The Vax Of Life, Con't

President Biden has finally stepped up with a major, national, federal vaccine mandate for American employers that will affect the vast majority of US workers: get vaccinated or else.

 

President Biden is announcing sweeping new vaccine mandates Thursday that will affect tens of millions of Americans, ordering all businesses with more than 100 employees to require their workers to be inoculated or face weekly testing.

Biden also will require all health facilities that accept Medicare or Medicaid funding to vaccinate their workforces, which the White House believes will impact 50,000 locations.

And the president plans to sign an executive order that would require all federal employees to get vaccinated against the coronavirus — without an option for those who prefer to be regularly tested instead — in an effort to create a model he hopes state governments and private companies will adopt.

The cluster of new policies comes as the country grapples with the highly contagious delta variant, which has sent cases surging to more than 150,000 a day and is causing more than 1,500 daily deaths. The White House has struggled to convince hesitant Americans to get vaccinated and has been increasingly shifting toward requirements.

The changes also come as Biden’s approval rating has fallen in recent weeks, with Americans less supportive of his handling of the pandemic. Defeating the pandemic was among his central promises, and White House aides believe that his ability to deliver on it will be critical to the success of his presidency.

The White House released an 11-page memo Thursday entitled “Path Out of the Pandemic” that outlined six key areas where Biden is either shifting or hardening his strategy on the virus.

The most far-reaching is a new regulation to be written by the Labor Department that will requires all businesses with more than 100 employees either to mandate vaccinations for all their workers, or require them to take weekly coronavirus tests. The White House estimates that the policy will impact about 80 million workers, or two-thirds of the country’s workforce.

Businesses that ignore the policy, once it’s in place, could trigger penalties of up to $14,000 per violation, according to a senior Biden administration official, who briefed reporters on the plan ahead of the president’s speech under the condition that his name would not be used.

Businesses also will be required to give workers paid time off to get vaccinated, according to the new rules.

“This plan will ensure that we are using every available tool to combat COVID-19 and save even more lives in the months ahead, while also keeping schools open and safe, and protecting our economy from lockdowns and damage,” according to a copy of the memo.

 

It's a great plan.

 

It will be blocked by a federal judge before it ever goes into effect, however.

I guarantee that.

Best case scenario, businesses decide to err on the side of caution and mandate anyway, but they will run afoul of red state anti-mandate laws (which also may or may not be blocked).  The point it, the legal morass will not appreciably increase the number of vaccinated Americans by any significant amount.

This plan too will be made to fail by the GOP. And Biden will be blamed.

StupidiNews!

• Los Angeles County Schools will mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for all eligible students 12 and over by December 31, or students will not be able to attend school after winter break.
• Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio went into lockdown Thursday night after reports of an armed gunman and a shooting.
• President Biden spoke directly with Chinese President XI Jinping on Thursday, the two discussed economic and security concerns for about 90 minutes.
• Democrats are moving ahead with 12 weeks of paid parental leave in the House among other safety net provisions as part of the $3.5 trillion infrastructure package.
• The LAPD is getting social media information from those detained by police, the data is being fed into analysis systems powered by controversial data surveillance company Palantir.

The Vax Of Life, Cincy Edition

A new Cincinnati Enquirer poll finds only 56% of Cincinnati-area residents are vaccinated, with 50% fully vaccinated, but nearly 20% saying they will never get the jab.

 

Almost 1 in 5 Cincinnati-area residents who aren't vaccinated against COVID-19 say they will not get inoculated, and about 1 in 4 say they either want it or haven't decided yet.

The responses come from a newly released Interact for Health poll, called the COVID-19 Health Issues Survey. The Kenwood-based nonprofit, which advocates for health initiatives in 20 counties in the region, held a webinar about the survey Thursday with the community and its health partners.

"The survey is a snapshot in time," Interact for Health spokeswoman Emily Gresham-Wherle said.

The Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati conducted the online poll, to which 502 people in the region responded, from July 7-16.

"There's a good number of people who want to get vaccinated or are haven't decided yet," said Colleen Desmond, an Interact for Health research associate who provided the survey results online with her team. The reason for stalling, according to this survey, seem to be largely access and trust.

Those who took part in the survey were asked whether they were vaccinated, and if not, why not? Is it easy to find a convenient location to get the vaccine? (Yes, most said.) And more questions.

