Accompanied by his son Hunter and granddaughter Finnegan, Vice President Biden begins a week-long Asian junket on Monday with a stop in Tokyo. His itinerary includes meetings with Japanese, Chinese and South Korean leaders, and the mooted Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal and regional security concerns are expected to top the agenda. The Veep’s trip comes at a time when China and Japan are engaging in a Falklands-style dispute over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
David Cameron is also in China this week, desperate to kiss some State Council butt after his meeting with the Dalai Lama in May of last year got them all riled up. For good measure, the British PM brought along scores of business people, all eager to be the first and biggest (and perhaps only) recipients of what Cameron recently termed “real rewards for our peoples.”
Elsewhere in the Far East, the tense situation in Thailand shows no signs of easing. Suthep Thaugsuban, leader of the anti-government faction, claims he told Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in a secret meeting on Sunday that she and her government have two days to step down and turn control of the county “over to the people.” Violent, sometimes deadly protests continue, but it’s unclear what will happen should Yingluck fail to heed the dissidents’ ultimatum.
Although acknowledging that more remediation is needed, the White House claimed Sunday that HealthCare.gov is now largely fixed and capable of handling 50,000 visitors at a time, meeting the President’s self-imposed repair timeline. Watch for renewed efforts this week to undermine or sabotage the site, if enough Republican hackers can figure out how to turn on their computers. And if that effort fails, they’ll always have Benghazi.
The House will be back in session this week, with a light schedule befitting its inability to actually get anything accomplished. The Senate is out until next week, though efforts continue behind the scenes to prepare new sanctions in case current State Department and international efforts at rapprochement with Iran falter. Both chambers are “working” against a December 13 deadline to agree on a budget deal, and short of that will have to come up with another continuing resolution in January to keep the government open past the 15th.
Activists from Fast for Families continue their sit-in on the National Mall this week as part of the group’s “National Days to Act, Fast and Pray,” intended to spur action on immigration reform by John Boehner and the other worthless specimens of humanity in the Republican House leadership. The immigration advocates received a visit from the President and First Lady last Friday.
The official White House Christmas tree arrived Friday from the Pennsylvania farm of Christopher Botek, and got a lot of decorating attention from staff and volunteers over the weekend in advance of a special Wednesday viewing for military families.
Israel’s blockheaded prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Rome, along with half a dozen cabinet ministers, for talks with Italy’s PM and a Monday audience with Pope Francis, wherein Netanyahu presumably will attempt to convince the Pontiff that nothing says “Joyous Holiday Season” like bombing the crap out of Iran.