Bernie Sanders, eyeing Biden Cabinet job, says end "corporate welfare" for firms that "move abroad" -
Posting on social media, the Vermont independent said Biden was “absolutely right” to pledge that no companies who made products outside of the U.S. would receive federal contracts from his incoming administration.
The former Democratic primary candidate also argued “standing up” for working families meant only awarding contracts to domestic producers, rather than firms who outsource production to countries with cheaper labor.
Sanders praised the move after Biden revealed his plan in prepared remarks following a meeting with top union and business leaders on Monday—including the CEO of General Motors and the president of United Auto Workers.
“Our plan will create millions of good-paying union jobs in manufacturing, building the vehicles, products, and technologies we will need now and in the future,” Biden said. “From autos to our stockpiles, we are going to buy American. No government contracts will be given to companies that don’t make their products here in America.”
Reacting to the announcement, Sanders tweeted: “Joe Biden is absolutely right. Standing up for working families means making sure that government contracts are only given to companies that make products in the United States. No more corporate welfare to companies that throw American workers out on the street and move abroad.”
Politico reported in late October that Sanders was making a move for the labor secretary position in the future Biden Cabinet, with one source close to the senator telling the magazine that he was looking to land the position or “something like it” after the election.
Appearing on CNN last week, the Vermont lawmaker said he would accept the labor secretary position if Biden were to offer it to him. “If I had a portfolio that allowed me to stand up and fight for working families, would I do it?” Sanders told the network. “Yes, I would.”
Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday, the senator was noncommittal. He said: “I talk to the Biden administration. I want to do my best in whatever capacity, as a senator or in the administration, to protect the working families of this country.”
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that union leaders had also been pushing for other candidates to be given the coveted role—including Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Democratic Rep. Andy Levin of Michigan.
(via shad0ww0rdpain)
Georgia secretary of state and wife receive death threats amid election recount -
Georgia’s secretary of state has reportedly received death threats along with his wife as the state conducts a recount of the presidential election, amid pressure from his fellow Republicans to find ways to exclude ballots.
Brad Raffensperger’s wife was sent several threatening text messages after he announced the state would conduct a hand recount of the presidential race, as President Donald Trump and some Georgia Republicans promoted unfounded claims of voting irregularities and mismanagement.
One message sent to Mr Raffensperger’s wife read: “Your husband deserves to face a firing squad.”
“You better not botch this recount,” another message read. “Your life depends on it.”
The messages were first shared by Fox 5 Atlanta, with senior reporter Dale Russell writing in a tweet that the Republican secretary of state “fears it was sent by someone in his own [GOP] party.”
In screenshots the reporter posted online, the messages appeared to have been sent in the days following the election to the secretary of state’s wife via multiple email addresses, including “georgiarecount@raffensperger.com” and “raffensperger@commie.org.”
A third message sent to the Republican official’s wife said: “The Raffenspergers should be put on trial for treason and face execution.”
State officials have moved forward with the recount regardless of threats and pressure from Republicans to toss out ballots, as Mr Raffensperger said the recount was effectively tracking with the initial vote count Georgia conducted beginning on Election Day.
“What’s really troubling about it is when threats actually came into my wife’s, you know, cell phone,“ the secretary of state told the local news outlet. “That is what is really offensive.”
Mr Raffensperger and other state officials have reassured voters the election was conducted in a way that was free of fraud, with the ongoing vote count indicating that President-elect Joe Biden flipped the state from red to blue in his bid against President Donald Trump.
“I believe we had a successful election,” Mr Raffensperger told Fox 5 Atlanta.
The Department of Homeland Security described the 2020 US election as the “most secure election in American history” and said there was no credible evidence of mass voter fraud or rigging.
(via shad0ww0rdpain)
12 million Americans set to lose unemployment benefits the day after Christmas -
Two key government programs authorized by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act expire on December 26. One is the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which provides jobless aid to freelance and gig workers. That would deprive 7.3 million workers of urgently needed income, according to a study released Wednesday by The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank.
Another 4.6 million workers face being dropped from Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) benefits, another CARES Act program that provides an additional 13 weeks of jobless aid beyond the typical 26 weeks that states provide, the analysis found.
The extra $600 a week in federal unemployment insurance assistance that workers had been getting under CARES lapsed at the end of July, slashing income for many Americans who lost their jobs during the first months of the coronavirus pandemic.
