AFTER FUMIGATION

Biden revamps the Oval Office: President adds bust of Cesar Chavez and removes controversial portrait

Josh Marcus THE INDEPENDENT
Thu, January 21, 2021

The Oval Office of the White House is newly redecorated for the first day of President Joe Biden's administration, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, in Washington.((AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The incoming Biden administration isn’t just changing policy: it’s redecorating the White House too. It’s part pageantry, part politics, part personal — like everything about being president.

During Wednesday’s inauguration ceremonies, the 90-person White House facilities staff began moving the Bidens in a process that reportedly took just five hours. While the Bidens planned to move in on 20 January, they reportedly won’t dive all the way into personalising the White House or bringing in an interior decorator.

Still, that hasn’t stopped the new first family from adding a few new touches, and they’ll eventually get more than $1 million to rework one of the most famous buildings on Earth. Here’s what they’ve done so far:

A statue of a civil rights icon

One notable addition is a bust of legendary farm workers’ rights organiser Cesar Chavez installed behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

"Placing a bust of my father in the Oval Office symbolises the hopeful new day that is dawning for our nation," Chavez's son Paul Chavez, president of the Cesar Chavez Foundation, told NBC. “That isn't just because it honours my dad, but more importantly because it represents faith and empowerment for an entire people on whose behalf he fought and sacrificed.”

Previously, the statue, by sculptor Paul Saurez, was in La Paz, California, at Cesar Chavez National Monument, and was sent to DC at the request of the White House. Chavez died in 1993.

There are also now busts of Rosa Parks and Eleanor Roosevelt in the Oval Office.

Removing a highly controversial populist—and a portrait of one

If the White House is the symbol of the presidency, the Oval Office is the heart of the White House, which is why president Trump’s decision to install a portrait of former US president Andrew Jackson was so controversial.

Mr Trump was probably trying to borrow some populist shine from Mr Jackson, who was president between 1829 and 1837 and famously held a raucous inauguration party at the White House, but for many the picture was a reminder of the native American genocide Mr Jackson helped carry out.

Mr Jackson, who owned enslaved people, signed the Indian Removal Act, which led to the deaths of thousands of native people when they were forcibly marched off their lands to allow for white settlement.

Joe Biden chose a different course, replacing him with the Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, famous for his witticisms and various roles in the creation of the United States.

New campaign photos (featuring masks)

Joe Biden’s campaign was markedly different from Donald Trump’s for its regular mask-wearing during the pandemic, and that’s shown up in the decor, too, with new photos from the campaign trail of the Bidens wearing their protective gear.

And shelter dogs

While not exactly decor, the addition of the Bidens’ dogs, adopted German shepherds Champ and Major, will change the look of the place, after the Trumps were the first first family in years not to have a White House pooch.

The Bidens will also mark a new change because Champ and Major are reportedly the first adopted White House doggos.

Re-invigorate the roses?

While there’s no word yet on whether this will happen, some online are urging the Bidens to restore the White House Rose Garden after controversial renovations from former first lady Melania Trump that included ripping out plants and adding new paved walkways.

Melania under fire again for Rose Garden after JFK decorations

Golf and gold: Trump’s renovations to the White House

There are few things president Trump loved more than golf and gold, and his White House changes reflected that. They included installing a $50,000, room-size golf simulator, upgrading the White House bowling alley, as well as new wallpaper, extra TVs, gold drapes, and bringing in rugs used in pasts Republican administrations.

Biden's new-look Oval Office is a nod to past US leadership

Fri, January 22, 2021, BBC

Annotated picture of Joe Biden's Oval Office

Incoming presidents bring their own personal touch to the Oval Office and much is being read into the way Joe Biden has chosen to decorate his new place of work.

The room has been filled with portraits and busts of some of the most iconic and influential leaders of American history.

"It was important for President Biden to walk into an Oval that looked like America and started to show the landscape of who he is going to be as president," Ashley Williams, the deputy director of Oval Office operations, told The Washington Post during an exclusive tour.

What will Joe Biden do first?

What kind of vice-president will Harris be?

The other women in Kamala Harris' college photo

Gone is the portrait of Andrew Jackson, the 7th president and a populist with whom President Trump frequently identified and who also faced censure although he was never impeached.

