Game Change: President Trump threw Washington into turmoil last night with a recorded video announcement that he might refuse to sign the new coronavirus relief bill because the $600 checks are too small. He said, “I am asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple.”

  After listing hundreds of millions of dollars in non-Covid related expenditures in the bill, he said, “I’m also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation and to send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a COVID relief package, and maybe that administration will be me, and we will get it done.”

 The next administration will not be his and Trump remained silent during months of negotiations for this second relief bill and even allowed his negotiators to talk the Democrats down from higher numbers. He’s trying to look heroic when it’s too late. If he signs the bill, checks might go out as soon as next week. If he refuses, financially desperate Americans may have to wait until January or even February.

The Pardon Train: Trump knows how to bury his own bad news. Yesterday he pardoned 20 people convicted of crimes, including two men who lied during the Russia investigation, and three Trump-loyal former members of Congress who went to prison for corruption and theft.

 Also among those pardoned were four Blackwater private security gunmen convicted of killing civilians in Baghdad. The founder of Blackwater is Trump supporter Eric Prince, whose sister Betsy DeVos is Secretary of Education.

The Covid Corner: Another 157,000 Americans were reported infected with the coronavirus yesterday and President-elect Joe Biden said the worst may be yet to come. Biden said, “Our darkest days in the battle against COVID are ahead of us, not behind us. So we need to prepare ourselves, to steel our spines. As frustrating as it is to hear, it’s going to take patience, persistence, and determination to beat this virus.” 

  The ability of the virus to spread demonstrates itself every day. Now it’s in  Antarctica. The Chilean army reports 36 infections are among people stationed at its research including 26 soldiers and 10 maintenance workers.

By Appointment: President-elect Biden has picked Connecticut Education commissioner Miguel Cardona to be Secretary of Education. He’d be the first Latino to serve in that job. A believer in public education, Cardona would have to repair the damage done to the public schools by the pandemic, and his predecessor, Betsy DeVos.

  Biden is making a big effort to diversify his cabinet. He also named a Native American to be Secretary of the Interior

  In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has named his Secretary of State Alex Padilla to fill the Senate seat held by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Padilla, 47, was first elected to the Los Angeles city council when he was 27.

Department of Clarification: The right wing news outlet Newsmax earlier this week ran a stunning  “clarification” and distanced itself from what has been running on their own network about the November 3^rdelection.

  Newsmax has been pipelining to its viewers wildly unfounded opinions that the voting system companies Dominion and Smartmatic were in on massive election fraud, and that they were invented by the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez.

  All it took was a stern lawyer’s letter from the voting companies for Newsmax to announce that, “No evidence has been offered that Dominion or Smartmatic used software or reprogrammed software that manipulated votes in the 2020 election.”

  It went on to say that “Dominion has stated its company has no ownership relationship with the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s family, Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s family, the Clinton family, Hugo Chavez, or the government of Venezuela.”

  Notice that the retraction says “Dominion has stated,” leaving doubt as to whether Dominion’s statement is true.

  The retraction came after a stern lawyer’s letter sent to Fox News, Newsmax and One America News, demanded a retraction for unfounded stories and that, “This retraction must be done with the same intensity and level of coverage that you used to defame the company in the first place.” It is very rare for a news agency to back off so quickly, but they had no proof of what they’d been saying.

The Bulletin Board: The Justice Department is suing Walmart accusing the big box chain of feeding the opioid addiction crisis by pressuring its pharmacies to sell the painkillers to customers even with suspicious-looking prescriptions. — Dr. Deborah Birx, the scarf-wearing White House coronavirus response coordinator, announced that she will not seek a role in President-elect Joe Biden’s administration. Birx said her experience on the task force has been “overwhelming.” — Israel is heading toward its fourth national election within two years after the governing coalition broke down and failed to pass budgets. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and primary opponent Benny Gantz had cobbled an uncomfortable cooperation that stopped working.

French Connection: Just in time for the holiday food fest, the Food and Drug Administration has decided to stop regulating the ingredients of French dressing. The FDA has standards for what goes into the carrot-colored goop but said in a statement, “The standard does not appear necessary to ensure that the product meets consumer expectations.” 

  What Americans have come to expect is, for instance, the ingredients of Kraft French salad dressing; “Soybean Oil, Water, Sugar, Vinegar, Salt, Contains Less Than 2% Of Skim Milk, Paprika, Xanthan Gum With Sorbic Acid And Calcium Disodium Edta As Preservatives, Polysorbate 60, Dried Garlic, Propylene Glycol Alginate, Yellow 6, Yellow 5, Natural Flavor.”

  That’s an American version of French cuisine.

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