The financial support from government stimulus programs have been credited with keeping many businesses and households afloat as they coped with the fallout from COVID-19 and nationwide shutdowns. The upcoming benefits cliff may prove to be another shock to households and the economy, said The Century Foundation’s Andrew Stettner, an expert on unemployment.
“People don’t realize that most of the people collecting unemployment benefits now will be cut off on December 26,” Stettner said. “Most people will be going from that $200 to $300 a week to nothing.”
He added, “This is will have a huge impact on families and the economy.”
At the same time, several other pandemic-related programs are due to expire at year-end, which could add to the pressures facing many households. For instance, a moratorium on evictions and a program to provide forbearance on mortgages are also scheduled to expire by the end of 2020.
“Real test”
The end of stimulus programs would provide a “real test” for the economy, according to Oxford Economics senior economist Bob Schwartz. The expiration of unemployment support is coming as COVID-19 surges across the U.S., sparking new restrictions from states and cities.
“With infection rates spiking throughout most of the nation, so too are more restrictions being put in place, setting the stage for the unemployment lines to swell again,” Schwartz wrote in a report. “Unless Congress extends [jobless benefits], a vital source of income for this distressed segment of the population would be extinguished.”
(via shad0ww0rdpain)
Trump’s knack of creating respectable people into a ‘fraternity of oddballs’ -
Washington Post feature writer Ben Terris took a deep dive into the “guys,” the “fraternity of oddballs” that President Donald Trump has acquired over the course of his political life. Need to make a former mistress disappear? “I got a guy.” Need to create a conspiracy in Ukraine? “I got a guy.” These are Trump’s […]
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WHO announces end to Ebola outbreak in Congo -
The country’s minister of health, Eteni Longondo, joined the WHO in a statement noting the first time the virus has been eradicated from the nation in over two years. A total of 119 confirmed cases, 75 recoveries and 55 deaths were recorded over the duration of the latest outbreak.
The first cases of the deadly virus in this outbreak were reported in the Mbandaka area of Équateur Province in June of this year, nearly six months after the country was hit with the coronavirus. No new cases have been reported in 48 hours, the release stated.
“Overcoming one of the world’s most dangerous pathogens in remote and hard to access communities demonstrates what is possible when science and solidarity come together,” WHO Africa chief Matshidiso Moeti said in the statement.
The eastern part of the country also experienced an epidemic that ended in June of this year and infected nearly 3,400 people, according to the WHO.
“This 11th Ebola virus epidemic has had the particularity of spreading much more to river and lake health zones,” Longondo said. “This constituted a major logistical challenge in terms of the implementation of response activities in a health system already weakened by previous epidemics and by a weak involvement of the community.”
The most recent outbreak marked the fifth time for the Équateur Province, which was also the site of the country’s ninth overall outbreak. Officials said that they are working to secure strengthened surveillance for epidemics in the area and have learned new information that they can also apply to the coronavirus pandemic.
“The technology used to keep the Ebola vaccine at super-cold temperatures will be helpful when bringing a COVID-19 vaccine to Africa,“ Moeti said. “Tackling Ebola in parallel with COVID-19 hasn’t been easy, but much of the expertise we’ve built in one disease is transferable to another and underlines the importance of investing in emergency preparedness and building local capacity.”
Health officials were able to vaccinate a total of 40,000 people despite the challenges they faced, WHO said.
The secretary general of Congo’s Red Cross, Jacques Katshishi, said that the goal now is to maintain control of the Ebola virus.
“Bringing Ebola to zero is a huge achievement, but now we are faced with our next challenge: keeping it there. Our teams within the DRC Red Cross are facing COVID-19 within a complex humanitarian and security environment,” he said. “This is not a moment to be complacent: the world cannot afford a resurgence of Ebola in DR Congo. The time to prepare is now.”
(via shad0ww0rdpain)
Scientists say net zero by 2050 is too late -
In this context, putting the emphasis on net zero emissions by 2050 simply helps the conservative parties, which are not moving away from their fossil fuel mates because the political pressure for change is not great enough.
The Climate Reality Check 2020 (CRC) by David Spratt, Ian Dunlop and Luke Taylor of the National Centre for Climate Restoration argue that an emergency response would make climate the number one priority of politics and economics.
They provide accessible data showing that warming is speeding up and that a global 1.5°C warming is likely by 2030–or even earlier. Warming has accelerated over 2010–19 they say, and the next 25 years are projected to warm at a rate of 0.25–0.35°C per decade.