Interact's data show 56% said they had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine – with 89% of these respondents fully vaccinated – and 44% had not. Among those who hadn't, 18% said they had not decided whether they'll get vaccinated, 19% said they "definitely will not" and 7% said they "definitely will."

The survey results also explored why there is vaccine hesitancy here.

Most who didn't plan to get vaccinated – 72% – shared this reason: "I want to confirm it is safe," the survey shows.

And when asked whom they'd trust for such information, respondents said they most trusted their physician or a health care provider; next, a pharmacist; and after that, their local public health department.

 

So again, the disinformation by the GOP is working extremely well. More than a third of Cincy-area residents are going to remain unvaccinated. We will never reach herd immunity at that level, and we'll be fighting the disease for years at this rate. 

Meanwhile across the river in Kentucky, the health care system is now completely collapsing. Kentucky has few ICU beds, and Beshear has no power to issue mandates as the legislature is currently in special session making them illegal.

Governor Andy Beshear held another Team Kentucky Update Thursday.

This week’s update came amid a special session of the General Assembly the governor called for over the weekened to address COVID-related issues. Thursday is the special session’s third day.

Gov. Beshear began his Team Kentucky update Thursday on a grim note. He said 60 of the state’s 96 hospitals are operating under critical staffing shortages.

“Our hospital situation has never been more dire in my lifetime than it is right now,” Beshear said. “We cannot handle more sick individuals.”

The governor also said Thursday the state currently has fewer ICU beds available than it has at any other point during the pandemic, now 18 months in.

Beshear said he has called the Kentucky National Guard in to 21 more hospitals around the state to offer logistical and administrative support. The Kentucky National Guard already has been assisting at hospitals in Morehead, Hazard, Bowling Green and Pikeville, but will now help at a total of 24 hospitals across Kentucky.

 

Soon, people will be dying in triage in hospital corridors, but you sure showed those libs how fucking smart you are, Kentucky.

 

Biden Burned By BATF Bid

Senate Democrats have all but killed the Biden administration's nomination of gun safety advocate David Chipman to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, with all 50 Republicans against him, and at least three Democrats looking to vote him down.

The White House is planning to withdraw David Chipman's nomination to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, according to three sources close to the process.

Chipman is currently a senior policy advisor to Giffords, a gun control group, and faced an uphill battle to Senate confirmation as President Joe Biden's point person on firearms regulation. Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) had previously told the Biden administration and Senate Democrats that he was not supportive of the nominee. Other moderate Democratic senators, including Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana, have also remained noncommittal on the pick.

Chipman, meanwhile, faced universal opposition from Senate Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell described the nominee as an "anti-gun extremist" and asked for the White House to withdraw his nomination.

The White House declined to comment on the imminent yanking of the nomination. It's unclear when the formal withdrawal of Chipman's nomination will take place, though it could happen as soon as this week.

During his confirmation hearing, Senate Republicans pressed Chipman over a recent interview in which he said new gun owners who have no training should only bring their guns out "if the zombies start to appear." The nominee responded that the comments were “self-deprecating.”

The committee deadlocked on the nomination along party lines, which would have forced the Senate to vote to discharge him.

Chipman isn’t the only high profile White House nominee to be withdrawn amid opposition from members of the Democratic caucus. Neera Tanden, Biden’s initial pick to lead the White House Office of Management and Budget, withdrew in March amid opposition from Manchin and all 50 Senate Republicans.

Tanden ultimately joined the White House in a non-Senate-confirmed capacity as a senior adviser, however, and Chipman may also find a path into the Biden administration. The White House has offered Chipman a role at the Justice Department, per a source familiar.

 

Republicans have been able to block almost every ATF Director since the NRA lobbied the Senate to require Senate confirmation for the post after Ruby Ridge in 2006, the exception was Todd Jones in 2013, and he quit two years later.  Acting ATF heads are in fact normal, even Trump couldn't get his acting director nominee a hearing and didn't bother as Regina Lombardo is still in charge.

Still, multiple Democratic senators saying no to Chipman is a reminder that rural red states with blue senators still pull way above their weight class when it comes to determining our nation's laws, and that I expect that to continue for a long, long time.

StupidiNews!

