Last week's posts at Moon of Alabama:
- November 16 – The Great Revenge – How Tony Fauci F*cked Donald Trump
Related:
Trump f*cks big pharma:
Trump Announces Issuance of Two 'Groundbreaking Rules' to Lower Drug Prices – Sputnik
- November 17 – Joe Biden's Foreign Policy Team
Related:
The Trump trap: Biden’s own rhetoric has cornered him into carrying on Trump’s foreign policy – Scott Ritter / RT
Should Michèle Flournoy Be Secretary of Defense? – Pogo
- November 18 – How Not To Challenge China
Related:
East Asia Decouples from the United States: Trade War, COVID-19, and East Asia’s New Trade Blocs (PDF) – Peterson Institute
An Epitaph for the West – Patrick Armstrong / Strategic Culture Foundation
The Death of American Competence – Stephan Walt / Foreign Policy
- November 19 – The Forever War In Afghanistan Will Soon Re-escalate
Related:
Kill or Capture: Inside The CIA's Secret Afghan Army (vid, 25min) – Redfish
Putin says American presence in Afghanistan is beneficial to Moscow's interests, rubbishes claims of ‘Russian bounties to Taliban’ – RT
- November 20 – How 'Western' Media Select Their Foreign Correspondents
Related:
Crying Wolf on Election Fraud Is OK at NYT—if Targets Are Official Enemies – Alan Macleod / FAIR
US Correspondent – Paul Robinson / Irussianality
New York Times Moscow correspondent wanted: Must believe all conspiracy theories about Russia, hate Putin & ignore facts – Paul Robinson / RT
Stunned By Trump, The New York Times Finds Time For Some Soul-Searching – Michael Chieply/ Deadline (2016)
> It was a shock on arriving at the New York Times in 2004, as the paper’s movie editor, to realize that its editorial dynamic was essentially the reverse. By and large, talented reporters scrambled to match stories with what internally was often called “the narrative.” We were occasionally asked to map a narrative for our various beats a year in advance, square the plan with editors, then generate stories that fit the pre-designated line.
Reality usually had a way of intervening. But I knew one senior reporter who would play solitaire on his computer in the mornings, waiting for his editors to come through with marching orders. Once, in the Los Angeles bureau, I listened to a visiting National staff reporter tell a contact, more or less: “My editor needs someone to say such-and-such, could you say that?”
The bigger shock came on being told, at least twice, by Times editors who were describing the paper’s daily Page One meeting: “We set the agenda for the country in that room.” <
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Other issues:
Lebanon:
- Behind the scenes of Macron’s failed gambit in Lebanon – L'Orient-Le Jour
Syria:
- Syrian Idlib: What’s Next? – Russian Council
- Islamic State regroups in Syrian Kurdish region – AL Monitor
- THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS OFTHE COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN THE SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC – WFP / Reliefweb
Covid-19:
- Coronavirus: 1 million Chinese injected with Sinopharm vaccine under emergency use scheme – SCMP
- Trends in County-Level COVID-19 Incidence in Counties With and Without a Mask Mandate — Kansas, June 1–August 23, 2020 – CDC
> As of August 11, 24 of Kansas’s 105 counties did not opt out of the state mandate or adopted their own mask mandate shortly before or after the state mandate was issued; 81 counties opted out of the state mandate, as permitted by state law, and did not adopt their own mask mandate. After the governor’s executive order, COVID-19 incidence (calculated as the 7-day rolling average number of new daily cases per 100,000 population) decreased (mean decrease of 0.08 cases per 100,000 per day; net decrease of 6%) among counties with a mask mandate (mandated counties) but continued to increase (mean increase of 0.11 cases per 100,000 per day; net increase of 100%) among counties without a mask mandate (nonmandated counties). <
Use as open thread …