Unemployment Claims Rise Sharply, Showing New Economic Pain

New York Times logo

Weekly filings for jobless benefits hit the highest level since July as the pandemic’s resurgence batters the service industry.

Ten months after the coronavirus crisis decimated the labor market, the resurgent pandemic keeps sending shock waves through the American economy.

Though more than half of the 22 million jobs lost last spring have been regained, a new surge of infections has prompted shutdowns and layoffs that have hit the leisure and hospitality industries especially hard, dealing a setback to the recovery.

The latest evidence came on Thursday when the Labor Department reported that initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose sharply last week, exceeding one million for the first time since July. Continue reading.

CNN’s Brianna Keilar Scorches Republicans Who Say Impeachment Is Too Divisive

She called out lawmakers who enabled Trump’s election lies, then complained after an insurrection that impeachment would sow division.

CNN’s Brianna Keilar on Thursday looked back at the divisive rhetoric of Republicans who voted against the second impeachment of Donald Trump because they claimed it would be too divisive.

“The very people who have been saying for months that Trump won an election that he did not ― who are knowingly telling supporters this lie, who have enabled a president who wants to break the system as he tries to harness the rage of extremists and racists for his own self preservation ― are telling people who want accountability to let it go. It’s ‘too divisive.’”

Trump on Tuesday spoke out about the impeachment proceedings, claiming that it was causing “tremendous anger,” after he spent months spreading disinformation about the presidential election and fomenting political unrest that culminated in a violent insurrection on the U.S. Capitol from his supporters, who sought to overturn the election results. Continue reading.

QAnon shaman accidentally unravels GOP impeachment defense: ‘He came at the request of the president’

AlterNet logo

House Republicans defended President Donald Trump from impeachment by insisting that he never encouraged his supporters to violently storm the U.S. Capitol, but court documents show those insurrectionists believed they were carrying out his orders.

The president addressed supporters Jan. 6 in Washington, D.C., where he urged them to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard” by marching on the Capitol, and GOP lawmakers seized on those words in their impeachment defense — but one of the most recognizable figures in the siege told investigators he was doing what he believed Trump wanted.

“Your affiant and an FBI agent spoke on the phone with [Jacob] CHANSLEY, who confirmed that he was the male in the face paint and headdress in the Vice President’s chair in the Senate,” investigators said in an affidavit filed in court. “CHANSLEY stated that he came as a part of a group effort, with other ‘patriots’ from Arizona, at the request of the President that all ‘patriots’ come to D.C. on January 6, 2021.”‘ Continue reading.

‘We got to hold this door’

Washington Post logo

How battered D.C. police made a stand against the Capitol mob

Blinded by smoke and choking on gas and bear spray, stripped of his radio and badge, D.C. police officer Michael Fanone and his battered colleagues fought to push back rioters trying to force their way into an entrance to the U.S. Capitol.

The officers had been at it for hours, unaware that others in the mob had already breached the building through different entrances. For them, the West Terrace doors — which open into a tunnel-like hallway allowing access to an area under the Rotunda — represented the last stand before the Capitol fell.

“Dig in!” Fanone yelled, his voice cracking, as he and others were being struck with their own clubs and shields, ripped from their hands by rioters. “We got to get these doors shut.” Continue reading.

Kenosha prosecutors fight to modify Rittenhouse’s bond agreement after photos surface of him with Proud Boys

AlterNet logo

Prosecutors in Kenosha, Wisc. are filing a motion to implement modifications for Kyle Rittenhouse amid the circulation of incriminating photos of him with the Proud Boys. 

According to WTMJ4-Milwaukee, the 18-year-old, who is facing charges for the fatal shooting of two protesters in Kenosha, found himself at the center of controversy after posing for photos with members of the Proud Boys.

