We have the first credit union failure of the year, C O Federal Credit Union, of Charleston, South Carolina was taken into conservatorship by the NCUA on Tuesdaty, January 5.
This is the first time in a while that we have had a bank or credit union failure in the first full week of the year.
The Onion, from 2000:
Serbia Deploys Peacekeeping Forces To U.S.
11/15/00 3:00PM
BELGRADE–Serbian president Vojislav Kostunica deployed more than 30,000 peacekeeping troops to the U.S. Monday, pledging full support to the troubled North American nation as it struggles to establish democracy.“We must do all we can to support free elections in America and allow democracy to gain a foothold there,” Kostunica said. “The U.S. is a major player in the Western Hemisphere and its continued stability is vital to Serbian interests in that region.”
Kostunica urged Al Gore, the U.S. opposition-party leader who is refusing to recognize the nation’s Nov. 7 election results, to “let the democratic process take its course.”
………
Though Kostunica has pledged to work with U.S. leaders, he did not rule out the possibility of economic sanctions if the crisis is not resolved soon.
Note the highlighted date.
The Onion has been predicting the future for 32 years now.
'Due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, this year the United States were forced to organise the coup d'état at home.'
[This is from @fdecollibus and r/t by the Italian extraordinaire satirical collective @spinozait, translated into English by yours truly] https://t.co/bB5hfdnWMW
— Paolo Sandro (@PaoloSandro2) January 6, 2021
This tweet is so grim, and so cynical, and so funny, that I initially thought it was Russian.
Though initial unemployment claims fell slightly last week, by 3000, to 787000, the monthly jobs report shows non-farm employment falling for the first time since April.
The earlier stimulus efforts that propelled the economy have ended, and gravity has reasserted itself:
The U.S. economy shed 140,000 jobs in December — the first month of decline since the earliest months of the pandemic, as the recovery makes a U-turn after months of surging infections and delayed congressional action.
The unemployment rate stayed level at 6.7 percent.
The report, the last of President Trump’s time in office, showed the havoc that the pandemic continues to wreak on the economy as the country struggles to control the level of infections.
Employment in leisure and hospitality industries declined by 498,000, the majority of that at restaurants, bars and other food service establishments, which have struggled amid limitations from cold weather and a new round of restrictions across the country.
Employment in another tourism-related category — amusements, gambling and recreation — fell by 92,000. Government employment declined by 42,000. These declines offset modest gains in other sectors, such as professional and business services, retail and construction.
………
“It’s a damaged labor market,” said Augustine Faucher, chief economist at the PNC Financial Services Group. “But it is a labor market that is poised for recovery, given the fact that we are seeing the vaccine. With support from the federal government and support from the Federal Reserve, it could see a strong rebound over the next few years.”
Too many blither idiots (I’m talking to you, Larry Summers) are more concerned about hippie punching than they are about fixing things.
Call me a cynic, but I think that the reason that so many Trump administration cabinet member have chosen to resign is that they don’t want to be on the record making a decision about removing Donald Trump under the provisions of the 25th Amendment of the Constitution.
They think that participating in that would be disastrous for their future careers.
I know that you are probably thinking, “Future careers, surely you jest,” but let me show you Richard M. Nixon’s “last” press conference, which he gave in 1962:
Much like a bad penny, these folks will be back.
The Trump administration just authorized Tennessee to have its Medicaid funded through block grants.
Block grants is how Bill Clinton’s evil Welfare “Reform” worked, and the states took the money and spent it on things like romance lessions.
The Trump administration wants to take a sledge hammer to Medicaid, and indirectly Obamacare, because they can.
Neil Sheehan, who covered the Vietnam war almost from the beginning, got Daniel Ellsberg to leak him the Pentagon Papers, and then wrote a searing book on the Vietnam war, A Bright and Shining Lie, has died at age 84:
Neil Sheehan, the Vietnam War correspondent and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who obtained the Pentagon Papers for The New York Times, leading the government for the first time in American history to get a judge to block publication of an article on grounds of national security, died on Thursday at his home in Washington. He was 84.
………
Mr. Sheehan, who covered the war from 1962 to 1966 for United Press International and The Times, was also the author of “A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam,” which won a National Book Award and a Pulitzer in 1989. Reviewing it in the Times, Ronald Steel wrote, “If there is one book that captures the Vietnam War in the sheer Homeric scale of its passion and folly, this book is it.”
