Tuesday November 12, 2024

Tuesday November 12, 2024

News

Elon Musk was among Donald Trump’s most visible and powerful surrogates on the campaign trail. Now with President-elect Trump, Musk remains within the inner circle, joining calls with world leaders and weighing in on staffing decisions. Amna Nawaz discussed the influence Musk could exert on the next administration and what he stands to gain with Vittoria Elliott of Wired.

PBS News Hour West live episode, Nov. 12, 2024
PBS NewsHour, November 12, 2024 – 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm (ET)
PBS NewsHour Videos 11.12.24
PBS NewsHourNovember 12, 2024

‘Change might bring something good,’ family of Gaza hostages says amid political shakeups

President Biden met Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the Oval Office and reaffirmed his administration’s ‘ironclad’ commitment to Israel. The Israeli government says Hamas is still holding 101 hostages in Gaza and Herzog said the war would continue until the hostages return home. Nick Schifrin discussed more with Dalia Cusnir, the sister-in-law of two hostages.

Trump begins to fill foreign policy and national security teams for 2nd term

A second Donald Trump administration is taking shape, one new appointee at a time. Tuesday, the president-elect tapped more of his closest allies to fill some of the government’s top posts. Among them is Sen. Marco Rubio, putting Trump’s one-time foe on track to becoming the first Latino to serve as the nation’s top diplomat. Laura Barrón-López reports.

What Trump’s pick of Zeldin to lead EPA signals for his environmental plans

As President-elect Trump’s team is taking shape, we’re learning more about who will take the lead on energy, climate and the environment. The first announcement on that front is Lee Zeldin, a former GOP congressman who will head the Environmental Protection Agency. Trump has called climate change a “scam” and says addressing it hurts business. William Brangham discussed more with Coral Davenport.

How Iranians are reacting Trump’s election and what it could mean for their lives

With President-elect Trump’s national security team coming into focus, one priority will be confronting and increasing pressure on Iran. So how does that look and feel to ordinary Iranians? Special Correspondent Reza Sayah in Tehran has been speaking with people there and sent us this report.

Congressman-elect Bresnahan on how he flipped a Democratic district in Pennsylvania to GOP

Newly-elected House members won’t take their seats until January but they are on Capitol Hill this week for congressional orientation. Republican Congressman-elect Rob Bresnahan is among them. He flipped his district in the northeast corner of Pennsylvania from blue to red. Bresnahan joined Geoff Bennett to discuss more.

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Meet the techno-libertarian shadow rulers of Trump’s America
Vox, Adam Clark EstesNovember 11, 2024

“In my mind, this isn’t a story about Silicon Valley overall and DC overall,” said Robert Lalka, a professor at Tulane University. “Instead, what’s occurring now involves the influence of far fewer people: a very close-knit network of like-minded Trump supporters, especially if we focus on the PayPal Mafia, and the transformation of the Republican Party and its policy agenda.”

When you think of it that way, Trump’s win on the back of techno-authoritarian billionaires seems less like a seismic shift in the politics of the tech industry and more like a bunch of one-issue voters who donated lots of money and got their way.

One day after Trump declared victory, he asked Elon Musk to join him on a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. And in the coming months, several more members of the PayPal mafia get to decide what US tech policy will be for the next four years.

Elon Musk, Trump and the rise of the tech right
Digital Future Daily, Derek RobertsonNovember 7, 2024

Of all the groups celebrating former President Donald Trump’s re-election this week, maybe no one has more of a reason to celebrate than his boosters in the tech world.

Given the key role Elon Musk played in bringing Trump back to office, the newly vocal Silicon Valley right expects a bonanza of industry and “innovation”-friendly de-regulation — and they are celebrating it, very publicly.

Axios AM: Trump-Musk fusion
Axios, Mike AllenNovember 12, 2024

President-elect Trump and Elon Musk, two billionaires with strikingly similar DNAs, are fusing into a new, powerful governing-media paradigm, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a “Behind the Curtain” column.

