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Biden welcomed 2,500 guests to the South Lawn under sunny skies as he cracked jokes about the fates of “Peach” and “Blossom” and sounded wistful tones about the last weeks of his presidency after a half-century in Washington power circles. “It’s been the honor of my life. I’m forever grateful,” Biden said, taking note of his impending departure on Jan. 20, 2025. That's when power will transfer to Republican President-elect Donald Trump, the man Biden defeated four years ago and was battling again until he was pressured to bow out of the race amid concerns about his age and viability. Biden is 82. Until Inauguration Day, the president and first lady Jill Biden will continue a busy run of festivities that will double as their long goodbye. The White House schedule in December is replete with holiday parties for various constituencies, from West Wing staff to members of Congress and the White House press corps. Biden relished the brief ceremony with the pardoned turkeys, named for the official flower of the president's home state of Delaware. “The peach pie in my state is one of my favorites,” he said during remarks that were occasionally interrupted by Peach gobbling atop the table to Biden's right. “Peach is making a last-minute plea,” Biden said at one point, drawing laughter from an overflow crowd that included Cabinet members, White House staff and their families, and students from 4H programs and Future Farmers of America chapters. Biden introduced Peach as a bird who “lives by the motto, ‘Keep calm and gobble on.’” Blossom, the president said, has a different motto: “No fowl play. Just Minnesota nice.” Peach and Blossom came from the farm of John Zimmerman, near the southern Minnesota city of Northfield. Zimmerman, who has raised about 4 million turkeys, is president of the National Turkey Federation, the group that has gifted U.S. presidents Thanksgiving turkeys since the Truman administration after World War II. President Harry Truman, however, preferred to eat the birds. Official pardon ceremonies did not become an annual White House tradition until the administration of President George H.W. Bush in 1989. With their presidential reprieve, Peach and Blossom will live out their days at Farmamerica, an agriculture interpretative center near Waseca in southern Minnesota. The center's aim is to promote agriculture and educate future farmers and others about agriculture in America. Separately Monday, first lady Jill Biden received the official White House Christmas tree that will be decorated and put on display in the Blue Room. The 18.5 foot (5.64 meters) Fraser fir came from a farm in an area of western North Carolina that recently was devastated by Hurricane Helene . Cartner’s Christmas Tree Farm lost thousands of trees in the storm “but this one remained standing and they named it ‘Tremendous’ for the extraordinary hope that it represents,” Jill Biden said at the event. The Bidens were also traveling to New York City on Monday for an evening “Friendsgiving” event at a Coast Guard station on Staten Island. Biden began his valedictory calendar Friday night with a gala for hundreds of his friends, supporters and staff members who gathered in a pavilion erected on the South Lawn, with a view out to the Lincoln Memorial. Cabinet secretaries, Democratic donors and his longest-serving staff members came together to hear from the president and pay tribute, with no evidence that Biden was effectively forced from the Democratic ticket this summer and watched Vice President Kamala Harris suffer defeat on Nov. 5. “I’m so proud that we’ve done all of this with a deep belief in the core values of America,” said Biden, sporting a tuxedo for the black-tie event. Setting aside his criticisms of Trump as a fundamental threat to democracy, Biden added his characteristic national cheerleading: “I fully believe that America is better positioned to lead the world today than at any point in my 50 years of public service.” The first lady toasted her husband with a nod to his 2020 campaign promise to “restore the soul of the nation,” in Trump’s aftermath. With the results on Election Day, however, Biden’s four years now become sandwiched in the middle of an era dominated by Trump's presence on the national stage and in the White House. Even as the first couple avoided the context surrounding the president's coming exit, those political realities were nonetheless apparent, as younger Democrats like Maryland Gov. Wes Moore , Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Biden's Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg not only raised their glasses to the president but held forth with many attendees who could remain in the party's power circles in the 2028 election cycle and beyond.Is ‘Glicked’ the new ‘Barbenheimer’? ‘Wicked’ and ‘Gladiator II’ collide in theatersFormer President delivered the keynote address at the 2024 Obama Democracy Forum on Thursday night in Chicago. This year’s theme was “pluralism.” In classic Obama style, he illustrated the concept with homey examples like a church and a mosque agreeing to share a parking lot. The kind of “pluralism” that seemed to most interest him, though, was that of divergent political factions that can “form coalitions, compete for support and elect representatives who will then go and negotiate and compromise and hopefully advance our interests.” He studiously avoided saying the name of the president-elect, but the presence of hung over the whole event like a particularly grotesque balloon at a . Obama’s remarks celebrating the