From Omeleto - Scars
Feb 10, 2022
Jan6 Stuff
While everybody's dithering around trying not to offend anyone's delicate sensibilities, Qult45 is still running loose, and still executing their plan for The Slow-n-Sloppy Coup.
And I get it - honest, I do - process is really really really important. But as always, the bad guys are playing in Smarmspace, where all the loopholes are, and manufacturing more on the fly - using all that process as cover for their ongoing criminally seditious fuckery. Enough already - it's time to stop trying to finesse this thing and start stompin' some ass.
Pick one thing where you've got a major player dead-to-rights, and rain The Furies down on his fuckin' head.
Chris Jansing, MSNBC - The 11th Hour
Glenn Kirschner, with a calming update that kinda tamps down my rather ardent impatience:
"You think we're gonna let democracy lose? Ah, hell no."
But I still think it's time to play a little smashball.
Feb 9, 2022
Good News (ish)
Quick reminder: Even though it's been more or less on its own since the early 1970s, the Post Office is still very much a government-sponsored service like any other. It's not intended to work exactly like a business.
We pour hundreds of billions into the Defense Department, and nobody's bitching about how the Navy should be turning a profit.
This is a "Yeah-OK-We'll-See" proposition, but at least it seems there's something that might actually get done about something.
Just don't get too het up - there's still the Petro Dollar Butt Boy Caucus in the US Senate to worry about, especially as regards an upcoming decision on what kind of vehicles the USPS is going to buy.
An initial order for 100,000 All Electric Mail Trucks pumps a shitload of happy into the Green New Deal, which makes for some big-time misery for Fossil Fuel Fuckers.
So yeah - we'll see.
WaPo:
The House on Tuesday advanced a major financial overhaul of the ailing U.S. Postal Service, relieving it of tens of billions of dollars in liabilities that agency leaders said prevented it from modernizing and providing efficient service.
The bill, which passed 342 to 92, marks a major breakthrough for the mail agency and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who made the legislation the centerpiece of his 10-year postal restructuring plan.
The Postal Service has implored Congress to help fix its balance sheet for nearly 15 years, and agency leaders are cautiously optimistic about prospects for the Postal Service Reform Act in the Senate. It has 27 co-sponsors in the upper chamber, including 14 Republicans, sufficient support to defeat a potential filibuster.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the chamber would vote on the legislation by the end of next week, citing its bipartisan popularity.
Democrats have hailed the legislation as crucial to the preservation of the Postal Service and its ability to reach nearly every American household six days a week. Republicans say the bill vindicates DeJoy’s initiatives and a conservative approach for a smaller mail service.
“We need to take steps to make our post office stronger,” Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the bill’s sponsor and chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, told The Washington Post. “This bill helps and it will help in every way. It’s a reform bill that will save taxpayers’ dollars while at the same time making the operations of the post office more financially stable and sustainable, and making postal jobs and employee health benefits more secure.”
The Postal Service is required to prepay its retirees’ health-care costs, a mandate instituted in 2006 when mail volume was steady and the agency was profitable. But decades of falling mail use have turned it into a perpetual financial loser, and the pre-funding requirement has accounted for $152.8 billion of its $206.4 billion in liabilities.
Tuesday’s legislation, advanced by leaders of both parties, wipes clean $57 billion of that amount, and will save the agency another $50 billion over the next decade. The bill installs new timely delivery transparency requirements for the Postal Service, which has struggled with on-time service since DeJoy took office, and allows the agency to contract with local, state and Indigenous governments to offer basic nonpostal services, such as hunting and fishing licenses.
“Congress just doesn’t want to put a Band-Aid on the post office,” Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee, told The Post. “We want to try to have a permanent solution to the post office, and that all predicates on having a reform plan. The former postmaster general never did come up with a reform plan.
“Now we have Louis DeJoy. He came up with a reform plan. … As evidenced by the support for this bill from Democrats, these reforms are working. The employees have bought into these reforms, and this bill will codify a lot of those reforms and help make the post office sustainable into the future.”
The bill is the result of months of negotiations between Democrats and Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee, DeJoy and the Postal Service’s powerful unions.
The liberal wing of the House Democratic caucus had pushed Maloney (D-N.Y.) to pass a broader bill that included provisions to protect mail-in voting, funding for electric vehicles and restrictions on political campaign activities for the postmaster general and members of the agency’s governing board.
DeJoy’s past fundraising for former president Donald Trump has long rankled Democrats, who have accused him of hampering the agency’s ability to collect mailed ballots during the 2020 presidential election.
