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| Presented By Facebook |
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| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen ·Dec 16, 2020 |
| 🐪 Happy snowy Wednesday! Today's Smart Brevity™ count: 1,072 words ... 4 minutes. 📈 Please join Felix Salmon at 12:30 p.m. ET today for an Axios Virtual Event on businesses making a difference during the pandemic, featuring Cuyana co-founder and CEO Karla Gallardo, Edgewell Personal Care president and CEO Rod Little, and Fanatics founder and executive chairman Michael Rubin. Register here. |
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| 1 big thing: Mitch, the muscle |
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| Mitch McConnell walks to the Senate floor in July. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images |
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| Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is muscling out President Trump as the dominant day-to-day Republican powerbroker on Capitol Hill. - Why it matters: Trump's power persists, and will live on post-presidency. But McConnell — in his cunningly quiet but methodical way — is flexing his authority. It's a taste of a tension that will help define the next four years.
With President Trump offstage and in denial, McConnell conferred the Republican Party's validation of Joe Biden as president-elect, declaring on the Senate floor yesterday: "The Electoral College has spoken. So today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden." - Biden called to thank the Kentucky gentleman for the remarks, and told reporters: "There are things we can work together on. ... I'm looking forward to working with him."
A year-end coronavirus deal is alive — because McConnell says it is. McConnell said Tuesday: "We're not leaving here without a COVID package." - In his party's most consequential turning of the page, McConnell yesterday privately warned GOP senators not to join Trump's extended assault on the Electoral College results. McConnell said on a caucus call that any shenanigans on Jan. 6, when Congress will confirm the result in a joint session, would yield a "terrible vote" for Republicans. In a real change of tune for the party, McConnell insisted there's "zero sentiment" for an objection.
What's next: Whether Republicans keep the Senate majority or not, McConnell will be the party's last word on what lives and dies from Biden's Hill agenda. - "He is the obstacle to — and facilitator of — progress," a longtime McConnell associate told me.
The bottom line: Remember that McConnell called his autobiography "The Long Game." - He played it, and won. We're about to see an epic next round.
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| 2. How 2020 changed offices forever |
| Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios In less than a year, the pandemic shot us more than a decade ahead in the workplace transformation, writes Erica Pandey, author of the weekly Axios @Work newsletter: 1. We're rethinking where we work and live. - Around 20 million Americans are planning to leave dense and costly metros like New York and San Francisco and move to cheaper cities.
2. Workplace priorities are changing. After months away from the office, in-person perks like free snacks or stunning city views don't matter as much. - People increasingly care about company culture and belonging, and that will be a key factor in firms' abilities to recruit and retain talent.
3. Companies have accelerated adoption of workplace technology. - Besides tech for remote work, firms are also incorporating new forms of surveillance in the name of safety.
4. We have more workplace flexibility. - Getting dressed up seems superfluous now, and people have ditched business formal — and even business casual — for loungewear.
The bottom line: The pandemic will be remembered as the great accelerant. 🎧 Hear more as Erica Pandey guest-hosts our "Axios Today." |
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| 3. Big Tech's hidden hand in vaccine rollout |
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| Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios |
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| Technology companies — including IBM, Oracle and Salesforce — are working with governments and health agencies to manage the massive task of rapidly distributing the COVID-19 vaccines, Ina Fried writes from S.F. - Why it matters: For tech, it's both a business opportunity and a chance for companies to tie themselves to a critical societal need.
Salesforce is working with global vaccine alliance Gavi to help with its project to equitably distribute the vaccine in 190 countries. Closer to home, Salesforce is part of a project that consultant MTX built for the city of Chicago to manage its vaccine distribution. The consultant is now looking to sell the program to other local governments. - Oracle donated a national electronic health record database and public health management applications to the federal government.
- IBM is offering a blockchain-based approach to record and authenticate the temperature and handling of each vaccine dose.