Warming faster
The conservative estimates made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have been shattered: the latest generation of climate models suggest 1.5°C may be only five to seven years away–a decade ahead of the IPCC projections.
CRC says the faster rate of warming is the direct result of rising greenhouse gas emissions, as well as declining air pollution and natural climate cycles. These lead to ocean stratification, with a hotter top layer contributing to faster warming.
CRC quotes British Professor of Energy and Climate Change Kevin Anderson as saying the world is currently on a path to 3–5ºC warming by 2100. He warned that a 4°C warmer future is “incompatible with an organised global community”. That sort of temperature rise is “beyond adaptation”, he said, because it will “devastate the majority of ecosystems and has a high probability of not being stable”.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has also estimated that on current international greenhouse emission commitments, the world is heading for 3.4ºC rise from pre-industrial revolution levels by 2100. For Australia, this translates into a hard-to-conceptualise 4.4ºC rise.
Ominously, CRC states that:
Only if the unmanageable is avoided is there a chance to stabilise the system.
The evidence from tipping points alone suggests we are in a state of planetary emergency: both the risk and urgency of the situation are acute.… If damaging tipping cascades can occur and a global tipping point cannot be ruled out, then this is an existential threat to civilization.
(via shad0ww0rdpain)
Canceling Student Debt Is Very Good. Biden Won’t Do It Unless We Make Him. -
The student debt crisis is back in the news. That’s not too surprising, given that 44 million debtors now hold a staggering $1.5 trillion in student loans. What’s more surprising is the immediate source of the media attention: centrist New York senator Chuck Schumer, who (along with Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren) is calling on Joe Biden to cancel $50,000 worth of student debt per borrower by executive order.
The Higher Education Act, which empowers the federal government to issue student debt, also permits the Department of Education to cancel debt through the “compromise and settlement” provision. That means that by executive order, without new legislation, the president can make student debt vanish.
It should go without saying that Joe Biden should issue such an order and cancel all student debt. Doing so would inject a massive tranche of money into a beleaguered economy while removing the anvil of debt around millions of workers’ necks. The benefits to ordinary people would be immense and the cost to the government extremely low.
The student debt problem gets worse with every passing year. As I reported last year, student debt has tripled since 2006. That has at least something to do with the fact that tuition has gone up 30 percent since 2006, while rent has jumped 47 percent and real wages have grown only 7 percent in that time.
Student debt is also one major factor driving racial wealth inequality. Not only does student debt hit black and Hispanic people harder than whites, but black students are 130 percent more likely than white counterparts to accumulate six figures of student debt in the first place.
Meanwhile, the government only collects a small portion of the $1.5 trillion in total outstanding debt each year. With an annual revenue of more than $3.3 trillion, the income the government receives from student debt is inconsequential.
In the midst of one of the worst economic depressions in US history, canceling student debt and putting money directly into people’s pockets is more crucial than ever. So why isn’t the issue a slam dunk?
Who’s Got the Power?
It’s easy for people like Chuck Schumer to urge Biden to eliminate student debt. Since the matter is totally out of his power, Schumer can polish his faded progressive credentials by proposing it without upsetting his big donors by actually doing it. So far, the gambit is working. Biden shows no sign of listening to Schumer’s suggestion.
(via shad0ww0rdpain)
The Reuters wire service reports that “[DOJ] officials in Washington told the investigative team in the active criminal probe of Caterpillar to take ‘no further action’ in the case, according to an email written by one of the agents” and reviewed by the outlet.
According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Caterpillar, Inc. owes the federal government some $2.3 billion in back taxes and penalties after trying to dodge U.S. taxes by creating a shell company in Switzerland in order to take advantage of the Swiss tax rate.
A 2014 U.S. Senate report determined that Caterpillar had not made “any real changes in its business operations” in order to justify not paying U.S. taxes and those claims later became the focus of a 2015 investigation by the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Illinois.
That investigation came to a head in 2017 when three federal law enforcement agencies raided the company’s offices in Illinois.
Barr was announced as counsel for the beleaguered company two weeks after that raid occurred. The company’s CEO Jim Umpleby said at the time that Barr would “take a fresh look at Caterpillar’s disputes with the government, get all the facts, and then help us bring these matters to proper resolution based on the merits.”