Intense and driven, Mr. Sheehan arrived in Vietnam at age 25, a believer in the American mission. He left, four years later, disillusioned and anguished. He later spent what he described as a grim and monastic 16 years on “A Bright Shining Lie,” in the hope that the book would move Americans finally to come to grips with the war.
“I simply cannot help worrying that, in the process of waging this war, we are corrupting ourselves,” he wrote in The New York Times Magazine in 1966. “I wonder, when I look at the bombed-out peasant hamlets, the orphans begging and stealing on the streets of Saigon and the women and children with napalm burns lying on the hospital cots, whether the United States or any nation has the right to inflict this suffering and degradation on another people for its own ends.”
Mr. Sheehan’s readiness to entertain the notion that Americans might have committed war crimes prompted Daniel Ellsberg, a former Defense Department analyst who had turned against the war, to leak the Pentagon Papers, a secret government history of American decision-making on Vietnam, to him in 1971. The papers revealed that successive administrations had expanded U.S. involvement in the war and intensified attacks on North Vietnam while obscuring their doubts about the likelihood of success.
You don’t find reporters like this at the Times any more, or at the mainstream media.
It’s all stenography now.
Silly. Joe Manchin is now the chair of every committee. https://t.co/HbtdYGTu7F
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) January 6, 2021
Matt Stoller is right.
Because of the one vote margin in the Senate, Joe Manchin’s ego, and the needs of his campaign donors, will be driving the Senate Agenda.
The Dems should call him out early and often.
Better to call his bluff, and have an excuse for nothing getting done, than to acquiesce, and suffer the consequences of bad policy and worse politics.
‘I never thought leopards would eat MY face,’ sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.
— Adrian Bott (@Cavalorn) October 16, 2015
Remember the story of the frog and the scorpion.
“It’s in my nature.”
When I heard that Joe Biden intends to nominate Merrick Garland as US Attorney General, my first reaction was that this is a MASTERFUL “Fuck You” directed at Mitch McConnell.
Just to remind you of recent history, when Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia choked on his own bile in early 2016, Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland, a well respected, and rather moderate, appellate court judge to replace him.
Mitch McConnell not only refused to allow a vote in Garland, he instructed members of the Republican Caucus not even to meet with him.
It’s how that lunatic Gorsuch ended up on the court.
In nominating Garland for AG, Biden has a chance to replace him with a younger judge (Garland is 68).
Additionally, Garland someone who has been thoroughly vetted on multiple occasions, and has served extensively at the Justice Department, being a US Attorney, an assistant to the AG, and Deputy Assistant AG.
One thing that is pretty clear about him, he won’t take any crap from Mitch McConnell:
President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate federal judge Merrick B. Garland, a Democratic casualty of the bitter partisan divide in Washington, to be the next attorney general, tasked with restoring the Justice Department’s independence and credibility, according to people familiar with the decision.
Garland, 68, serves on the federal appeals court in the District. He is best known for being nominated to the Supreme Court in 2016 by President Barack Obama — a nomination that went nowhere because Senate Republicans refused to give him a hearing. The opening on the high court was eventually filled the following year by President Trump’s choice, Neil M. Gorsuch.
………
Many Democrats still think of Garland as a living example of Republican double-standards when it comes to the courts and the law, though some Biden advisers have come to view him as well-suited to restore norms of nonpolitical decision-making at the Justice Department, given his track record as a judge and a former senior official at the department, according to people familiar with the decision. Like others, they spoke on the condition of anonymity because Biden’s selection has not been formally announced yet.
The Republicans said that it was too close to the election (9 months), and then pushed through Amy Coney Barret in 6 weeks to beat the election.
Everything I’ve seen indicates that he probably won’t go after the blatant corruption and self-dealing of McConnell and his wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, but nobody’s perfect.
Given the events of the past 48 hours or so, I am suspending my policy of %$#ing out dirty words on my blog for the month of January.
My writing is rather profane, but I %$# shit out because I don’t want to offend someone whose children are reading this.
Occasionally, when quoting someone, as when then VP Biden called the passage of Obamacare a, “Big Fucking Deal,” I quote people, and occasionally, I miss the obscenities in a quote, Twitter embeds are not editable, and sometimes, I just fuck up and let it through.
So, fuck and shit, and the rest of the “Anglo Saxon Lexicon” will be on display for the rest of this month.
That being said, I still won’t be using the “C-word” for reasons best illustrated in the Harley Quinn animated series first episode.