- A number of companies, including IBM and Clear, aim to provide a "digital health pass" to institutions that want to require proof of vaccination, including airlines, workplaces and schools.
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| A message from Facebook |
| Facebook supports updated internet regulations |
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We support updated internet regulations to set clear rules for today's toughest challenges and hold companies, including Facebook, accountable for: - Combating foreign election interference.
- Protecting people's privacy.
- Enabling safe and easy data portability between platforms.
Read more |
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| 4. Graphic of the day |
| Via "All In with Chris Hayes," MSNBC |
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| 5. Can employers force employees to take vaccine to return to work? |
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| Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios |
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| The short answer is that employers can create such requirements, with some wiggle room, Erica Pandey writes. - Federal law lets both public and private organizations require vaccinations, and schools, hospitals and a host of other institutions have long done so.
The bottom line: Companies could play a key role in upping vaccination numbers by asking their employees — or even their customers — to take it. Go deeper (subscription): The N.Y. Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin spoke with executives about requiring worker vaccinations. |
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| 6. Au revoir, snow days |
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| Hard landing at slope in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Photo: Andrew Katz/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images |
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| The pandemic may end school snow days forever, the N.Y. Times' Troy Closson writes (subscription): - "With the season's first big snowfall expected in New York City today, classes will be held online no matter how bad storms are."
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| 7. Federal executions top states' for 1st time |
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| Federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. Photo: Michael Conroy/AP |
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| For the first time in history, the U.S. government carried out more executions in a year (10) than all states (7), AP writes from an annual report by the Death Penalty Information Center. - Why it matters: President Trump oversaw a full-throttle resumption of federal executions this year after a 17-year pause, carrying out 10 executions even as backing for capital punishment waned.
- That's a higher yearly total than under any presidency since the 1800s, according to the report.
What's next: The Trump administration has three more executions scheduled ahead of Inauguration Day on Jan. 20 — with the last scheduled for Jan. 15, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. - One of those scheduled is Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row. She'd be the first woman executed by the federal government in some six decades.
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| 8. Times Square will be empty Dec. 31 |
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| Times Square, 350 days ago. Photo: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images |
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| Times Square New Year's Eve celebrations will have no public audience for the first time in the ball drop's 113-year history, organizers announced. - The ball drop will go ahead, and Gloria Gaynor will perform her 1970s disco hit, "I Will Survive."
Like the rest of this year, it'll be livestreamed. |
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| 9. Elizabeth Warren plans April book |
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| Cover: Henry Holt & Co. |
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| Sen. Elizabeth Warren will write about "six experiences and perspectives that have influenced her life and advocacy" in "Persist," out April 20. - "I wrote 'Persist' because I remain as committed as ever to fighting for an America that works for everyone," Warren said. "I've written a dozen books, but this one is especially personal."
Warren was repped by Robert Barnett and Daniel Martin of Williams & Connolly. |
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| 10. 1 smile to go: 20 good things from '20 |
| Pharmacy students pose with a box of Pfizer vaccines at North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale, Minn., yesterday. Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images The Washington Post Editorial Board rounds up "20 good things that happened in 2020": - "A terrible plague struck humankind, but scientists responded with unprecedented speed and common purpose."
- "We learned to appreciate the selfless dedication of nurses, orderlies, doctors and other health workers who risked their lives to save ours."
- "A record number of Americans turned out to vote."
- Black women "helped elect America's first female vice-president, first Black vice-president and first Asian American vice-president: Sen. Kamala Harris."
- "NASA named its headquarters building in D.C. after Mary W. Jackson, the agency's first African American female engineer."
- "Oh — and a panda was born at the National Zoo!"
Keep reading. |
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| A message from Facebook |
| It's time for updated regulations to promote data portability |
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| We joined tech partners in Data Transfer Project to build a framework that enables people to move their data securely and easily between platforms. But there's more to do. We support updated regulations to ensure data is safe, portable and used responsibly. Read more |
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