His portrait, to the left of the seat of the Resolute Desk, has been replaced with one of Benjamin Franklin, a founding father who was also a leading writer, scientist and philosopher. The Post said Franklin's portrait was intended to represent President Biden's interest in following science as he attempts to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

From his desk, Mr Biden will look up to see, flanking the fireplace, busts of Rev Martin Luther King Jnr and Robert F Kennedy - two men whose impact on the civil rights movement Biden is said to have frequently referenced.

Other busts around the room include another key figure in the civil rights movement, Rosa Parks. There is also an Allan Houser sculpture depicting a horse and Chiricahua Apache rider once belonging to the Hawaii Democrat Senator Daniel Inouye, the Post reports.
Busts of Rosa Parks and Abraham Lincoln are in President Biden's office

Above the fireplace hangs a large portrait of Franklin D Roosevelt, the president who led the country through the Great Depression and World War Two.

The portrait of another former president, Thomas Jefferson, has been paired with a man he frequently disagreed with, the former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton as "hallmarks of how differences of opinion, expressed within the guardrails of the Republic, are essential to democracy", the Post quotes Biden's office as saying.

Portraits of two other celebrated former presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, have also been paired.

Portraits of Jefferson and Hamilton (right and left) have remained beside the fireplace, in a different arrangement, but the central portrait of George Washington has been replaced by one of Franklin D Roosevelt

Many on social media noted, on the table behind Mr Biden, a bust of César Chávez, the Mexican-American labour leader who fought for the rights of farm workers in the 1960s and 70s. His bust sits alongside framed photos of Mr Biden's family.

A bust of César Chávez stands near photos of Mr Biden's family

Flags of the different branches of the military have also been replaced with an American flag and another with a presidential seal.

A controversial bust of Britain's wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill has also gone.

President Trump had promised to restore the bust to the Oval Office after it was removed by his predecessor Barack Obama. The then foreign secretary Boris Johnson - now UK prime minister - had at the time accused Mr Obama of having an "ancestral dislike of the British empire". (A PERJORATIVE REFENCE TO HIS FATHERS COUNTRY OF ORIGIN; THE BRITISH COLONY OF KENYA)

This time, his spokesman, said: "The Oval office is the president's private office and it's up to the president to decorate it as he wishes".

Correction: An earlier version of this story said that Mr Biden had replaced the curtains used by Mr Trump in the Oval Office. The curtains have not been changed.

TIME marks start of Biden’s presidency with cover of Oval Office trashed by Trump

Blue Telusma
Thu, January 21, 2021

TIME wrote that Biden now leads a nation that is divided by facts and fellow Americans who distrust them

This week, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris made history, and now TIME Magazine has released their commemorative cover celebrating the first day of the administration, which also sends a clear message about the proverbial mess left behind by former President Donald Trump.

Both Biden and Harris were named TIME’s Person of the Year after receiving a record-breaking 81 million votes.

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks as Vice President Kamala Harris looks on during an event in the State Dining Room of the White House January 21, 2021 in Washington, DC. President Biden delivered remarks on his administration’s COVID-19 response, and signed executive orders and other presidential actions. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

In the cover story for this latest issue, writer Charlotte Alter takes a detailed look at the challenges our new president will face in order to keep his promise of uniting a country that has become increasingly divided.

“Biden now leads a country divided between Americans who believe in facts and Americans who distrust them,” Alter writes. “Between those who want a multiracial Republic and those who seek to invalidate nonwhite votes, between those with faith in democratic institutions and those who put faith only in Trump.”

“At the very least, that faith must be rooted in some sense of shared reality, a willingness to agree to disagree according to the laws laid out in the Constitution,” she continues, noting, “At the dawn of Biden’s presidency, when millions of Republicans believe the false conspiracy theory that the election was stolen, and thousands turned to violence to ‘stop the steal,’ even that simple foundation seems wobbly.”

President Joe Biden signs his first executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Alter surmises that Biden may never be able to bring the country country. But it may not be a lost effort for him to try.

“Joe Biden may never unify America,” Alter concludes. “That may not even be possible in a nation so riven by disinformation and delusion. But if he can get Americans who disagree on everything else to agree on the democratic process, if he can help restore political debate to the realm of truth, if he can deliver enough solutions to restore some small faith in government, that would be a start. America still won’t be united, but it could be united enough.”