In the photos, Rittenhouse—who is out of jail on a $2 million bond paid for with funds raised by conservative groups like the Proud Boys—was seen holding up the white power symbol as they sang the far-right, neo-fascist, organization’s official song. Since Rittenhouse entered the bar with his mother, Wendy Rittenhouse, he was also seen consuming alcohol. Surveillance footage captured a bartender serving the teen a beer. Continue reading.

Minnesota widens COVID-19 vaccine eligibility

Leftover doses can go to those 65 and older, it says. 

Health care providers and other vaccinators can start giving COVID-19 vaccines to people who are not in the designated high-priority groups, including those 65 and older, but the shots will still not be widely available for now.

State health officials said Thursday that the new guidance applies only to sites that have some leftover doses after completing vaccinations of front-line health care and other high-priority workers.

“It is really more to give the providers flexibility with what little extra doses they have right now,” Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said. “Today’s announcement is designed simply to remove barriers.” Continue reading.

Trump brought leadership turmoil to security agencies in run-up to Capitol riot

Washington Post logo

The three top federal agencies responsible for protecting the nation — the Departments of Justice, Defense and Homeland Security — are all being run by acting officials, as the United States endures one of its most sensitive national security crises.

The leadership vacuum is the product of President Trump’s tempestuous relationships with his Cabinet secretaries and tendency to replace them for long periods of time with acting officials who lack Senate confirmation — a pattern that has led to turmoil atop critical federal agencies for much of his presidency.

Never has the absence of confirmed leaders seemed more pronounced than now. All three agencies were being led by acting officials in the run-up to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, where extremist Trump supporters who embrace the president’s false claims of election fraud stormed the building to demand that lawmakers dispute President-elect Joe Biden’s victory during a pro forma certification of the electoral college vote. Continue reading.

Biden pushes for $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package

GOP critics immediately call it too much, too fast

President-elect Joe Biden began lobbying Congress to quickly approve a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid plan to improve vaccine distribution, provide direct payments to Americans and bolster state and local government coffers.

In a televised speech Thursday evening, Biden delivered a message that appeared tailored for Republicans and more fiscally moderate Democrats who are unlikely to cheer the prospect of another costly pandemic relief bill just weeks after lawmakers approved a $902 billion package.

The former Delaware Democratic senator argued that lawmakers not only have an “economic imperative to act now” but a “moral obligation” to help the nation weather a pandemic that has killed more than 385,000 Americans. Continue reading.

Biden’s chief aide says president wants teams, no rivals

The Hill logo

As he takes office in the face of the most substantial set of crises facing any new president in almost a century, President-elect Joe Biden is structuring an incoming administration around teams meant to break down the fiefdoms and silos that have at times vexed many of his predecessors.

If former President Obama built his Cabinet as a team of rivals, Biden is building a team of allies.

The Biden transition has structured its nominees and senior officials into policy pods, Cabinet members and policy coordinators introduced together over the course of the two-month transition, designed to use the levers of government across departments and agencies. Continue reading.

The $3,000-a-month toilet for the Ivanka Trump/Jared Kushner Secret Service detail

Washington Post logo

Many U.S. Secret Service agents have stood guard in Washington’s elite Kalorama neighborhood, home over the years to Cabinet secretaries and former presidents. Those agents have had to worry about death threats, secure perimeters and suspicious strangers. But with the arrival of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, they had a new worry: finding a toilet.

Instructed not to use any of the half-dozen bathrooms inside the couple’s house, the Secret Service detail assigned to President Trump’s daughter and son-in-law spent months searching for a reliable restroom to use on the job, according to neighbors and law enforcement officials. After resorting to a porta-potty, as well as bathrooms at the nearby home of former president Barack Obama and the not-so-nearby residence of Vice President Pence, the agents finally found a toilet to call their own.

But it came at a cost to U.S. taxpayers. Since September 2017, the federal government has been spending $3,000 a month — more than $100,000 to date — to rent a basement studio, with a bathroom, from a neighbor of the Kushner family. Continue reading.