Also, I will not be using the word, “Slut”, except in an illustrative manner, (as I just did) because I find it almost as offensive as the “C-word”.
As to the comments, my policy is to eschew moderation, except in the cases where the content is clearly spam, though if someone were to start dropping the “N-word” in the comments, this might change.
If the United States saw what the United States is doing in the United States, the United States would invade the United States to liberate the United States from the tyranny of the United States
— mohamad safa (@mhdksafa) January 6, 2021
Yes.
James Comey’s latest book, due out on January 12, that there should be no prosecution of Donald Trump and his Evil Minions™.
Given the events of today, I am inclined to think that this was an ill-advised opinion to set to paper.
Giving the Democrats control of the US Senate.
I’m with Howie Klein on this, “If Ossoff & Warnock Win, The Dems Better Deliver For Working People Or It’s Curtains For The Party.”
The reason that the Democrats lost the House, and the Senate, a dozen or so governorships, over 1000 state reps, etc. during Obama’s time as President, and the reason that his anointed successor lost to an inverted traffic cone in 2016, and the reason that they under-performed in 2020, is that when given power, they did nothing but suck up to the traditional power centers.
Biden’s promise that, “Nothing will fundamentally change,” is a recipe for disaster, and fascism.
As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy. https://t.co/k6OkjNG3bM
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 7, 2021
Future violations of the Twitter Rules, including our Civic Integrity or Violent Threats policies, will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 7, 2021
We’ll continue to evaluate the situation in real time, including examining activity on the ground and statements made off Twitter. We will keep the public informed, including if further escalation in our enforcement approach is necessary.
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 7, 2021
Following a particularly moronic statement in which Meghan McCain insisted that mockery of her by a Jewish cartoonist was antisemitic, my son replied to her on Twitter that she should, “Go F%$# yourself with a cactus.”
Twitter gave him a 12 hour time out.
It now appears that for calling for a violent insurrection to overthrow the government of the United States, Twitter will also give you a 12 hour time out.
Needless to say, Charlie is considering how best to use that rather perverse juxtaposition of Twitter’s enforcement of its, “Civil Integrity Policy,” as a bit for his standup.
On the bright side, with the pandemic, he’ll have plenty of time to polish the bit.
On the dark side, Covid-19 is why he’ll have plenty of time to polish the bit.
I’m actually a bit jealous about his getting the suspension, it’s been a goal of mine.
I have not managed to do this yet, I have a self-imposed rule that I can’t post something just to get banned. I must post something that I would normally posts.
I even changed my Twitter handle to, “Jack Dorsey Is Objectively Pro-Nazi (M.G. Saroff),” in an attempt to get the elusive ban.
Much to my surprise, and to the surprise of those who know and love me, it appears that my normal behavior is not sufficient to get me banned from Twitter.
(Update)
as Ravening Hords, It Was
Supposed to be a Metaphor
Trump supporting rioters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the electoral college votes.
There has been at least one death so far, a woman died from gunshot wounds.
It is unclear whether the shots came from the Capitol Police or from the invading MAGAts.
Members of Congress were spirited away to undisclosed safe locations as the rioters streamed into the building.
In what is a remarkable display of assertiveness, (for him, at least) Chuck “I Wish it Were Amy” Schumer described the rioters as domestic terrorists, while Mitt Rmoney described the events as an insurrection.
Of particular concern to me is the fact that the Capitol an DC police appear to have been unreasonably solicitous to the rioters:
Many Americans and people around the world watched in horror as a mob of Donald Trump supporters rushed the US Capitol in Washington DC on Wednesday afternoon, wreaking fear and chaos with seemingly little resistance from police on Capitol Hill.
The events inside the building quickly unfolded on social media as tweets poured out from concerned members of Congress and images of the insurgents inside the Capitol went viral.
Capitol during Capitol
BLM protests today pic.twitter.com/5NAcaIUsCq— Ricky Rocksteady (@RocksteadyRicky) January 6, 2021
Only This Was Intentional
………
People were quick to point out the hypocrisy of law enforcement letting the mob, which was overwhelmingly White, take over the Capitol building with little hindrance.
“Always interesting to see how white protestors can encounter so little resistance and breach the capitol with the vice-president there, while black protestors would be lying dead in front of the capitol building right now,” wrote the writer Roxane Gay.
“White privilege is on display like never before in the US Capitol,” tweeted the author and scholar Ibram X Kendi.
Others pointed to the stark contrast between law enforcement’s response to the mob at the Capitol versus their treatment of protesters against police brutality.