way flourishing liberal democracies are supposed to work, in the context of , are a vivid reminder that in the United States of America today, the machinery isn’t exactly humming along in perfect order. Obama’s characteristic rhetorical virtues were on full display. He was a constitutional law professor before he was a politician, and he still sounds like one. At the same time, he was a once-in-a-generation talent as a political communicator. He knows how to convey a complex set of ideas in a digestible and appealing way. But there was a massive gaping hole at the center of his speech. He still doesn’t understand why his eight years in power culminated in the rise of Trump. Despite his considerable talents, his brand of centrist liberalism is fundamentally inadequate to the historical moment in which he now finds himself. And his speech in Chicago offered nothing but more of the same. In Obama's telling of the story of America’s experiment in political pluralism, the system worked pretty smoothly in the 20th century, but all wasn’t well beneath the surface. “Democracy,” he said, “was built on top of a deeply entrenched caste system — formal and informal, based on race and gender and class and sexual orientation.” One at a time, various marginalized and underrepresented groups got a “seat at the table.” When this happened, pluralism became far more difficult, because the political conflicts exposed by this enriching of our democracy went deeper than the old “fights about roads and taxes.” But if pluralism is now more challenging, he suggested, it’s therefore become that much more urgent. The word “inequality” appeared exactly twice in the nearly 5,000 words of Obama’s speech. One reference was too vague for it to be clear who exactly was “unequal” to whom. The other specified that he was thinking of the inequalities between “urban” and “rural” populations and “knowledge workers” and those who work with their hands. These are certainly real forms of economic imbalance. But the income gap between an office worker in a city and a rural manual laborer is a rounding error on the scale of the inequality between any of these people and, say, Capital One CEO Richard Fairbank, whose annual salary is in the tens of millions, and whose net worth seems to hover over a billion. To put that number in perspective, if we imagine an immortal vampire crossing the ocean with Christopher Columbus in 1492 and somehow earning the exact equivalent of one thousand dollars every day since then, the vampire would have only about $194 million today. (As one of the Obama Democracy Forum’s sponsors, the Capital One logo regularly appeared on the livestream’s lower-third graphics.) It should go without saying that the small number of Americans with that kind of wealth have a tremendously concentrated amount of power in the economic domain, where they can gain or forfeit power over the lives of vast numbers of employees by buying and selling companies, as well as far more political influence than ordinary citizens. This kind of inequality, though, seems to be entirely outside of Obama’s sphere of concern. Even the use of the word “class” in the phrase “race and gender and class and sexual orientation” is highly telling. The kind of centrist liberalism represented by Obama sees social justice in terms of making sure that the best and brightest members of each demographic group have an equal shot at rising to the top of society, where they can become CEOs themselves, or become politicians and participate in the process he rhapsodized about earlier, whereby bright and competent technocrats “negotiate and compromise and hopefully advance our interests.” When “class” is simply one more item on this list of identity characteristics, it’s clear that he’s talking about making sure that particularly bright and deserving individuals from working-class backgrounds can rise to the top. He’s not interested in giving the working class as a whole more structural power in our economy or our society. In other words, this is the same old centrism. Obama’s version of “pluralism” has always been integral to his message. He first came to national prominence with his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, where he charismatically spoke about how we should resist the efforts of pundits to “slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States” rather than seeing us simply as the United States. His message has always been anti-polarization. As president, Obama did get an incremental form of health care reform through Congress — the Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare” — but it was one that preserved the fundamental injustices of the system. Many Americans stay in jobs they hate for fear of losing their employer health insurance. Others don’t have insurance at all, which sometimes leads to grisly outcomes like diabetics dying when they try to ration out their insulin. And even those lucky enough to be insured often are often faced with a bureaucratic nightmare when they have medical emergencies. For-profit insurance companies have every incentive to “Delay, Deny and Defend” when clients make claims. This phrase is the title of a 2010 book on the industry by Rutgers law professor Jay Feinman. And the words “delay,” “deny,” and “depose” were reportedly written on the casings of the bullets found at scene where UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed in New York the day before Obama’s speech. If you want an indication of whether the reforms in Obamacare were sufficient to allay ordinary Americans’ anger about our health