But after negotiations with Comer, DeJoy and the postal unions, the House passed a much narrower bill that appears to have a pathway to Senate approval.
“This was an agreement bill,” Maloney said. “From Day One, we could have passed a bill with just Democratic votes, but it would have been dead in the Senate.”
“The Postal Service Reform Act is about the only thing we agree with Louis DeJoy on,” Porter McConnell, campaign director of the consumer rights group Take on Wall Street and co-founder of the Save the Post Office Coalition, said in a statement. “Now it’s time for the Senate to pass the bill and send it to the president’s desk.”
DeJoy in a statement thanked the House leadership for its work on the bill and said that if it was passed by the Senate, "this legislation will have the same operational and financial impacts as the self-help steps we are taking at the Postal Service to provide the American people with the delivery service they expect and deserve.”
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the sponsor of the Senate version of the bill and chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said in a statement that he expected “to move quickly” to advance the legislation in the upper chamber.
“I have worked hand in hand with the bipartisan leaders of my committee and the House Oversight and Reform Committee to craft this bipartisan bill that will help the Postal Service overcome unfair and burdensome financial requirements, provide more transparency and accountability to the American people, and continue its nearly 250-year tradition of service to every community in our nation,” Peters said.
DeJoy made postal legislation the largest component of his controversial “Delivering for America” 10-year plan for the agency. To make up for a $160 billion projected shortfall over the next decade, DeJoy raised postage costs and lengthened delivery times. The agency banked on Congress taking liabilities off its balance sheet and growth in its package shipping business to make up the difference.
The bill eliminates the Postal Service’s retiree health care pre-funding mandate and instead requires future postal retirees to enroll in Medicare, drawing some criticism that the legislation amounts to a congressional bailout.
“The truth is the post office isn’t lacking liquidity. It is bankrupt,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said on the House floor. “And nothing in this bill will make the post office truly solvent. It just wipes out and wipes away debt and shifts the burden on to taxpayers.”
The Congressional Budget Office, Congress’s nonpartisan bookkeeper, projected that the bill would save taxpayers $1.5 billion over the next 10 years, because postal retirees would boost Medicare’s prescription drug discounts.
But the vote on Tuesday has not thawed tensions between DeJoy and congressional Democrats, who are sparring anew over the Postal Service’s plan to replace its aging mail delivery fleet with up to 148,000 gas-powered vehicles, instead of electric trucks.
The White House and Environmental Protection Agency wrote to DeJoy last week saying the Postal Service’s environmental analysis of the fleet replacement was fundamentally flawed. DeJoy’s response over the weekend was defiant; he said in a statement that the Postal Service would consider purchasing electric vehicles only if Congress provided the funding.
Otherwise, he said, “We will be resolute in making decisions that are grounded in our financial situation and what we can realistically achieve, while pushing hard to take delivery of safer, cleaner vehicles by next year.”
Democrats are scrambling to find accountability measures to block the mail agency’s gas-powered truck purchases, but worry they are short on options. Proponents of Tuesday’s financial overhaul bill worried that a brewing fight over the fleet would imperil support for the Postal Service Reform Act. Instead, House Democratic leaders convinced members to separate the two issues.
“Get this passed,” Maloney said of the Tuesday vote, “and then we’ll work on that.”
The bill eliminates the Postal Service’s retiree health care pre-funding mandate and instead requires future postal retirees to enroll in Medicare, drawing some criticism that the legislation amounts to a congressional bailout.
“The truth is the post office isn’t lacking liquidity. It is bankrupt,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said on the House floor. “And nothing in this bill will make the post office truly solvent. It just wipes out and wipes away debt and shifts the burden on to taxpayers.”
The Congressional Budget Office, Congress’s nonpartisan bookkeeper, projected that the bill would save taxpayers $1.5 billion over the next 10 years, because postal retirees would boost Medicare’s prescription drug discounts.
But the vote on Tuesday has not thawed tensions between DeJoy and congressional Democrats, who are sparring anew over the Postal Service’s plan to replace its aging mail delivery fleet with up to 148,000 gas-powered vehicles, instead of electric trucks.
The White House and Environmental Protection Agency wrote to DeJoy last week saying the Postal Service’s environmental analysis of the fleet replacement was fundamentally flawed. DeJoy’s response over the weekend was defiant; he said in a statement that the Postal Service would consider purchasing electric vehicles only if Congress provided the funding.