• Tropical Storm Mindy made landfall late Wednesday on the Florida coast near St. Vincent Island with winds around 50 MPH, the mostly rain event is expected to continue to weaken rapidly.
• Marie Antoinette's famous diamond jewelry will be up for action in Geneva, the pieces are expected to fetch as much as $4 million.
• A new study by San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly finds racial inequality has cost the US more than $50 trillion over the last 30 years.
• The Biden administration is taking aim at meat-packing corporations for "grocery profiteering" and is warning of federal antitrust action in court.
• New global warming data finds to limit the rise in global temperatures to just 1.5C would require leaving more than half of oil and 90% of coal in the ground.
  

Last Call For Retribution Execution, Con't

The Former Guy™ is making good on his threat to destroy Liz Cheney's political career by supporting Harriet Hageman's primary challenge to Cheney's Wyoming at-large House seat.

 

Donald Trump is set to back Wyoming attorney Harriet Hageman as she prepares a primary challenge against GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, according to three people with knowledge of his plans, marking the most important political endorsement yet in Trump’s post-presidency.

Trump’s looming involvement in the primary will test his political power in the GOP like never before, as he seeks to punish the most high-profile House Republican to vote for his impeachment in January. His allies and team not only encouraged Hageman to run against Cheney — they now are under pressure to clear the crowded primary field of other candidates who could split anti-Cheney sentiment, which would give the incumbent the chance to win her primary with only a plurality.

Cheney became Trump’s top Republican target after she spoke out against his role inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. House Republicans soon stripped her of her leadership post, and one of Trump’s sons and a top Trump ally have already campaigned against her in Wyoming.

At the same time, Trump threw himself into the process of vetting and interviewing multiple candidates running or exploring campaigns against Cheney with the goal of anointing a single challenger. Ultimately, he chose Hageman because she impressed him the most, according to the people with knowledge of his plans.

In a final step before officially announcing her campaign later this week, Hageman resigned Tuesday as one of Wyoming’s members of the Republican National Committee.

“By censuring Rep. Liz Cheney we sent the strong message that we expect our elected officials to respect the views and values of the people who elected them. Accountability is key and I am proud of our party for demanding it,” Hageman wrote in her resignation letter.

Hageman isn’t just banking on Trump’s endorsement in the coming primary against Cheney: Top Trump staffers and allies are in her corner, including some who are in talks to occupy key roles on her campaign or with a super PAC prepared to back her. Some former Trump campaign hands and advisers met with Hageman in March at the urging of local conservatives.

Trump’s endorsement announcement could come any day, but he has already told Hageman that she has his support, sources said.

“He interviewed a lot of people, and when it was done, it was clear she’s in a class of her own,” said one Republican familiar with Trump’s selection process who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about his decision.

Aside from her Trump connection, Hageman’s campaign credentials include her status as a fourth-generation Wyomingite who grew up on a ranch, later becoming a conservative activist and top land-use attorney in a state where land is a political issue. In 2018, her tough-talking campaign for governor made her a conservative favorite, though she finished in third place in a crowded primary. Still, that campaign made Hageman one of Cheney’s only likely challengers who had previously run statewide in Wyoming.

It's pretty obvious that the entire GOP now works for Donald Trump, and Trump's slate of 2022 revenge endorsements against those he feels weren't loyal enough to him, replacing them for Marjorie Taylor Greene and Jim Jordan clones is really the only thing that might save the House for the Democrats as his hand-picked, double-dipped lunatics lose general election after general election.

We'll see what happens, but Liz Cheney's political career is close to being permanently over, I think. She'll get a nice corporate lawyer job and then a think tank sinecure in a few years, but like most Dubya-era Republicans, she'll be excluded from any real decisions in the party.

Not that she doesn't deserve the ignominy, but the country may actually pay a worse price for getting rid of her.

That Tax Shelter Is The Great Hall Of Thrain

Why yes, the nation's richest Americans are also the nation's biggest tax scofflaws, like Smaug sitting on his hoard, and if they actually paid what the law says they owe, we'd more than be able to afford the Biden infrastructure package twice over.

 

The wealthiest 1 percent of Americans are the nation’s most egregious tax evaders, failing to pay as much as $163 billion in owed taxes per year, according to a new Treasury Department report released on Wednesday.

The analysis comes as the Biden administration is pushing lawmakers to embrace its ambitious proposal to invest in beefing up the Internal Revenue Service to narrow the “tax gap,” which it estimates amounts to $7 trillion in unpaid taxes over a decade. The White House has proposed investing $80 billion in the tax collection agency over the next 10 years to hire more enforcement staff, overhaul its technology and usher in new information-reporting requirements that would give the government greater insight into tax evasion schemes.