President Donald Trump announced that he wanted Barr, the country’s 77th attorney general, to serve as the 85th attorney general the second week of December 2018. One week after that, the federal investigation into Caterpillar was all-but shelved.
“I was instructed on December 13, 2018,” wrote Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Special Agent Jason LeBeau in a letter outlining the change, “that the Tax Division and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General jointly came to the decision that no further action was to be taken on the matter until further notice.”
To be clear, the investigation is technically still open but is effectively inactive, according to the report.
An anonymous source close to the Central District of Illinois said “it’s slowed, it’s stalled, it’s languishing. Not a lot of action is being taken.” They stopped just short of saying it was “dead.”
(via shad0ww0rdpain)
FBI is investigating Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, AP report says -
The FBI is investigating Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Associated Press reported Tuesday evening, vetting allegations made by eight of Paxton’s former top aides that he illegally used the power of his office to benefit a political donor.
Two unnamed sources told the AP that the bureau was examining claims made by the whistleblowers that Paxton broke the law by intervening several times in legal matters involving Nate Paul, a real estate investor and friend who donated $25,000 to Paxton’s campaign in 2018.
On Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, eight aides in total told authorities that they believed Paxton had committed crimes as part of his relationship with Paul, citing bribery and abuse of office. Since then, four aides have been fired, three have resigned, and one has been placed on leave — sparking a whistleblower lawsuit.
Paxton, a Republican in his second term, has denied wrongdoing and said he will not resign his post, even as some in his own party call on him to do so and the state’s top leaders call the allegations “concerning.”
Earlier Tuesday, before the FBI investigation was made public, Paxton said in a statement that he knows “a little something about being falsely accused” and dismissed the allegations made by the whistleblowers as “overblown, based upon assumptions, and to a large degree misrepresent the facts.”
Paxton has been under indictment for more than five years on securities fraud charges but has yet to stand trial. He has dismissed the charges as politically motivated and entered a not guilty plea.
Neither a campaign spokesperson for Paxton nor a defense attorney who is working on his long-running securities fraud case returned a request for comment about the FBI probe Tuesday. A spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment.
The full scope of Paxton’s relationship with Paul remains unclear, though Paul has characterized it as friendly. In a deposition earlier this month, Paul revealed that he had employed a woman at Paxton’s recommendation, though he said it was not a favor to Paxton. The woman had been involved in an extramarital affair with Paxton, according to two people who said the attorney general told them of the relationship in 2018.
Since the allegations surfaced last month, four examples have emerged of Paxton using his 4,000-employee agency to benefit Paul.
(via shad0ww0rdpain)
Maricopa County Board Chair Finds 'No Evidence' of Election Fraud -
Hickman is one of the handful of local Republicans who have forcefully pushed back on the false claims of fraud as President Donald Trump refuses to concede to Democratic president-elect Joe Biden, and many state GOP elected officials continue to peddle in baseless conspiracy theories about a rigged election. The letter also comes amidst calls by other local Republicans to investigate the election results in Maricopa County and a battery of flimsy lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign alleging shoddy election administration.
The letter, made public on November 17, was addressed to “Maricopa County voters.” Hickman wrote that while the Board “considered many theories” about the election results, “none of these theories have proven true or raised the possibility the outcome of the election would be different.”
“More than 2 million votes were cast in Maricopa County and there is no evidence of fraud or misconduct or malfunction,” the letter states. “It is time to dial back the rhetoric, rumors, and false claims. I appreciate the efforts of our election staff who worked tirelessly to run this election during a pandemic. No matter how you voted, this election was administered with integrity, transparency, and in accordance with state laws.”
In bullet-point fashion, the chairman addressed a few of the allegations of voter fraud and election tampering being pushed by Republicans. He said that “fewer than 200 ballots” out of over 167,000 ballots cast on election day had “an over vote on the presidential race” and that the county’s tabulation machines, which Republicans have blamed for the election results in Arizona, were tested for functionality before the election. A hand-count audit “showed the machines generated an accurate count.
“The Elections Department conducted the mandatory hand count of Election Day ballots from two percent of vote centers and 1 percent of Early Ballots as required by Arizona law and it yielded a 100 percent match to the results produced by the tabulation equipment,” Hickman wrote. “All three political parties participated in the hand count audit. This is a statistically significant sample of thousands of votes, which would have caught irregularities.”
Hickman also noted that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which is currently controlled by Republicans with a 4-1 majority, is required to certify the election results by November 23.
(via shad0ww0rdpain)