Otherwise, he said, “We will be resolute in making decisions that are grounded in our financial situation and what we can realistically achieve, while pushing hard to take delivery of safer, cleaner vehicles by next year.”
Democrats are scrambling to find accountability measures to block the mail agency’s gas-powered truck purchases, but worry they are short on options. Proponents of Tuesday’s financial overhaul bill worried that a brewing fight over the fleet would imperil support for the Postal Service Reform Act. Instead, House Democratic leaders convinced members to separate the two issues.
“Get this passed,” Maloney said of the Tuesday vote, “and then we’ll work on that.”
COVID-19 Update
With over 200,000 new cases and more than 2,500 new deaths yesterday, it's a little hard to get my head around anybody saying hopeful things about how we're turning a corner and maybe we're closer to getting this monster behind us.
World marks 500,000 covid deaths since omicron, while Fauci says U.S. is exiting ‘full-blown’ pandemic
While half a million people around the world have died of covid-19 since the omicron variant of the coronavirus was first detected in November, President Biden’s top medical adviser says the United States is exiting “the full-blown pandemic phase” of the coronavirus crisis.
It’s a sobering statistic — and a reminder of the pandemic’s ongoing toll even as cases start to decline in nearly every U.S. state.
About 100,000 of the deaths since omicron was declared a “variant of concern” occurred in the United States, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. WHO incident manager Abdi Mahamud said in an online Q&A session said the death toll is “tragic” given the availability of “effective vaccines.” He said there have been 130 million reported cases of the coronavirus globally since omicron.
Anthony S. Fauci told the Financial Times that decisions on coronavirus restrictions in the United States will be increasingly made on a local level, “as we get out of the full-blown pandemic phase of covid-19, which we are certainly heading out of.”
“There will also be more people making their own decisions on how they want to deal with the virus,” he told the newspaper.
In the United States, covid cases declined 44 percent in the past week compared to the previous seven days, according to a Washington Post tracker, and hospitalizations related to covid-19 also declined over the same period.
However, the seven-day average of deaths during the omicron surge has reached 2,600 in recent days, the highest level the country has seen in a year.
During the Q&A, Mahamud noted that in the 24 hours ending Tuesday afternoon, 3,400 people had died of covid-19 in the United States, and he lamented the impact of vaccine hesitancy in the country.
Those who focus solely on indications that omicron causes milder infections than previous variants “miss the point,” he said, because transmission is still high and many countries have not hit the peak of omicron.
Worldwide, coronavirus deaths rose for the fifth consecutive week, with the 68,000 fatalities reported last week representing a 7 percent jump from the previous week.
Last week, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news briefing that covid deaths are increasing in many parts of the world. He warned it would be “premature for any country either to surrender, or to declare victory” against the coronavirus.
“We’re concerned that a narrative has taken hold in some countries that because of vaccines, and because of omicron’s high transmissibility and lower severity, preventing transmission is no longer possible, and no longer necessary,” he said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
But Fauci is right more often than not.
WaPo: (pay wall)
World marks 500,000 covid deaths since omicron, while Fauci says U.S. is exiting ‘full-blown’ pandemic
While half a million people around the world have died of covid-19 since the omicron variant of the coronavirus was first detected in November, President Biden’s top medical adviser says the United States is exiting “the full-blown pandemic phase” of the coronavirus crisis.
It’s a sobering statistic — and a reminder of the pandemic’s ongoing toll even as cases start to decline in nearly every U.S. state.
About 100,000 of the deaths since omicron was declared a “variant of concern” occurred in the United States, the World Health Organization said Tuesday. WHO incident manager Abdi Mahamud said in an online Q&A session said the death toll is “tragic” given the availability of “effective vaccines.” He said there have been 130 million reported cases of the coronavirus globally since omicron.
Anthony S. Fauci told the Financial Times that decisions on coronavirus restrictions in the United States will be increasingly made on a local level, “as we get out of the full-blown pandemic phase of covid-19, which we are certainly heading out of.”
“There will also be more people making their own decisions on how they want to deal with the virus,” he told the newspaper.
What to know about the omicron variant of the coronavirus
In the United States, covid cases declined 44 percent in the past week compared to the previous seven days, according to a Washington Post tracker, and hospitalizations related to covid-19 also declined over the same period.
However, the seven-day average of deaths during the omicron surge has reached 2,600 in recent days, the highest level the country has seen in a year.
During the Q&A, Mahamud noted that in the 24 hours ending Tuesday afternoon, 3,400 people had died of covid-19 in the United States, and he lamented the impact of vaccine hesitancy in the country.