READ MORE: House approves waiver for Biden Pentagon pick Lloyd Austin

READ MORE: Fox News host Sean Hannity wasted no time attacking President Biden

President Biden has removed the Diet Coke button

 SERIOUSLY 

See new Tweets

Conversation

Tom Newton Dunn

@tnewtondunn

President Biden has removed the Diet Coke button. When

@ShippersUnbound

and I interviewed Donald Trump in 2019, we became fascinated by what the little red button did. Eventually Trump pressed it, and a butler swiftly brought in a Diet Coke on a silver platter. It's gone now.

8:58 AM · Jan 21, 2021·Twitter Web App

Sen. Bernie Sanders says Democrats don't need GOP support to approve $2,000 stimulus checks and cancel student debt

Sanders is poised to become chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, which handles reconciliation bills.


Oma Seddiq
Thu, January 21, 2021

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Liz Lynch/Getty Images

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont wrote an opinion column this week pushing for Democrats to implement a bold economic agenda.

Now that the Democratic Party has full control over Congress, Sanders argues they can use a tool called reconciliation, which requires only a simple majority in the Senate to pass bills.

Among the key measures Sanders urges the Senate to pass are $2,000 direct payments to Americans and raising the minimum wage to $15.

However, the process may not be as simple as Sanders indicated.

Sen. Bernie Sanders this week implored Democrats to flex their power and implement a "bold and aggressive economic agenda" now that the party has full control over Congress and the White House.

In an opinion column for CNN published Tuesday, the Vermont senator argued that Democrats should utilize the budget reconciliation process to pass a wave of "big" policies under the new Biden administration.

"The Senate's 60-vote threshold to pass major legislation has become an excuse for inaction," Sanders wrote. "But let's be clear: We have the tools to overcome these procedural hurdles."

Reconciliation allows the Senate to pass bills fairly quickly and with a simple majority, as they are not subject to filibuster. The maneuver, first used by Congress in 1980, is mainly aimed at budget and spending legislation that need quick consideration.

"When the Republicans controlled the Senate during the George W. Bush and Trump presidencies, they used reconciliation to pass trillions of dollars in tax breaks for the wealthiest people and most profitable corporations. They also used reconciliation to try and repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017," Sanders wrote. "Today, Democrats must use this same process to lift Americans out of poverty, increase wages and create good-paying jobs."

"If Republicans would like to work with us, we should welcome them," he added. "But their support is not necessary."

Sanders, an independent senator who caucuses with the Democrats, emphasized that the party must move urgently as millions of Americans are still struggling financially because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Without action, he warned, Democrats may end up in the minority in the 2022 midterm elections.

Democrats held the House in the 2020 elections, albeit by a slimmer margin at 222-212, after losing 11 seats. The swearing-in of three new Democratic senators and Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday granted Democrats the Senate, now evenly split 50-50 with Harris as the tie-breaking vote. Sanders is posed to become chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, which handles reconciliation bills.

"Failure to adequately respond to the economic desperation in America today will undermine the Biden administration and likely lead Democrats to lose their thin majorities," Sanders wrote, cautioning that the party "must not repeat those mistakes" of the Obama and Clinton years, when Democrats lost majorities during the presidents' first terms in office.

Among the key measures Sanders has proposed to tackle the economic crisis include sending $2,000 direct payments to Americans, raising the minimum wage to $15, canceling student debt, as well as providing universal pre-K and guaranteed paid family and medical leave for 12 weeks.

Sanders also called for a coronavirus relief package that offers additional funding for COVID-19 vaccine and testing, aid for state and local governments, hazard pay for essential workers and expanded weekly unemployment benefits.

President Joe Biden has backed some of Sanders' progressive ideas and put forth major items in his $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, including $1,400 checks to bump up the $600 distributed in December to $2,000. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled on Thursday that her caucus is preparing to pass the relief in early February.

However, the stimulus bill's pathway in the Senate, as well as any other spending legislation, may not be as swift and easy as Sanders suggested.

Some moderate Democrats, such as Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, have previously balked at Sanders' proposals. Considering the razor-thin Democratic majority, any reconciliation process will collapse if even a single Democrat fails to support it.

Biden, too, may be reluctant to approve bills only with Democratic support. He's repeatedly expressed his intentions to work across the aisle and come up with bipartisan agreements as president, in order to fulfill his campaign and inaugural promises of "unity."

Some Republicans have also signaled that they are ready to put up a fight against big spending moves.