Musk, who threw himself into the presidential campaign this past year, has his hands in several Trump projects:

  1. He’s helping pick the Cabinet and top White House staff.
  2. Trump handed Musk the phone during a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week. Musk is expected to attend Trump’s meeting at Mar-a-Lago this week with Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei.
  3. Musk is working on a project that would sit outside the official government to use technology to find trillions in possible budget cuts — his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE, in homage to the Musk-friendly cryptocurrency).
  4. He’s mobilizing his 204 million followers on his X platform to try to elect dark-horse Senate majority leader candidate Rick Scott, a staunch MAGA ally, in tomorrow’s secret ballot election.

Part 2: Trump and Musk’s backstory

Meet the People of Trump World 2.0
The Free Press, River Page and Eli LakeNovember 12, 2024

Here’s a brief guide to the Masters of MAGA.

The Inner Circle
Elon Musk, Don Jr., Tucker Carlson, Susie Wiles, Jared Kushner

MAGA Elite
Vivek Ramaswamy, Rep. Mike Waltz, Marco Rubio, David Sacks, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Linda McMahon, Brooke Rollins, John Ratcliffe, Elise Stefanik, Bill Hagerty, Ric Grenell, Dana White, Eric Trump, Lara Trump, Barron Trump, Kash Patel, Charlie Kirk, Calley and Casey Means, Nigel Farage, Boris Epshteyn, Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, Steve Bannon

Donors 
Timothy Mellon, Scott Bessent, Howard Lutnick, Bill Ackman,Miriam Adelson, John Paulson,Ike Perlmutter, Steve Wynn, Steve Schwarzman, Steve Witkoff, Tom Barrack

Campaign Stalwarts
Chris LaCivita, Steven Cheung, Jason Miller, Sergio Gor, Andrew Surabian, Alina Habba

Wild Cards
Dan Scavino, Walt Nauta, Alex Bruesewitz, Laura Loomer

Oligarchs’ Island: A Sitcom Pitch in a Tragic Moment
Thinking about…, Timothy SnyderNovember 12, 2024

Oligarchies are unstable.  They have flaws and weaknesses and can crumble quickly.  They have given way to democracies.  But we have to see them for what they are.  We need to see the oligarchs not only as selfish and unpatriotic but as ridiculous.  But the same things that make them ridiculous — the utter self-absorption, the nattering cliques, the pointless struggle for unreal things — make them lethal to the rest of us.  They have entertained their way to power, and it is a new kind of power: an international oligarchy inside the American capital.  If they can entertain their way to power, perhaps we can at least entertain ourselves toward clarity.  Comedy might help us to see the tragedy.  And we should think in other genres, too — next time I will try a little mathematics.

if we want to anticipate what will happen in 2025, if will be more useful to think of oligarchs on an island, starting in apparent unity, dreaming an impossible Russian dream, wreaking bloody havoc, and then coming apart.

 

It’s not normal for the East Coast to be on fire
Vox, Paige Vega November 12, 2024

For much of the country, October was an extremely hot and dry month. We are currently on pace for 2024 to become the hottest year ever recorded, a declaration that forecasters from the World Meteorological Organization are making with confidence even with more than a month left.

According to the US Drought Monitor, the long periods of hot and dry conditions have left every state in the country facing drought — an unprecedented statistic.

This extreme period of dry weather is a part of the larger picture that scientists have come to expect: that our weather will become more extreme and unpredictable and that we will collectively experience more pronounced swings from incredibly dry periods to incredibly wet periods.

Trump isn’t as cozy with Putin as often portrayed

For example, Trump provided the Ukrainians with anti-tank missiles after the Obama administration had refused to give them such weapons. Also, in 2018, the U.S. withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, citing the previous violations of the treaty by Russia. In contrast, in 2014, then President Barack Obama accused Russia of breaching the INF treaty after it allegedly tested a ground-launched cruise missile but chose not to withdraw from the treaty.

In 2019, Trump signed the Protecting Europe’s Energy Security Act, which included sanctions halting the construction of the Russian-backed Nord Stream 2 pipeline directly connecting Russia to Germany, via the Baltic Sea. The pipeline, which has since been rendered inoperable by a sabotage attack in 2022, would have bypassed Ukraine, prompting the Ukrainian government to label it an “economic and energy blockade.” It was one of 52 policy actions undertaken by the first Trump administration to restrict Russia.