The proposals have been met with deep skepticism from Republicans and business lobbyists who argue that the I.R.S. cannot be trusted with more power and that the proposals are an invasion of privacy. Democrats are counting on raising money by collecting more unpaid taxes to help pay for the $3.5 trillion spending package they are in the process of drafting. The Treasury Department estimates that its tax gap proposals could raise $700 billion over a decade.

The Treasury Department report, which was written by Natasha Sarin, deputy assistant secretary for microeconomics, makes the case that narrowing the tax gap is part of the Biden administration’s ambition to create a more equitable economy, as audits and enforcement actions will be aimed at the rich.

“For the I.R.S. to appropriately enforce the tax laws against high earners and large corporations, it needs funding to hire and train revenue agents who can decipher their thousands of pages of sophisticated tax filings,” Ms. Sarin wrote. “It also needs access to information about opaque income streams — like proprietorship and partnership income — that accrue disproportionately to high-earners.”

 

Let's not forget that the GOP did everything it could to cut taxes on the top 1% when Trump took office and then they turned around and raised taxes on the rest of us so that taxes on the 1% could be lowered even more.

 

The GOP knows who their constituency is, and it's the wealthiest Americans and the corporations they own to profit and give money to the GOP in turn.

Biden's trying to fix that. Remember that too.

Extra-Solar Activity

The Biden Administration wants to set a major new solar power plan for the US, increasing the amount of power the country gets from the sun from 5% to a whopping 45% by 2050.

The Biden administration on Wednesday released a plan to produce almost half of the nation’s electricity from the sun by 2050 as part of its effort to combat climate change.

Solar energy provided less than 4 percent of the country’s electricity last year, and the administration’s target of 45 percent would represent a huge leap and will most likely take a fundamental reshaping of the energy industry. In a new report, the Energy Department said the country needed to double the amount of solar energy installed every year over the next four years compared with last year. And then it will need to double annual installations again by 2030.

Adding that many solar panels, on rooftops and on open ground, will not be easy. In February, a division of the Energy Department projected that the share of electricity produced by all renewable sources, including solar, wind and hydroelectric dams, would reach 42 percent by 2050 based on current trends and policies.

The new department blueprint is in line with what most climate scientists say is needed. Those experts say that reducing net emissions of greenhouse gases to zero by 2050 is essential to limiting the worst effects of global warming — and much greater use of renewable energy sources like solar panels and wind turbines will be needed to achieve that goal.

But administration officials have provided only a broad outline for how they hope to get there. Many of the details will ultimately be decided by lawmakers in Congress, which is working on a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a much larger Democratic measure that could authorize $3.5 trillion in federal spending.

One thing going for the administration is that the cost of solar panels has fallen substantially over the last decade, making them the cheapest source of energy in many parts of the country. The use of solar and wind energy has also grown much faster in recent years than most government and independent analysts had predicted.

“One of the things we’re hoping that people see and take from this report is that it is affordable to decarbonize the grid,” said Becca Jones-Albertus, director of the Solar Energy Technology Office in the Energy Department. “The grid will remain reliable. We just need to build.”

The administration is making the case that the United States needs to act quickly because not doing anything to reduce the country’s reliance on fossil fuels also has significant costs, particularly from extreme weather linked to climate change. In a Tuesday visit to inspect damage from the intense rainfall caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida in New Jersey and New York, President Biden said, “The nation and the world are in peril.”

Some recent natural disasters have been compounded by weaknesses in the energy system. Ida, for example, dealt a huge blow to the electric grid in Louisiana, where hundreds of thousands of people have been without power for days. Last winter, a storm left much of Texas without electricity for days, too. And in California, utility equipment has ignited several large wildfires, killing scores and destroying thousands of homes and businesses.

Even so, many analysts and even some in the solar industry are skeptical that the administration can achieve its green targets. In addition to the 45 percent solar target, Mr. Biden has said he wants to bring net planet-warming emissions from the power sector to zero by 2035. He also wants to add hundreds of offshore wind turbines to the seven currently in the waters off the nation’s coasts and have as many as half of all new cars sold be electric by 2030.

While renewable energy has grown fast, it contributes about 20 percent of the country’s electricity. Natural gas and coal contribute about 60 percent.