"I've got a fight on my hands," GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who serves on the Senate Budget Committee, told Fox News this week.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Florida dealer accidentally sells display model of the new Ford Bronco Sport, immediately asks for it back


Kristen Lee
Thu, January 21, 2021
The new Ford Bronco Sport. Ford


A Ford dealership in Tampa Bay, Florida, accidentally sold a Bronco Sport it wasn't supposed to.


The car was a demo model meant to be on display for four months.


The customer, Adam Sidoti, was allowed to keep the car after Ford stepped in.

IT'S A DEMO HE GOT RIPPED OFF 

THEY SHOULD HAVE CHARGED HIM LESS

THAN FLOOR PRICE.

Penn State researchers have created a new battery for EVs

Shane McGlaun - Jan 21, 2021  SLASHGEAR

One of the biggest downsides to electric vehicles today for many car shoppers is range anxiety and how long it takes to recharge. A team of engineers from Penn State has begun investigations on a lithium iron phosphate battery with a range of 250 miles that can recharge in 10 minutes. While vehicles today can already drive more than 250 miles per charge, they can take hours to recharge in some instances.

Having a battery with less driving range that can recharge extremely quickly would be more appealing for many EV shoppers. Researchers on the project say the battery eliminates range anxiety and is affordable. They also believe the battery would be good for about 2 million miles of driving in its lifetime.

The key to the long usable life and fast charging is the battery’s ability to quickly heat to 140 degrees Fahrenheit during charging and discharging. When the battery isn’t working, it’s able to cool down. The battery uses a self-healing approach previously developed at the University. Researchers use a thin nickel foil with one end attached to the negative terminal and the other extending outside the cell, creating a third terminal for the self-heating process.

Once the battery’s internal temperature hits 140 degrees Fahrenheit, the switch opens, and the battery is ready for rapid charge or discharge. The team’s novel self-heating method suggests they can use low-cost materials for the battery cathode and anode along with a safe, low-voltage electrolyte.


The cathode is thermally stable using lithium iron phosphate and doesn’t contain any expensive and critical materials like cobalt. The anode is made of very large particle graphite that is safe and inexpensive. Researchers say the battery has reduced weight, volume, and cost compared to currently available batteries for electric vehicles.

Amanda Gorman: CNN’s Anderson Cooper left speechless in interview with inauguration poet

Graeme Massie
Wed, January 20, 2021

CNN’s Anderson Cooper left speechless in interview with inauguration poet(CNN)

Anderson Cooper was left lost for words as he interviewed inauguration poet Amanda Gorman.

The CNN host appeared giddy as the 22-year-old Los Angeles native wowed him in an interview.

Ms Gorman became the youngest inaugural poet when she read “The Hill We Climb,” which she finished composing after the Capitol riot.

She explained to the TV host how she used a personal mantra to prepare herself for reading during Joe Biden’s swearing in ceremony.
"Whenever I perform — and I definitely did it this time — I close my eyes and I say ‘I'm the daughter of Black writers. We're descended from freedom fighters who broke their chains and changed the world. They call me,” said Ms Gorman.

Cooper was left struggling for a response to the powerful explanation.

“Hmm… Wow … you are awesome. I am so transfixed,” a grinning Cooper eventually managed.

The journalist then asked Ms Gorman about her interactions with Hillary Clinton, who has suggested she run for president in 2036 when she is legally old enough.

“President Gorman has a nice ring to it,” said Cooper.

“Yes it does, madame president Gorman, I like the sound of it,” she replied.

Cooper added: “I think a lot of people feel that way today. It is just so thrilling to see such a bright talent burst like a supernova, so thank you.”

Ms Gorman was approached by the inaugural committee after Dr Jill Biden had seen a reading she gave at the Library of Congress.

She told Cooper that like the TV star and Mr Biden, she grew up with a speech impediment and had struggled to say the letter R.

Ms Gorman said she had used the “Aaron Burr, Sir” song from the musical Hamilton to help her work on her Rs.

“That's been a huge part of my speech pathology. It's why I included it in the inaugural poem,” she said.

“Also beyond that I think Hamilton is such a great American cultural piece of what it means to be a better country.

“It was hard for me not to just copy and paste 'My Shot,' and email it the inaugural committee and be like here's my poem.”