Role of Universities in Modern Democracy
SNF Dialogues, November 12, 2024 – 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm (ET)

History is marked by constant change, and the history of global democracy is no exception. While governing institutions and leaders have not always embraced democratic values, universities have in many ways endured as places of free expression and exchange of ideas. In this way, they are more than educational institutions: they are havens for freedom and the pursuit of knowledge, offering a foothold for societies striving to grow and improve. Yet, despite their enduring strengths, universities are facing significant challenges in today’s divisive climate. How can we ensure that they continue to fulfill their crucial role in promoting and safeguarding democratic values and inspiring democratic change?

The SNF Dialogues opens this vital discussion with experts on these questions but also, most importantly, students themselves, exploring how to ensure that universities meet the moment and do their part to carry the torch of democracy forward.

The panel features distinguished professors Irene Mulvey, AAUP Immediate Past President and Professor Emerita of Mathematics at Fairfield University, John Holmwood, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Nottingham, John Tomasi, President of the Heterodox Academy, and Hahrie Han, Inaugural Director of the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University,. Students participating in the discussion include April Anthony, SNF Ithaca student leader at the University of Delaware, Faith Applegate, a senior at the University of Pennsylvania, Anna Oakes, multimedia journalist and graduate student at the Columbia Journalism School, and Luke McDermott, External Vice President at the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska and Chairman of the Husker Vote Coalition. The President of Johns Hopkins University, Ron Daniels, will also make an intervention during the discussion.

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Polls & Headlines 11.12.24
US onAir CuratorsNovember 12, 2024

Today’s Smerconish Poll – Smerconish.com

Should President Biden pardon Hunter and Donald Trump right now?
Yes
No

Yesterday’s Poll Results – Smerconish.com

Do you agree with Fareed Zakaria that Donald Trump benefitted from Democrats’ “overzealous misuse of law” intended to punish him?
56.16% – Agree
43.84% – Disagree

AM Headlines

Axios AM   Smerconish  The Hill Morning Report   CNN Breaking News

PM Headlines

Axios PM    Politico Nightly

Associated Press   Digital Future Daily (Politico).   NPR Politics

Authoritarians Want You To Quit
Arc Digital, Nicholas GrossmanNovember 12, 2024

So do something you can control. I raked my lawn, then raked my elderly neighbor’s. That didn’t solve everything, of course, but it felt good.

I’m also changing my information diet. For example, I’m not reading or commenting on the inane takes, often from prominent, highly paid pundits, that the election was decided by their long-running personal bugaboo. You already know what they’re going to say.

The Morning: Trump’s speedy selection process
So What, Chris CillizzaNovember 12, 2024

And the Rubio pick is the rule, not the exception. In each of his Cabinet and senior staff choices so far in his 2nd term, Trump is moving faster — at times MUCH faster — than he did in 2016.

  • Secretary of State: Rubio (11/11/24), Tillerson (12/13/16)
  • National Security Advisor: Mike Waltz (11/11/24), Mike Flynn (11/18/16)
  • UN Ambassador: Elise Stefanik (11/11/24), Nikki Haley (11/23/16)
  • EPA: Lee Zeldin (11/11/24), Scott Pruitt (12/7/16)
  • Chief of Staff: Susie Wiles (11/7/24), Reince Priebus (11/13/16)
  • DHS: Kristi Noem (11/12/24), John Kelly (12/7/16)
Biden delivers remarks for Veterans Day observance at Arlington Cemetery
PBS NewsHour, November 11, 2024 – 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm (ET)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?

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US onAir Curators – August 2024

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Between December 2024 and August 2026, our hubs and online discussions will focus on the issues and legislative solutions being addressed by national, state, and local representatives.

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The US onAir network’s focus through the month of November is on the presidential race and competitive senate and house races … informing you about the candidates and their position on key issues while also providing you a civil place for discussion with your fellow Americans.

Between December 2024 and August 2026, our hubs and online discussions will focus on the issues and legislative solutions being addressed by national, state, and local representatives.

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