Those who focus solely on indications that omicron causes milder infections than previous variants “miss the point,” he said, because transmission is still high and many countries have not hit the peak of omicron.
Covid deaths highest in a year as omicron targets the unvaccinated and elderly
Worldwide, coronavirus deaths rose for the fifth consecutive week, with the 68,000 fatalities reported last week representing a 7 percent jump from the previous week.
Last week, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news briefing that covid deaths are increasing in many parts of the world. He warned it would be “premature for any country either to surrender, or to declare victory” against the coronavirus.
“We’re concerned that a narrative has taken hold in some countries that because of vaccines, and because of omicron’s high transmissibility and lower severity, preventing transmission is no longer possible, and no longer necessary,” he said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Unexpected Warriors
One of the important life lessons we should learn by the time we get about halfway through junior high school is that you don't fuck with librarians.
Palm Beach Daily News:
The National Archives last month obtained 15 boxes of presidential records that were being stored at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club.
Keeping the boxes of records at Mar-a-Lago violated the Presidential Records Act, which requires that the government keep all forms of documents and communications related to a president's or vice president's official duties.
"As required by the Presidential Records Act the records should have been transferred to NARA from the White House at the end of the Trump Administration in January 2021,” the National Archives and Records Administration said in a statement on Monday.
It would seem Mr Trump and his Qult45 devotees are getting a refresher.
18 US Code § 2071(B) willfully and unlawfully removing and destroying Presidential documents is punishable by 3 years in prison a fine and disqualification from serving in public office.
I'm tellin' ya - the people we take for granted as being meek and mild are the ones who'll step up and save our asses. Because that's how it's always been.
A story of librarians in Mali standing up to asshole religion freaks who sought to keep the truth from a world that deserves to know that truth.
But anyway - to clear things up - there was no raid on Mar-A-Lago.
But c'mon - nobody's going to doubt the high probability that Trump would have to be forced to comply with the Presidential Records law, the same as we have to force him to follow every other law. Especially knowing about his habit of tearing up official notes of official White House meetings.
Besides the prospect of middle-aged women in comfortable shoes flashing their badges as they storm the storage lockers at Mar-A-Lago is pretty damned funny. I just can't help myself.
Palm Beach Daily News:
The National Archives last month obtained 15 boxes of presidential records that were being stored at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club.
Keeping the boxes of records at Mar-a-Lago violated the Presidential Records Act, which requires that the government keep all forms of documents and communications related to a president's or vice president's official duties.
"As required by the Presidential Records Act the records should have been transferred to NARA from the White House at the end of the Trump Administration in January 2021,” the National Archives and Records Administration said in a statement on Monday.
Black American History #9
Dr Clint Smith - Crash Course - The US Constitution, 3/5 and The Slave Trade Clause
Feb 8, 2022
Politics Girl
Leigh McGowan - We have to be better information consumers and we have to figure out how to break the death grip of too few hands holding too much power.
Read This Book
Strongmen - Ruth Ben-Guiat
From the publisher:
Ruth Ben-Ghiat is the expert on the "strongman" playbook employed by authoritarian demagogues from Mussolini to Putin—enabling her to predict with uncanny accuracy the recent experience in America. In Strongmen, she lays bare the blueprint these leaders have followed over the past 100 years, and empowers us to recognize, resist, and prevent their disastrous rule in the future.
For ours is the age of authoritarian rulers: self-proclaimed saviors of the nation who evade accountability while robbing their people of truth, treasure, and the protections of democracy. They promise law and order, then legitimize lawbreaking by financial, sexual, and other predators.
They use masculinity as a symbol of strength and a political weapon. Taking what you want, and getting away with it, becomes proof of male authority. They use propaganda, corruption, and violence to stay in power.
Vladimir Putin and Mobutu Sese Seko’s kleptocracies, Augusto Pinochet’s torture sites, Benito Mussolini and Muammar Gaddafi’s systems of sexual exploitation, and Silvio Berlusconi and Donald Trump’s relentless misinformation: all show how authoritarian rule, far from ensuring stability, is marked by destructive chaos.
No other type of leader is so transparent about prioritizing self-interest over the public good. As one country after another has discovered, the strongman is at his worst when true guidance is most needed by his country.
Recounting the acts of solidarity and dignity that have undone strongmen over the past 100 years, Ben-Ghiat makes vividly clear that only by seeing the strongman for what he is—and by valuing one another as he is unable to do—can we stop him, now and in the future.
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