care system, look no further than the online reactions to that shocking act of violence. During Obama’s eight years in power, America’s wars in the Middle East ground slowly onward. This was a crucial factor in the rise of Trump, who was able to (deceptively) market himself as “anti-war.” And on the economic front, Obama continued George W. Bush’s policy of bailing out “too big to fail” banks while leaving homeowners who lost their houses in the 2008 crash underwater. He oversaw eight years of mounting economic inequality. Those eight years saw flashes of left-wing populist outrage like Occupy Wall Street and the first Bernie Sanders campaign. These were handily defeated by the powers-that-be, though, from the NYPD clearing the protesters from Zuccotti Park to the Democratic Party quelling the Sanders insurgency. And at the end of the day there was nowhere for all that populist energy to go but Trump. Obama’s liberalism is far more concerned with shattering glass ceilings for deserving strivers than raising the floor of material security for everyone. And that’s exactly the kind of liberalism that failed the first time — so spectacularly that a grotesque pseudo-populist demagogue was Obama’s immediate successor. Now Obama’s vice president, Joe Biden, is running out the clock on his presidency, and Trump is returning to power, this time with far more working-class support. Meanwhile, more than a few Americans have despaired so thoroughly of fixing our society through politics that they’re willing to cheer for an assassin murdering a health care CEO in broad daylight on the streets of Manhattan. We urgently need a far better response to the current crisis than anything the dominant faction of the Democratic Party is offering. And the first step is to stop listening to Barack Obama.
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Stock Market Symbols GIB (NYSE) GIB.A ( TSX ) cgi.com/newsroom Merger strengthens CGI's position with Fortune 500 clients in St. Louis , Atlanta , Minneapolis , Chicago , Columbus , Dallas and New York ST. LOUIS, Mo. , Dec. 11, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - CGI (NYSE: GIB) (TSX: GIB.A) today announced the signature of an equity purchase agreement to merge operations with Daugherty, a St. Louis -based professional services firm specializing in artificial intelligence, data analytics, strategic IT consulting, and business advisory services for Fortune 500 clients in the financial services, healthcare, communications, retail and manufacturing sectors. The merger of operations brings more than 1,100 talented consultants to CGI, further strengthening the company's presence in multiple key U.S. growth markets, including St. Louis , Atlanta , Minneapolis , Chicago , Columbus , Dallas and New York . The parties entered into a purchase agreement on November 29, 2024 , and the transaction is expected to close in December 2024 , subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions. For 39 years, Daugherty has been committed to driving innovation, growth and customer satisfaction while making a positive difference in the community. For CGI, the merger with Daugherty establishes significant combined geographic presence in targeted U.S. markets, deepens industry expertise and enhances strategic advisory services with offerings around digital engagement, technology modernization, cloud transformation, and FinOps and sustainability. The merger with CGI enables Daugherty clients to retain local relationships and expertise while gaining access to CGI's global capabilities, network of delivery centers, and breadth of end-to-end services and solutions. Daugherty has consistently been named as the Largest IT Consulting Firm by the St. Louis Business Journal along with several top workplace recognitions across its metro markets and a 'top five in the nation' distinction in 2024 for the Top Workplaces USA . "At the heart of our strategic vision is a dual commitment: to our clients and our teammates," said Ron Daugherty , Daugherty President and CEO. "We're forging a path with CGI that expands global capabilities, creates meaningful professional opportunities, and amplifies our collective potential to drive innovation and positive change in our communities." Giving back to the communities in which CGI and Daugherty live and work is also a shared commitment, as evidenced by CGI's commitment to support of The Daugherty Foundation which will provide access to education, mentorship and career opportunities for young people and underrepresented groups in technology. "The combined strength of Daugherty and CGI creates additional value for clients through deep industry insight and technology expertise, with a strong commitment and proven history of delivering trusted business outcomes," said Vijay Srinivasan , CGI President of U.S. Commercial and State Government operations. "CGI and Daugherty are a great cultural fit as both companies share a strong commitment to their people and communities, a dedication to management fundamentals and a passion for excellence in execution for clients." In the U.S., CGI has operations across 80 offices which are organized through a metro market proximity model and supported by the depth of the company's international presence, range of services, and insights to deliver value locally. About CGI Founded in 1976, CGI is among the largest independent IT and business consulting services firms in the world. With 90,250 consultants and professionals across the globe, CGI delivers an end-to-end portfolio of capabilities, from strategic IT and business consulting to systems integration, managed IT and business process services and intellectual property solutions. CGI works with clients through a local relationship model complemented by a global delivery network that helps clients digitally transform their organizations and accelerate results. CGI Fiscal 2024 reported revenue is $14.68 billion and CGI shares are listed on the TSX (GIB.A) and the NYSE (GIB). Learn more at cgi.com . View original content: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cgi-expands-operations-in-multiple-us-metro-markets-with-daugherty-302329421.html SOURCE CGI Inc.None
