Category: Current Events

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Tip Of The Iceberg

From The Palmer Report:

Given that the Manhattan District Attorney hired an organized crime specialist to help with prosecution, partnered with the New York Attorney General, and empaneled a grand jury just one month ago for a six month period to bring indictments, it's pretty clear that today's narrowly focused Trump Organization indictments aren't going to be the only indictments.

But because the prosecutors running a criminal case aren't in a position to lay out a roadmap for the public to know where the case is going, it leaves plenty of room for fretting and ratings-driven doomsday media hype: What if today's indictments are the only indictments? What if it's all over?

Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, who hasn't always exactly taken an optimistic view of the criminal case against Donald Trump, tweeted this prediction today: "he charges brought today in Manhattan are the tip of the iceberg. Note DA request for a protective order to keep discovery close to the vest while investigation continues."

The protective order in particular is notable, in that it makes clear that the criminal investigation is still very much ongoing. This comes even as New York Attorney General Tish James, who is helping to run this case, released a statement today confirming that it's ongoing. Tip of the iceberg indeed.

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Class Struggle from Below

From Infidel753:

Congress is near-paralyzed due to the filibuster and tiny Democratic majorities, but that doesn't mean the people are.  They are taking action on their own while the government stumbles.

As the pandemic winds down and bosses try to drag home workers back to the office and re-assert the old model of shitty pay and shitty working conditions, workers are quitting in unprecedented numbers.  It's becoming a cliché that service-sector businesses can't get people to come and work for them — unless they offer decent wages for a change.  Republican state governments have been cutting unemployment benefits in an effort to force their serfs to give in and submit to the re-shittyization of the economy, but it isn't working.

As for those white-collar workers who have been working from home for a year, I've been saying all along that companies which try to drag them back to offices will wind up at a huge competitive disadvantage — they'll lose their best workers to other companies which continue to allow work from home.  Now that some workers are indeed being dragged back, they're coming to realize just how awful the misery of commuting and spending all day in an office really was.  They know they can do their jobs from home as well or better.  They know there's no valid reason for forcing them back to the office.  They know the supposed justifications are just squid-ink for the bosses' desperate control-freakery.  They're going to start looking for something better.  People are already quitting rather than give in.

When NPR did a story about "the great office return", they managed to find someone to quote who said that "businesses have a civic duty to bring workers back".  He's an executive of a company that leases out office space to other companies.

Since our country has no major political party which is explicitly committed to the class struggle, and the structure of our government allows the Republicans to block the Democrats from doing even as much as they wish to do, that struggle must be waged by the workers themselves.  If Congress won't bring our minimum wage into line with that of other developed nations, the workers themselves will do it by refusing to work for shitty pay any more.  If the government won't defend our right to keep working from home instead of commuting (a zero-cost contribution to the fight against global warming, on top of everything else), then we ourselves will defend that right, by refusing to settle for anything less.  And given time, who knows what else working people will be able to achieve once these changes help them realize their power?  I've said before that this pandemic may ultimately be remembered as a catalyst for social progress.

Oh, and over time our people are developing a more favorable view of socialism and a less favorable view of capitalism—and this is especially true among younger people.

Be afraid, fuckers, be very afraid.  We're on to you, and things are going to change around here, big time.

I know that I am not happy about being called back into the office every other day.

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DOJ to Probe Trump-era Subpoenas of Lawmaker Records

DOJ to probe Trump-era subpoenas of lawmaker records

The Justice Department's internal watchdog will investigate the secret seizure of data from Democratic lawmakers and reporters during leak investigations initiated under the Trump administration.
The probe follows news of a department decision in 2017 and 2018 to issue subpoenas seeking metadata from House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and fellow committee member Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) during leak investigations.

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Quote of the Day

Let's start calling these vaccine avoiders what they are: freeloaders. The only reason you're somewhat safe now is because other people got the shot. You're the person who heads for the bathroom when the check comes at the restaurant. You're the lady who takes home the centerpieces from a wedding you weren't invited to. You're the guy who brings five napkins to a potluck dinner. That's you." ~ Jimmy Kimmel

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FYI, I'm Wearing a Mask Outside Forever

In this instance, I'm not going to follow CDC guidance. There is no way of knowing if the unmasked person in line behind you at Kroeger's is truly vaccinated or just a maskhole taking advantage of these new guidelines. When will my mask come off? Hard to say, but I will readily admit this is the first time in many years I did not come down with my usual case of winter bronchitis, and that alone is worth it.

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Biden's First 100 Days and the GOP's First 100 Days Without Trump

robertreich:

By almost any measure, Joe Biden's first 100 days have been hugely successful. Getting millions of Americans inoculated against COVID-19 and beginning to revive the economy are central to that success.

Two thirds of Americans support Biden's $1.9 stimulus plan, already enacted. His infrastructure and family plans, which he outlined last Wednesday night at a joint session of Congress, also have broad backing. The $6 trillion price tag for all this would make it the largest expansion of the federal government since Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. But for most Americans, it doesn't feel radical.

