows he cannot simply replicate what the Obama administration negotiated six years ago, after marathon sessions in Vienna and elsewhere, while offering vague promises that something far bigger and better might follow.”

      Today’s Daily Devil’s Dictionary definition:

      Bigger and better:

      The magic formula required to justify any proposed project in the consumer society

      Contextual Note

      The Times reporters insist that more than a month of “marathon sessions” must be justified by a cry of victory. In the US, time is money. Even if the public has paid little attention to the negotiations, the journalists clearly believe that the time invested must be accounted for. Erlanger and Sanger see a high political cost if the administration fails to show a return on investment. After all, Biden is already facing the shame — coming from both Republicans and Democrats (including Hillary Clinton) — of canceling 20 years of blood and treasure in Afghanistan with nothing to show for it.

      The journalists dismissively call the negotiations “five weeks of shadow boxing.” They deem the respective positions irreconcilable. The Iranians want to “be allowed to keep the advanced nuclear-fuel production equipment they installed after Mr. Trump abandoned the pact, and integration with the world financial system beyond what they achieved under the 2015 agreement.” The Biden administration, in contrast, insists on “an agreement on limiting missiles and support of terrorism.”

      Colm Quinn, the author of Foreign Policy’s newsletter, offers a clearer picture, pointing out that both sides are playing coy for the moment, as is usual in serious negotiations, especially in this case, when Americans and Iranians are communicating exclusively through European intermediaries. Quinn leaves a strong hint that the two sides may be close to a return to the original deal. This contradicts the impression given by The Times journalists. Is this their way of building suspense by treating it like a diplomatic Super Bowl?

      Embed from Getty Images

      If a deal is reached, The Times will be in a position to celebrate Biden’s “unexpected” accomplishment against such formidable odds. The Times, after all, has been going overboard to promote Biden as the new Roosevelt. To make their point, the authors cite American officials who “say it is not yet clear that Iran really wants to restore the old deal, which is derided by powerful hard-liners at home.” 

      With a single verb, Erlanger and Sanger unwittingly reveal their incapacity or unwillingness to take some perspective and distance themselves from the US State Department’s point of view. “With Iran’s presidential elections six weeks away,” they write, “the relatively moderate, lame-duck team of President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif are spinning that an agreement is just around the corner.”

      The verb is “spinning.” For The Times journalists, it goes without saying that Iranians spin, while Americans tell it like it is. After citing the Iranians’ optimistic contention that negotiations are “underway for some details,” the journalists don’t just assume the State Department’s position but blurt out their own emotive reaction: “Not so fast, Mr. Blinken has responded, adding that ‘Iran has yet to make an equally detailed description of what nuclear limits would be restored.’”

      The rest of the article is remarkable for its uninformative incoherence, navigating around negotiating positions and areas of dispute that fail to differentiate between rhetoric and the description of the political reality on both sides. Lost in meaningless details, they make no attempt to clarify the underlying issues. They mix serious facts with anecdotal trivialities. To add to the confusion, they offer difficult-to-decipher statements in the passive voice, such as this one: “In two discussions in February, the Europeans urged American officials to start negotiating in earnest and lift some sanctions as a gesture of good faith toward Iran. Those suggestions were ignored.” Who ignored them and why?

      At one point, the journalists mention “Iran’s pressure tactics.” But even when citing Trump’s 1,500 sanctions against Iran, they never suggest that sanctions may be seen as pressure tactics. The authors apparently seek to leave the impression not only that the negotiations are going nowhere but that the journalists themselves — like for example, the Israeli government — may be hoping they fail. Compare this lengthy Times article with a brief video interview with Trita Parsi, executive vice president of The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, where the viewer comes away with a solid idea both of what the stakes are on the two sides and a feeling for the historical logic underlying the current situation.

      Historical Note

      The rhetoric journalists use often reveals more about their unstated worldview than the content of what they write. Seizing on Blinken’s wish for something “longer and stronger,” the journalists echo it with their own “bigger and better.” This underlines the fact that Americans tend to see everything, even a supposedly delicate negotiation, in competitive terms. They multiply the comparatives, following the logic of marketers in the consumer society who always promise their product will provide “more and more.”

      The parties of any serious negotiation should have a principle on which they can agree, an overriding objective they both wish to achieve. In this case, it could be identified as a crucial historical goal: the denuclearization of the Middle East. It might even imply a broader goal, like the denuclearization of the world. Although they refused to make it explicit, the Obama administration’s JCPOA strategy did contain the idea of normalizing relations between the US and Iran in such a way as to remove the temptation of a Middle East nuclear arms race. By integrating Iran into the global economy, the competitive pressure to match Israel or dominate Saudi Arabia thanks to a nuclear arsenal would logically disappear.

      Instead of emphasizing that goal, Blinken publicly asserts, with The Times’ approval, that it’s all about getting an advantage and achieving more. There is a reason for that. Israel wants to maintain its own nuclear monopoly in the region, despite denying its existence. Because the US prioritizes Israel’s concerns, it effectively refrains not only from pursuing its own objectives but even articulating them in public. Reporting on the growing violence in Jerusalem and Gaza this week, The Times predictably notes that “neither side [is] prepared to make concessions the other would demand.” One more issue framed as a competition. Let the bigger and better man win.

      *[In the age of Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain, another American wit, the journalist Ambrose Bierce, produced a series of satirical definitions of commonly used terms, throwing light on their hidden meanings in real discourse. Bierce eventually collected and published them as a book, The Devil’s Dictionary, in 1911. We have shamelessly appropriated his title in the interest of continuing his wholesome pedagogical effort to enlighten generations of readers of the news. Read more of The Daily Devil’s Dictionary on Fair Observer.]

      The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy. More