Read More

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Trump’s tax lawyers cut ties as he leaves office and reports say federal prosecutors already have his records

Chris Riotta
Thu, January 21, 2021

El presidente Donald Trump (derecha) y la primera dama de Estados Unidos, Melania Trump, abordan el Air Force One durante una ceremonia de despedida en la base conjunta Andrews, Maryland (EPA)

Donald Trump’s legal troubles began mounting before he could even step foot out of the White House on Wednesday.

Reports indicated early in the morning on Inauguration Day that federal prosecutors in New York had obtained some of his financial records amid an investigation into the former president and his private business.

Those records were obtained despite the Supreme Court having not yet made a decision on whether Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr can demand eight years of Mr Trump’s tax records from his accounting firm, Mazars USA.

While the district attorney’s office was still waiting for an order from the nation’s highest court on its subpoena powers, Bloomberg News reported the new developments meant investigators can begin verifying criminal allegations against the Trump Organization and former president.

By the afternoon, as President Joe Biden was officially sworn in as the next commander-in-chief, reports said Mr Trump’s team of tax lawyers were officially severing ties with him.

A spokesperson for Morgan Lewis said the global law firm was ending its relationship with Mr Trump and his business, which predated his 2015 presidential bid, according to The American Lawyer.

As the legal magazine reported, partners for the firm took a significant role in explaining to the public how the former president was planning to distance himself from his private business during his tenure in the White House.

“We have had a limited representation of the Trump Organization and Donald Trump in tax-related matters,” a spokesperson told the outlet this week. “For those matters not already concluded, we are transitioning as appropriate to other counsel.”

Other law firms also appeared to be jumping ship in the final hour, including Alston and Bird, which said in a 15 January statement it had “no intention of representing the president” in an appeal for a case involving him, his children and the Trump Organization. The firm acquired the president as a client after hiring a new litigator last year that had previously represented, and at the time was representing, Mr Trump.

While Mr Trump faced significant legal controversies throughout his presidency, and congressional investigations were launched into his alleged involvement in campaign finance violations and other concerns, he had yet to suffer the corporate backlash that befell him during his final days in office.

That came amid growing calls for his removal from office following his conduct leading up to the deadly pro-Trump mob attacks on the US Capitol, which left at least five people dead, including United States Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick.

Mr Trump held a rally just before the riots encouraging his supporters to march to the building as Congress convened to certify his electoral defeat in the 2020 elections – then released a video to social media during the riots in which he continued to promote false claims of rampant voter fraud.

The former president lost access to virtually all his social media accounts since the day of the riots, as the CEOs of major tech companies cited threats of further violence from his supporters as part of their reasoning for blocking or suspending Mr Trump from their platforms. Major banks also distanced themselves from Mr Trump after the riots and said they would no longer work with the former president or his business.

Even the PGA – the largest professional golf organisation in the US – disassociated from Mr Trump after the mob.

The president’s children have come out since the riot to defend him from the corporate backlash he faced, with Eric Trump insisting that companies cutting ties with his father were falling victim to “cancel culture”.

“We live in the age of cancel culture, but this isn’t something that started this week. It is something that they have been doing to us and others for years,” he told the Associated Press. “If you disagree with them, if they don’t like you, they try and cancel you.”

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers have also voted to impeach the former president for a second time due to his alleged incitement of the deadly insurrection, and the Senate could soon begin a trial even though he is no longer in office.

Read More
Trump has a Chinese bank account and pursued China projects

New financial disclosures show how hard Trump's hotels have been hit amid pandemic

Catherine Garcia
Thu, January 21, 2021


Presidents routinely file financial disclosures when they leave office, and forms recently submitted by former President Donald Trump show that 47 of his hotels, resorts, and other properties lost more than $120 million in revenue in 2020, The Washington Post reports.

The pandemic has hit the travel and hospitality industries hard, and two of Trump's most famous hotels struggled last year; the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., which has a $170 million loan outstanding, saw its revenue drop more than 60 percent, while the Doral in Miami saw its revenue decline 44 percent. Trump's private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach fared better — its revenue went up 13 percent.

An analysis by the Post found that combined, revenue at the 47 companies listed in Trump's financial disclosures dropped more than 35 percent in 2020. Banking consultant Bery Ely told the Post that Trump "faces some very serious problems that have been building in recent years and I think are going to come to a head now that he's left office." Trump, he added, has done "enormous reputational damage to himself."

While Trump does still own his company, the Post notes, it's unclear if he plans on going back to running day-to-day operations. The Trump Organization's website still lists his eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as the company's leaders. Read more at The Washington Post.