“That kind of quick acceleration of deployment is only going to happen through smart policy decisions,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, the president of the Solar Energy Industries Association. “That’s the part where having a goal is important, but having clear steps on how to get there is the issue.”

 

What I don't see mentioned in the article is the largest single blockade to any green energy plan right now: West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who is working to kill all climate measures in the Good Package bill because of his state's coal and gas interests. Manchin failing to stop a green bill would mean the end of his career overnight, as he's going to be replaced by Republican Gov. Jim Justice at some point.

Of course, Republicans will just eliminate funding for any of this when they get Congress and the White House back later this decade, so it's all 100% meaningless anyway.

Right?

 

StupidiNews!

• A magnitude 7.0 earthquake rocked Southern Mexico late Tuesday near Acapulco, officials say damage is light in Mexico City, but could be extensive near the Pacific coast.
• West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin say he will cut President Biden's proposed $3.5 trillion infrastructure budget reconciliation bill by more than half, slashing "at least" $2 trillion.
• Secretary of State Tony Blinken will face hostile lawmakers from both parties next week demanding answers to questions surrounding the Biden administration's pullout from Afghanistan.
• Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is announcing USDA farm worker and meatpacker benefit money with a $600 COVID package relief payment coming later this month.
• Idaho is appealing to the Biden administration for federal help as an overload of COVID ICU cases have now forced the state's hospitals to ration care and triage patients.

Last Call For That Poll-Asked Look, Masks Off Edition

Axios commissioned a poll to see which battleground states had the highest parent opposition to mask mandates in schools, and it turns out it's neither Texas nor Florida, but Iowa and Ohio.

Most parents back mask mandates, but the states where GOP parents are most opposed aren't the ones we always hear about, according to a new Axios/Momentive poll.

Why it matters: While plenty of attention has centered around debates around the public health measures in schools in states like Texas and Florida, the poll offers a glimpse at how much more widespread opposition is across the country.

As expected, individuals' feelings on mask mandates fell along party lines, with 85% of Democrats, 66% of independents, and 32% of Republicans supporting mask mandates for all students and staff at their child’s school. 

But rather than states where school mask mandates bans have been in the national spotlight, such as Texas and Florida, opposition to school mask mandates is highest in Colorado (37%), Minnesota (38%), and Ohio (43%) — as well as Iowa (44%), which does have a ban. 

Drilling down even deeper, fewer than half (46%) of Republicans in Texas —which has been especially hard hit by COVID in recent weeks — oppose all mask mandates. In comparison, 70% of Colorado Republicans oppose the mandates. 

In Florida, more than half of Republican parents (52%) say they oppose all mask mandates. In comparison, Republican parents oppose the mandates by margins ranging from 2:1 to 3:1 in states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois, the poll found.

What they're saying: "The cross-state variability in Republican sentiment is notable," Jon Cohen, the chief research officer for Momentive told Axios. "School politics is ultimately local too, so a deeper dive within the states is a clear next step."

By the numbers: Overall, nearly 60% of parents backed the broadest school mandates, nearly twice as many as the number who say they oppose all mask mandates.
Another 10% of parents with children age five to 17 say they support mask mandates only for those students and staff members who are unvaccinated.

 

What this tells me is that Republicans in states where school mask mandates are present and working are the most likely to be against mask mandates in school.  On the other hand, you have states like Ohio where there are some districts with mask mandates but not all, and they haven't been hit as hard by COVID as say, Texas or Florida to make them think any differently.

In both cases, Republicans are against mandates because their states haven't been flooded by COVID.

That of course is changing in Ohio, at least.

The Ohio Hospital Association reports the strain on the state’s hospitals is getting tighter due to coronavirus.

Currently, 1 in 7 patients in the hospital is being treated for COVID-19.

A week ago, that number was 1 in 8.

To give you an idea of how fast those numbers are climbing, 2 months ago 1 in 101 patients admitted to the hospital were being treated for coronavirus.

There are 2,933 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Ohio.

67 of those admitted in the last week are children 17 and under.

That’s an increase of 81.1% from a week ago.

The data shows that those numbers are still climbing and have not hit a plateau.

Admissions are up in all age groups.

 

So yes, expect Ohio and the rest of the Midwest to get crushed by COVID this month.

Marvel Is Back, Baby

After the box office and streaming success of Black Widow, and the Disney+ series (WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki) it looks like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has people back at theaters, hopefully safely and masked.

