Stevenson’s army, September 20

-No surprises in hearings for several Biden nominees. SecState nominee Blinken deftly sidestepped controversy.
Mister Lloyd Austin promised to surround himself with civilians. But the Biden people are worried about “deep state” Trump loyalists.– Example, Michael Ellis.– Another example, administration refusal to cooperate with transition teams.
In the Senate, the leaders have agreed to the 50/50 power sharing agreement from 2001 — except Leader McConnell demands promise not to end filibuster. McConnell did, however, accuse Trump of lies about the election and provoking the riot. And the FBI says some rioters plotted violence in advance and coordinated in real-time during attacks. More from BuzzFeed.
While troop levels are down Stars and Stripes notes US still has 18,000 contractors in Afghanistan. Marc Ambinder warns of new challenges for the Secret Service.
Researchers note: at noon Wednesday, the Trump whitehouse.gov materials will move to an archived site, like the one for the Obama administration. [No Tweets, just official materials]

Navalny people release report about Putin’s Palace on the Black Sea.

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).