Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly flew to Saudi Arabia last week for a secret meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Saudi Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in the hopes of striking a deal that would normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel. But he came home empty handed after Prince Mohammed backed out, The Wall Street Journal reports.

His reasoning, Saudi advisers and U.S. officials told the Journal, was President-elect Joe Biden's victory over President Trump in the U.S. general election. Although the Trump administration was a factor in the recent so-called Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and both the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Prince Mohammed reportedly wants to build ties with Biden and was reluctant about following suit while Trump is still in office, although the chances of that happening reportedly aren't impossible.

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sent senators home Wednesday for Thanksgiving break one day early, in part because of the continued unchecked spread of Covid-19 among his members.

The decision came after Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, 87, tested positive Tuesday. His absence, along with Florida Sen. Rick Scott’s quarantine due to Covid-19 exposure, scuttled a vote on Judy Shelton’s controversial nomination to sit on the Federal Reserve Board.

The Republican Senate leader told members in a closed-door lunch Tuesday to “be careful” and make sure they take the necessary precautions against catching the virus, Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., said.

Two months before Joe Biden assumes the presidency, Senate Republicans are racing to install a series of conservative nominees that will outlast Donald Trump.

While Trump still refuses to concede the election, the Senate GOP is moving quickly to ensure that the president’s stamp sticks to the Federal Elections Commission, Federal Reserve Board, the federal judiciary and beyond.

The effort played out in dramatic fashion this week, as Senate Republicans tried to muscle Judy Shelton onto the Fed by the narrowest of margins but fell short amid senators’ absences from the coronavirus. They’re also plotting a confirmation vote for Christopher Waller, Trump’s less controversial Fed pick.

The last-minute push to confirm Shelton, Waller and others is a key part of the Senate GOP’s bid to wield power in the dwindling days of a Republican presidency — even if most in the party still won’t acknowledge Biden’s victory.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s work on pushing lifetime judicial appointments is well known. But Shelton’s term would extend to 2024, Waller’s would last until 2030, and the FEC commissioners would stay on past Biden’s inauguration, as would potential additions to the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

One of the great strengths of the conservative movement is the capacity of the entire apparatus, from Fox News superheroes on down to the rank-and-file shitposter, to get intergalactically outraged in unison and on-demand. The resentment machine is so fine-tuned at this point that it is capable of kicking into high gear before the outrageous incident has even occurred. We saw this ahead of the nomination hearings for Amy Coney Barrett, when Republicans got pre-outraged about potential Democratic questioning that might probe Barrett's religious faith—including her membership in People of Praise, a Catholic group with rituals and traditions that...fall outside mainstream Church practice. Senator Dianne Feinstein blundered her way through some questioning on this front during hearings on Barrett's appointment to an appeals court in 2017, but there was virtually no Democratic probing here this time around, surely at least in part because the pre-outrage was so intense. This stuff works.

Among the early outrage merchants was Senator Marco Rubio, who issued a statement on September 26 that was preemptively indignant. "Sadly, I expect my Democratic colleagues and the radical left to do all they can to assassinate her character and once again make an issue of her faith during her confirmation process," he said. Assassination by radicals! That does sound bad. Questioning someone's fitness for public office based on their religious beliefs is completely unacceptable, you see. It shouldn't factor into how you assess their candidacy at all. Just ask Senator Marco Rubio, who offered some thoughts on Wednesday regarding Raphael Warnock, the Democratic candidate in one of Georgia's two upcoming Senate runoff elections.

https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1329055330286891012

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hate crimes in the U.S. rose to the highest level in more than a decade as federal officials also recorded the highest number of hate-motivated killings since the FBI began collecting that data in the early 1990s, according to an FBI report released Monday.

There were 51 hate crime murders in 2019, which includes 22 people who were killed in a shooting that targeted Mexicans at a Walmart in the border city of El Paso, Texas, the report said. The suspect in that August 2019 shooting, which left two dozen other people injured, was charged with both state and federal crimes in what authorities said was an attempt to scare Hispanics into leaving the United States.

There were 7,314 hate crimes last year, up from 7,120 the year before — and approaching the 7,783 of 2008. The FBI’s annual report defines hate crimes as those motivated by bias based on a person’s race, religion or sexual orientation, among other categories.

Heading into election day, there were two crucial questions. First, who would win? Second, in a divided era, how would the loser respond?

Joe Biden won by more than 4 million and is calling for unity. Donald Trump lost and is inciting division.

The president’s reaction to a “Dear Donald” letter from the American voters has so far been appalling. His ego maniacal personality prevented him from seeing the breakup coming. He has rejected the message and is attempting to enforce a broken relationship on the country, possibly making him the most dangerous jilted lover in the world.

Many critics predicted this temper tantrum; what few imagined, including me, is that the GOP leaders would go along with the kinds of treacherous behavior that humiliates America before the world.

This is not the Republican Party that I knew. The first Republican President in my lifetime was Dwight Eisenhower, a war hero to my family and our middle class neighbors in a post-war neighborhood in St. Louis. Ike promised to end the Korean War and did. He also built the Interstate Highway System.

The second was Richard Nixon who before leaving office in disgrace opened relations with China, created the Environmental Protection Agency, and helped the cause of Native Americans.

Gerald Ford brought the country together after Watergate.

Ronald Reagan was the JFK of the conservatives who brought image and style to the White House and is credited with bringing down the Berlin Wall signaling the collapse of the Soviet Union.

His successor George H.W. Bush lost a second term because of a act of patriotism when he raised taxes to control a spiraling deficit.

His son’s star-crossed Presidency saw 9/11 and never ending war in the Middle East

Then came Donald Trump. He unleashed on America a form of angry Populism that appealed to millions who felt left behind by the high-tech secular culture of the 21st Century. Trump trounced a weak Republican field and squeaked by a very capable but tone deaf Democrat.

He inherited a presidency whose power had been greatly expanded by Barack Obama who resorted to rule by executive order when blind opposition from a Republican Senate majority blocked his programs.

Trump used it on steroids. Before long he simply ignored Congress. He built 300 miles of border wall with money appropriated to fill the needs for military housing. He filled cabinet offices with so-called “temporary appointees” in order to avoid the inconvence of Senate confirmation.

Donald Trump inherited the world’s greatest democracy and left the beginnings of autocracy.

Now Mitch McConnell and his allies will have to decide whether to continue that mission or take a walk with Joe Biden on the road to restore our democracy.

But if they have chosen Trumpism as the future of their party, I pray for Joe Biden — and the country.

MASON, Texas — The change at the Sunday prayer service was so subtle it went unnoticed by several congregants. Tucked in between calls for divine health and wisdom, the Rev. Fred Krebs of St. Paul Lutheran Church, who rarely brings up politics, fleetingly mentioned this month’s presidential election.

“We pray for a peaceful transition,” he told his congregation of 50 people. The carefully chosen words underscored the political reality in Mason, Texas — a rural, conservative town of roughly 2,000 people — after Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump.

Not everyone thought the election was over, and not everyone said they would respect the results.

“My Democratic friends think Biden is going to heal everything and unify everyone,” said Jeanie Smith, who attends the more conservative Spring Street Gospel Church in Mason, which is about 100 miles west of Austin. “They are deceived.

“Now you want healing,” she added. “Now you want to come together. You have not earned it.”

https://news.yahoo.com/biden-asked-republicans-him-chance-162845294.html