The movie industry is still in an extended period of recovery as the ongoing effects of the covid-19 pandemic make bringing audiences back to theater seats—and even just getting movies made and out to those theaters in the first place—a challenge. But in spite of that, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has proved that Marvel Studios’ continuous grasp on the collective cultural psyche can overcome even a lot of the weirdest challenges the last 18 months has thrown at the box office.

Final figures for Destin Daniel Cretton’s martial arts adventure over the Labor Day weekend have come in (via Deadline), and Shang-Chi has drawn in just over $90 million for its four-day debut. It was previously estimated to pull around $50-60 million, due to the extenuating factors. That includes relative audience hesitancy to return to theaters as rising cases of the Delta variant of covid-19 have seen mask mandates and vaccination card checks hit key theater markets over the past few months. The figures are record-breaking, not just for the pandemic-era box office, but full stop: Shang-Chi is now the biggest Labor Day weekend opening at theaters since 2007's launch of the Rob Zombie Halloween remake, nearly tripling its take of $30.6 million.

Internationally, the film has been harder to judge. Current totals stand at around $146 million for Shang-Chi, which is still very impressive, but not as seemingly grand as other pandemic releases recently, including Marvel’s own Black Widow. While Shang-Chi did better domestically (Widow opened to $80 million in the U.S.), Black Widow performed slightly better internationally, earning $158 million across 46 international territories. But there are extenuating factors here as well: Shang-Chi opened in slightly fewer international markets (42), and neither movie was released in the Chinese market, which has become increasingly valuable for Disney. But in Black Widow’s case, the film also debuted simultaneously on Disney+—and is now currently at the center of a major legal battle between its star Scarlett Johannson and Disney because of it—as part of the streamer’s $30-a-movie “Premiere Access” option, which the studio leveraged in box office reporting to give Widow a combined $215 million opening weekend total.

Whether or not Shang-Chi will see the same rapid drop-off as Widow did at the box office in the weeks to come remains to be seen. But no matter which way you slice it, it’s very good news for a movie whose release Disney previously touted as an “experiment” for the studio to test the waters of audience confidence (to the ire of star Simu Liu), as the covid-19 pandemic continues across the world. Its success has already had an impact beyond Disney itself—yesterday Sony announced that instead of delaying the release of Venom: Let There Be Carnage again as previously rumored, it would instead shift the release of its Marvel movie forward two weeks, to an October 1 debut. Even as the uncertainty around the rest of the fall movie release window seems to remain as in flux as it has for the past 18 months, Shang-Chi’s overwhelming defiance of expectations has provided a shot in the arm to an industry still trying to navigate its way to a future beyond the current “new normal” of the pandemic.

 

I'm definitely looking forward to both Hawkeye and Ms. Marvel on Disney+ (and What If...? continues to be excellent) but I wonder if The Eternals will be Marvel's first box office misstep in November, I just don't have a good feeling about that film.

Then again, Kevin Feige has made several billion, so maybe he has a good thing going.

We'll see.

Our Little White Supremacist Domestic Terrorism Problem, Con't

All indications are that right-wing vengeance porn festival on September 18 , the DC "Justice For J6" rally, could be as violent as the January 6th insurrection that it's being called in vengeance for by the white supremacist domestic terrorism community.

Or, you know, worse. Even former Trump-era officials are warning that President Biden and Democrats in Congress need to absolutely be prepared for violence.

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said Monday evening that law enforcement needs to take the upcoming right-wing rally in support of jailed January 6 rioters "very seriously" as concerns mount about more potential violence on Capitol Hill.

"I think they should take it very seriously. In fact, they should take it more seriously than they took the same sort of intelligence that they likely saw on January 5," McCabe, a CNN contributor, told CNN's Poppy Harlow on "Erin Burnett OutFront."

Law enforcement members in Washington are steeling themselves against possible unrest at the "Justice for J6" rally -- planned for September 18 -- which aims to support the insurrectionists charged in the riot.

The event, organized by a former Trump campaign staffer, has prompted security concerns on Capitol Hill, and some precautionary measures will be in place. However, it's unclear how many protesters plan to attend. The rally is also taking place on a Saturday, when the House will be on recess, so far fewer lawmakers or staff will be around.

A law enforcement source previously told CNN that the Metropolitan Police Department will be fully activated, which includes canceling days off for sworn officers and putting Civil Disturbance Units on standby. The source said the department will monitor open source information -- like online chatter and travel bookings -- to gauge the potential crowds.