COMMENT: Asean 2025: What’s in it for Malaysia?PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced Wednesday she’s suing a for allegedly violating a public nuisance law, contending that its groundwater pumping threatens the public health, safety and infrastructure of local communities in a rural western county. The complaint filed in Maricopa County Superior Court alleges that the pumping at a Fondomonte Arizona, LLC. alfalfa farm has had widespread effects in the Ranegras Plain Basin of La Paz County, harming everyone who depends on basin water by drawing down supplies, drying up wells and causing the ground to crack and sink in some areas. The lawsuit is the latest action by Arizona against foreign companies that use huge amounts of groundwater to grow thirsty forage crops for export because of climate challenges in other countries. Rural Arizona is especially attractive to international businesses because it has no groundwater pumping regulations. The lawsuit alleges that since 2014, Fondomonte has extracted huge amounts of water that accelerated depletion of the basin’s aquifer. The company is a subsidiary of Saudi dairy giant Almarai Co. “We find the allegations of the Attorney General totally unfounded, and we will defend any potential action against Fondomonte and our rights vigorously before the competent authorities,” Fondomonte said in a statement Wednesday. “The company has invested significantly to bring the latest conservation technology and applies environmentally sustainable practices on these long-established farms,” it said. “Fondomonte has continued to develop responsibly during its time farming in the state and the company complies with all state regulations. ” across the West, particularly in states like Arizona, which relies heavily on the dwindling Colorado River. The drought has also made groundwater — long used by farmers and rural residents without restriction — even more important for users across the state. Mayes told reporters Wednesday that the Arizona Legislature has done nothing to fix the groundwater problem despite knowing about the problem for years. “While laws regulating groundwater pumping could have prevented this situation, the legislature’s inaction has allowed the crisis to grow,” Mayes said. “When the legislature fails to protect our most basic resources, the attorney general must step in.” La Paz County Supervisor Holly Irwin, a Republican, commended Mayes, a Democrat, for attempting to address what she described as her community’s “most challenging” concern. “I know that my constituents will be thrilled over this, that somebody is actually paying attention to the real problems here,” Irwin said during Wednesday’s news briefing via a video conference call. Mayes’ lawsuit alleges that Fondomonte’s actions are a public nuisance under a state statute that prohibits activity that injures health, obstructs property use, or interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property by a community. Mayes called the company’s groundwater pumping “unsustainable” and said it caused “devastating consequences” for people in the area. “Arizona law is clear: no company has the right to endanger an entire community’s health and safety for its own gain,” she said. The lawsuit seeks to enjoin the company from further groundwater pumping it says is “excessive” and require that an abatement fund be established. Arizona officials have been targeting Fondomonte for more than a year over its use of groundwater to grow forage crops, by not renewing or canceling the company’s leases in in western Arizona. Some residents there had complained that the company’s pumping was threatening their wells. ___ Gabriel Sandoval is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Gabriel Sandoval And Anita Snow, The Associated Press
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WASHINGTON — FBI Director Christopher Wray told the bureau workforce Wednesday he plans to resign at the end of President Joe Biden’s term in January, an announcement that came a week and a half after President-elect Donald Trump said he would nominate loyalist Kash Patel for the job. Wray said at a town hall meeting that he would step down “after weeks of careful thought,” three years short of the completion of a 10-year term marked by high-profile and politically charged investigations, including that those led to two separate indictments of Trump last year. Wray’s intended resignation is not unexpected considering that Trump settled on Patel to be director and repeatedly aired his ire at Wray. By stepping down rather than waiting to be fired, Wray is trying to avert a collision with the new Trump administration that he said would have further entangled the FBI “deeper into the fray.” Wray was put in the job by Trump and began the 10-year term — a length meant to insulate the agency from the political influence of changing administrations — in 2017, after Trump fired then-FBI Director James Comey. Get local news delivered to your inbox!