“Peaceful protestors got pepper sprayed so Trump could hold a Bible upside for a photo in front of a church,” tweeted Shannon Sharper, a former American football player, referring to an incident that took place over the summerin the midst of protests following the police killing of George Floyd.
<Claude Raines>I am shocked, shocked to find that police are pro-fascist racists.</Claude Rains>
In an attempt to dodge the “Trump Stink” a number of White House staffers have resigned following the violence.
If there is any justice in the world, it will not help them. I hope that the stink clings to them for the rest of their days.
As to where we are now, a 6pm — 6am curfew was ordered, and the National Guard was sent out on the streets, and it appears to be quiet now, with Congress expected to return shortly to vote.
(This post has been updated)
Right now, the Republicans are up by about 2% but the folks at the New York Times are calling a slight advantage the the Democrats, because Atlanta is coming in late, and the mail in ballots largely come from Democratic leaning counties.
Of note, Warnock is out-performing Ossoff on the Democratic side by about 1%, despite the fact that Ossoff spent a lot more money, and the fact that Warnock is a Black man running in Georgia.
But Ossoff still is under-performing Warnock despite having raised and spent more money.
Ossoff has run the most expensive House AND the most expensive Senate race in history, but has failed to deliver.
Still, the consultants get their vigorish, so even if he comes up short again, he’ll still be the golden boy, because he pays the bills of the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment).
I do hope that they both win though, if just to own Mitch McConnell.
Right wing attorney Cleta Mitchell, who sat in on Donald Trump’s now infamous call to the Georgia Secretary of State, offering advice/self incrimination, has been fired by the white shoe law firm that hired her.
It’s reported as a resignation, but it’s a firing:
Republican lawyer Cleta Mitchell, who advised President Trump during his Saturday phone call with Georgia’s secretary of state in an effort to overturn the election, resigned on Tuesday as a partner in the Washington office of the law firm Foley & Lardner.
Mitchell’s resignation came after the law firm on Monday issued a statement saying it was “concerned by” her role in the call. The firm noted that as a matter of policy, its attorneys do not represent “any parties seeking to contest the results of the election.”
The Washington Post on Sunday published audio and a transcript of the hour-long call in which Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn the election results. During the call, Mitchell complained that she had not been given access to certain information from Raffensperger’s office, and Trump relied on her to an extraordinary degree during the call.
I cannot say that I am in any upset at Trump dead-enders losing their jobs.
I’m sure that Amazon is hiring.
Karma, neh?
The Pentagon has just ordered the ordered the Nimitz (CVN-68) back to the Persian Gulf.
My guess is the Trumpster Fire wants to get his war on.
Not good.
The Kenosha County District Attorney has announced that no charges will be filed against the officers that shot Jacob Blake.
The prosecutor is claiming that it will be too tough to convince a jury.
Another corrupt prosecutor covering up for the police:
The top prosecutor in Kenosha, Wis., declined to bring charges against the police officer who shot and gravely wounded Jacob Blake outside an apartment building in August, an episode that sparked protests and rioting and made the city an instant flash point in a summer of unrest that began with the killing of George Floyd.
The decision not to file charges against the officer, Rusten Sheskey, was announced on Tuesday afternoon by Michael Graveley, the Kenosha County district attorney. He said that investigators had reviewed 40 hours of video and hundreds of pages of police reports before making the decision.
The prosecutor said a case against the officer would have been very hard to prove, in part because it would be difficult to overcome an argument that the officer was protecting himself. He said Mr. Blake had admitted to holding a knife — even describing switching it from one hand to another as he moved to open a car door — and that statements from officers and other witnesses indicated that Mr. Blake had turned toward an officer with the knife immediately before he was shot.
………
“This decision does nothing but shore up that message that Black people are not safe in the United States of America in 2021,” Corey Prince, chair of the criminal justice committee of the N.A.A.C.P. in neighboring Racine, said Tuesday. “They continue to devalue Black lives, Black humanity, Black freedom, even when we’re with our kids.”
………
The case incited emotions in large part because of the gruesome scene captured by a cellphone video: A Black man being shot in the back multiple times as he moved away from the officer. Even those arguing that the officers acted appropriately conceded that law enforcement needed to figure out how to reach better outcomes in such situations.
They shot him in the back, but the prosecutor cannot be bothered to even try, because it’s just a Black man, and notwithstanding the protests, Black lives DON’T matter.