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Jimmy Carter Will Have Three Funerals - The Tuesday AM Quickie 12/31/24

By Jacob Silverman —

Happy New Year! Please tell your friends to subscribe in 2025 so I can keep doing this. -Jacob

ON THE SHOW TODAY

12/31: It's Day 6 of the Majority Report Best Of 2024! Today you'll hear from Dr. Peter J. Hotez, Dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, to discuss his recent book The Deadly Rise of Anti-science: A Scientist's Warning.

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Today you'll read about the many funerals of Jimmy Carter, Elon Musk interfering in Germany's domestic politics, another Chinese hack of important US government systems, and an arrest warrant for South Korea's president.

THE BIG NEWS

Tributes Flow for Jimmy Carter, Who Will Have Three Funerals

President Jimmy Carter, who died over the weekend at age 100, will be memorialized and feted in Washington, DC, Atlanta, and his hometown of Plains, Georgia. The former peanut farmer, 39th president, Sunday school teacher, and supporter of South Korea's dictatorship (topical!) will first be remembered in Plains on Jan. 4, followed by events at the Georgia state capitol and the Carter Center. On January 9, he'll have a state funeral in Washington's National Cathedral, with President Joe Biden delivering the main eulogy. That will be followed by several days of Carter lying in state in the U.S. Capitol.

Calling Carter "a man of character, courage, and compassion," President Biden declared that flags on government buildings will fly at half-staff for 30 days and that January 9, 2025, will be a national day of mourning. "I call on the American people to assemble on that day in their respective places of worship, there to pay homage to the memory of President James Earl Carter, Jr," wrote Biden. "I invite the people of the world who share our grief to join us in this solemn observance."

After the end of the procession and ceremonies, President Carter will be interred in a family plot in Plains, next to his wife Rosalynn, who died last year. The burial site, outside Carter's boyhood home, is now part of the Jimmy Carter National Historic Park.

German Politicians Accuse Musk of Political Interference

After praising the right-wing AfD party – the closest thing Germany has had to a Nazi Party since 1945 – as "the only hope for Germany," Elon Musk published an op-ed in a German newspaper in which he wrote that AfD's xenophobic, anti-immigrant policy is important for "the preservation of German culture and security." As he has done frequently on social media, Musk also attempted to reposition the AfD as moderate rather than far right.

German politicians responded by denouncing Musk, who has a large Tesla factory in the country, for attempting to interfere in Germany's February election. An opinion editor at Welt am Sonntag, the paper that published Musk's op-ed, resigned. A number of other Welt contributors published pieces either criticizing Musk's op-ed or otherwise meditating on it. Iron law of digital media: when life hands you a scandal, turn it into content.

Treasury Department Hack Is China's Latest Digital Conquest

After gaining access to surveillance systems at a number of major telecoms companies in an operation called Salt Typhoon, Chinese hackers seem to have found another juicy target: the Treasury Department. A state-sponsored hacking group reportedly gained access to Treasury Department computers by leveraging a software program with the absurdly ironic name of BeyondTrust. The Treasury Department called it a "major incident" while emphasizing that only unclassified material was stolen.

QUICKEST QUICKIES

  • South Korea Issues Arrest Warrant After President's Martial Law Flub Yoon Suk Yeol, the sitting president of South Korea, is now a wanted man. A South Korean court issued a warrant for his arrest based on charges stemming from his ham-fisted attempt to declare martial law a month ago. South Korea's parliament recently voted to strip Yoon of his presidential authority, and he faces an impeachment trial. via Al Jazeera and CNN.
  • Mackenzie Scott Is Disrupting Big-Dollar Philanthropy Mackenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos' ex-wife, has donated billions of dollars to progressive-minded nonprofits in recent years. The donations are typically large and have no strings attached and few reporting requirements. Sounds pretty good. But that's resulted in a lot of head-scratching – and some anonymous shit-talking – in the world of big philanthropy. via Fortune.
  • In Parting Gift, Biden Sends Another $6 Billion to Ukraine As part of President Joe Biden's stated desire to "surge" military assistance to Ukraine before he leaves office, the administration is sending another $6 billion in financial assistance and military equipment. In a rare sign of diplomatic success, Russia and Ukraine recently completed a prisoner swap. via The Guardian.
  • WHO Asks For An End To Military Attacks On Gaza's Hospitals In an impassioned post that curiously didn't mention Israel, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, begged for an end to attacks on Gaza's hospitals. He also called for the release of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, whom Israeli forces recently disappeared. Once considered a heinous violation of the laws of war, Israeli attacks on hospitals have become routine, all but destroying Gaza's healthcare infrastructure. via X/WHO and BBC News.

SOME NUMBER

$170 billion

That's how much interest US consumers paid on their credit card debt from September 2023 to September 2024. As the Financial Times reports, credit-card defaults are at a 14-year high, indicating that Americans' are cash-strapped and falling deeper into debt to make ends meet. "The bottom third of US consumers are tapped out," one analyst told the FT. And Trump's tariff bonanza should make things worse.

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PARTING WORDS

"It’s deeply concerning that @elonmusk met with China’s foreign minister yesterday to oppose decoupling and referred to the U.S. & Communist China as “conjoined twins.” Tesla’s VP in China reposted that statement on Weibo in China, but curiously not here in the U.S. In October, Elon issued an unprompted call for “reunification” of Taiwan & won a favorable tax benefit in Shanghai days later... The U.S. needs leaders who aren’t in China’s pocket"

-- From a May 31, 2023 X post by Vivek Ramaswamy, who along with Musk is now spearheading Trump's plan to gut and privatize government services. [archive link]

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