Homeland Security Intelligence chief John Cohen told CNN last month that online extremist rhetoric is strikingly similar to the buildup to the January 6 attack, with increasing calls for violence linked to conspiracy theories and false narratives.

The security preparations for September 18 underscore the tense environment on Capitol Hill following the January 6 attack. In August, a man critical of Democrats was arrested after an hours-long standoff near the Capitol during which he claimed to have an explosive device; the event ended without incident but still sent a chill through Capitol Hill and provided law enforcement with yet another example of the risks of a toxic political climate. In April, a Capitol Police officer was killed after a man rammed a vehicle into a police barricade.

The charged environment has led lawmakers to invest in body armor and security systems, while the US Capitol Police is opening field offices in cities around the country.

McCabe goes on to say that the biggest difference will be that President Biden isn't Donald Trump, and that while Trump will be almost certainly instigating violence ahead of September 18th, he won't be in a position to delay the Capitol and DC police, the DC National Guard, and the FBI like he was in January. 

At least, I hope not.

StupidiNews!

• El Salvador's Supreme Court has ruled that President Naybi Bukele can run for a second consecutive term as Bukele's party has removed critical judges and the Attorney General.
• Texas's second special legislative session this year has ended with the signing of voter suppression laws by GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, another is expected to redraw state legislative maps.
• Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, trailing in polls, is going on the attack against Conservatives before general elections in Canada later this month.
• The military junta that has led a coup in Guinea has reopened air traffic as former Presidential security personnel are being restricted to barracks outside the capital, Conakry. 
• Be careful checking that company email after the long Labor Day weekend, the FBI has issued a cyber alert warning that holiday weekends are prime time for ransomware attacks.
  

The Big Lie, Golden State Edition

Of course California Republicans are going to drown the state in lawsuits and "citizen investigations" of the "corrupt" recall election as the polls show Democratic Gov. pulling away and keeping his job. The point was never actually getting rid of Newsom, it was justifying the violence coming after the recall and to lat the groundwork to terrorize Democrats in the biggest blue state of them all.

Looking to oust the governor? Ed Brown has just the right merch for you.

Camouflage Recall Newsom hats and Recall Newsom masks. He’s got Recall Newsom yard signs. A stack of Recall Newsom pamphlets.

But just days before California voters decide whether to push Democrat Gavin Newsom from office, the trailer off Golden Chain Highway was mostly a shrine to former President Trump.

“As far as I’m concerned, Trump is the president,” said Brown, 67.

And as for the recall election?

“They’ll probably do something to cheat,” he said of Newsom’s supporters, adding that he will vote for Larry Elder because “he’s more like Trump; he’s for the people.”

The Republican-backed recall election could not be more consequential for California. Set amid a deadly wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, with record-breaking wildfires and a relentless drought drying fields and faucets, it gives the GOP its best shot in over a decade at governing the nation’s most populous state.

And if there’s a symbolic heart of recall mania, it may be here in Amador County in the Sierra foothills, where about 1 in 5 registered voters signed petitions to give Newsom the boot. That’s the highest concentration in California.

The most fervent support for the recall has come from Northern California, where rural conservatives say that their voices are drowned out in Sacramento by urban Democrats and that they would be better off seceding to form their own state called Jefferson.

And yet, in many ways, this election is still about a man named Donald J. Trump.

Conservatives talk about the recall effort through the lens of Trump’s lies that he won the 2020 election. By and large, they refuse to cast their ballots by mail, believing his false claims that mail-in voting leads to rampant voter fraud. If Newsom prevails, many won’t trust the results — just as they didn’t after Trump lost.

In Newsom, they have found an avatar for the Democratic Party and everything they hate about it — a political entity in opposition to many of the things they hold dear, including (and sometimes especially) Trump.

“In many ways, the recall was never really about Gavin Newsom in particular,” said Kim Nalder, a political science professor at Cal State Sacramento.

Rather, she said, recall supporters are fueled by a “laundry list of complaints that Republicans had about liberals.”

“If you’re a Republican, especially a Trump-supporting Republican, in California, it’s a rough time in state politics,” Nalder said. “You feel really disenfranchised, and [if] you combine that with the high anxiety we all have about the fires and the pandemic and homelessness, you get a high level of motivation to do something about it.”