Rather than bet it all on a single large-scale program such as universal healthcare – which Clinton's failed to accomplish and which Obama turned into a target of Republican fearmongering – Biden has picked an array of popular initiatives, such as pre-school, public community c0llege, paid family and medical leave, home care, and infrastructure repairs, which are harder to vilify.

Economists talk about pent-up demand for private consumer goods, caused by the pandemic. Biden is responding to a pent-up demand for public goods. The demand has been there for years but the pandemic has starkly revealed it. Compared to workers in other developed nations, Americans enjoy few social benefits and safety nets. Biden is saying, in effect, it's time we caught up.

Besides, it's hard for Republicans to paint Biden as a radical. He doesn't feel scary. He's old, grandfatherly. He speaks haltingly. He's humble. When he talks about the needs of average working people, it's clear he knows them.

Biden has also been helped by the contrast to his immediate predecessor – the most divisive and authoritarian personality to occupy the Oval Office in modern memory. Had Biden been elected directly after Obama, regardless of the pandemic and economic crisis, it's unlikely he and his ambitious plans would seem so benign.

In his address to a joint session of Congress Wednesday night, Biden credited others for the achievements of his first hundred days. They had been accomplished "because of you," he said, even giving a nod to Republicans. His predecessor was incapable of crediting anyone else for anything.

Meanwhile, the Republican party, still captive to its Trumpian base, has no message or policies to counter Biden's proposals. Trump left it with little more than a list of baseless grievances irrelevant to the practical needs of most Americans – that Trump would have been reelected but for fraudulent votes and a "deep state" conspiracy, that Democrats are "socialists" and that the "left" is intent on taking away American freedoms.

Biden has a razor-thin majority in Congress and must keep every Democratic senator in line if he's to get his plans enacted. But the vacuum on the right has allowed him to dominate the public conversation about his initiatives, which makes passage more likely.

Trump is aiding Biden in other ways. Trump's yawning budget deficits help normalize Biden's. When Trump sent $1,200 stimulus checks to most Americans last year regardless of whether they had a job, he cleared the way for Biden to deliver generous jobless benefits.

Trump's giant $1.9 trillion tax cut for big corporations and the wealthy, none of which "trickled down," make Biden's proposals to increase taxes on corporations and the wealthy to pay for infrastructure and education seem even more reasonable.

Trump's fierce economic nationalism has made Biden's "buy American" initiative appear innocent by comparison. Trump's angry populism has allowed Biden to criticize Wall Street and support unions without causing a ripple.

At the same time, Trumpian lawmakers' refusal to concede the election and their efforts to suppress votes has alienated much of corporate America, pushing executives toward Biden by default.

Even on the fraught issue of race, the contrast with Trump has strengthened Biden's hand. Most Americans were so repulsed by Trump's overt racism and his overtures to white supremacists, especially after the police murder of George Floyd, that Biden's initiatives to end police brutality and "root out systemic racism," as he said on Wednesday night, seem appropriate correctives.

The first 100 days of the Biden presidency were also the first 100 days of America without Trump, and the two cannot be separated.

With any luck, Biden's plans might be the antidote to Trumpism – creating enough decent-paying working class jobs, along with benefits such as childcare and free community college, as to forestall some of the right-wing dyspepsia that Trump whipped into a fury.

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I've Got News for Them…

…Californians aren't the only ones.

From CBS News:

Californians want to keep working from home post-pandemic

Working from home could be one of the pandemic practices that's here to stay, CBS Los Angeles reports. A new survey from the University of Sothern California and the California Emerging Technology Fund explored Californians feelings about remote work, remote learning and telehealth after more than a year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers say they have found hesitancy about each of these practices have been swept away.

"Now we're seeing a seismic shift in the way people want to work, learn and manage health visits among those who have broadband access. Those changes give us a real opportunity to cut congestion and carbon emissions," Hernan Galperin, the study's lead researcher and an associate professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, said in a statement.

The survey found that 42% of current, full-time remote workers want to keep working from home. Another 21% who also want to keep working from home say they are willing to go into the office one or two days a week. However, 17% of those surveyed say they want to go back to their workplaces five days a week.

However, the opportunity for telecommuting was not evenly distributed among workers. People between 18 and 34 were found to be the least likely to be able to work from home, with the perk being most available to people earning $60,000 or more a year. College-educated women were most likely to be able to work from home, according to the survey.

In distance learning, one-third of Californians 18 or older said they took an online class or training during the pandemic. Two thirds of those surveyed said they would continue distance learning if they have the opportunity, with the likelihood increasing with age.

Use of telehealth during the pandemic also jumped, with just over half of respondents to the survey being able to access their healthcare by phone, smartphone or computer. However, usage was also uneven in this area — people of color were less likely to use telehealth services, while seniors 65 and older used it the most, despite their lower levels of internet connectivity and tech savvy. The survey also found that Los Angeles County showed the lowest level of telehealth participation at 46%.

Wider adoption of telecommuting, telehealth and distance learning could drastically impact traffic across the state, the survey found. More than half expected to cut their commute at least once a week after the pandemic, while 70% of respondents who used telehealth services anticipate cutting their medical-related car trips by at least half after the pandemic.