 

The "something" is violence, deadly, mass political terrorism. It's coming.  The recall is the excuse. "We tried the ballot box. Now we use the bullet box."

From the Bluest state to the reddest state, Republicans simply don't believe elections where Democrats win are legitimate, and this illegitimacy will absolutely be used to fuel violence against Democrats and their voters.

We've already seen it.

More is coming, and it will be a lot worse.

Labor, Dazed And Confused

This Labor Day weekend, we look at the US labor market, and how the pandemic accelerated decade-long changes into a year or two. As millions of Americans lose extended unemployment benefits this week, we're going to see how long American workers hold out from going back to jobs they gave up for various reasons in the last 18 months.

At heart, there is a massive reallocation underway in the economy that’s triggering a “Great Reassessment” of work in America from both the employer and employee perspectives. Workers are shifting where they want to work — and how. For some, this is a personal choice. The pandemic and all of the anxieties, lockdowns and time at home have changed people. Some want to work remotely forever. Others want to spend more time with family. And others want a more flexible or more meaningful career path. It’s the “you only live once” mentality on steroids. Meanwhile, companies are beefing up automation and redoing entire supply chains and office setups.

The reassessment is playing out in all facets of the labor market this year, as people make very different decisions about work than they did pre-pandemic. Resignations are the highest on record — up 13 percent over pre-pandemic levels. There are 4.9 million more people who aren’t working or looking for work than there were before the pandemic. There’s a surge in retirements with 3.6 million people retiring during the pandemic, or more than 2 million more than expected. And there’s been a boost in entrepreneurship that has caused the biggest jump in years in new business applications.

“The economy is going through a big shift overall and that has ramifications,” said Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chair from 2006 to 2014. “We are reallocating where we want to work and how we want to work. People are trying to figure out what their best options are and where they want to be.”

It doesn’t help that the abundance of job openings right now are not in the same occupations — or same locations — where people worked pre-pandemic.

There is a fundamental mismatch between what industries have the most job openings now and how many unemployed people used to work in that industry pre-pandemic. For example, there are 1.8 million job openings in professional and business services and fewer than 925,000 people whose most recent job was in that sector. Leisure and hospitality, as well as retail and wholesale trade, also have more openings than prior workers, and many workers who lost jobs in those industries have indicated they don’t want to return.

There’s a similarmismatch in education and health services, where there are 1.7 million job openings and only 1.1 million people whose last job was in that sector.

In recent months, heath care workers and educators have quit their jobs at the highest rate on record, stretching back to 2002, Labor Department data show.

“This is typically the time of year we recruit for the upcoming school year, but we literally can’t get enough candidates, and we’re seeing tenured people leave,” said Cindy Lehnhoff, a 36-year veteran of the child care industry who currently heads the National Child Care Association. “If you get one good candidate, there are 10 others contacting that same person. It’s a crisis. People can’t work without child care.”

Lehnhoff has been helping a child care center in northern Virginia recruit more staff. Their infant room remains closed, because they don’t have enough people, and one of their veteran workers was just poached by a nearby elementary school. As she spoke with The Washington Post, Lehnhoff pored over the Indeed.com job portal. It showed more than 2,000 job posts in the Fairfax County, Va., area for child care teaching assistants. Most paid $12 to $13 an hour, a bit less than many nearby fast food restaurants and retail stores.

Nationwide, most industries have more job openings than people with prior experience in that sector, Labor Department data show. That’s a very different situation than after the Great Recession, when the number of unemployed far outstripped jobs available in every sector for years. To find enough workers, companies may need to train workers and entice people to switch careers, a process which generally takes longer, especially in fields that require special licenses.

While companies say they are struggling to find workers, many unemployed say they are having trouble getting hired, especially if they haven’t worked for a year.

Forklift driver Brandon Harvey and his wife used to work in a warehouse outside Atlanta that closed during the pandemic and never reopened. Harvey, 33, searched for a job for months, looking online and driving around South Fulton. He submitted countless applications but rarely got calls back.

“I fear that employers are pretty hesitant to give you an opportunity right now if you haven’t worked in a while,” Harvey said over the summer, when his search seemed especially frustrating.

 

Counting on the market being flooded in September with workers who need jobs now, employers are betting on "everything goes back to 2019" rules, where long-term unemployed have to take near-minimum wage jobs and have to take whatever opportunities they are offered. 

But it won't be that way for everyone. We'll see, but it's going to take time for all this to be sorted out, maybe years.