Why are people even looking at conway’s Twitter? This is the sad state of the world. None of us should care.
Certainly you realize that there are some people that are still interested in her tweets. Or who are just following her because she was tRump's right hand woman.
Remember the Thomas Nine !! (10/02/2018) The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago 2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy 2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE) 2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston 2020: Oakland, Oakland:2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana 2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville 2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Why are people even looking at conway’s Twitter? This is the sad state of the world. None of us should care.
That's an interesting conclusion from this particular incident.
Mom, dad and daughter don’t get along. Hardly newsworthy. Social media is teaching us to care about things that are not our business and and just do not impact us at all.
Hopefully they can work it out for the kid’s sake.
I don't know about that. He has 4 years before next election I believe. He doesn't strike me as Zell Miller here. I think he's in a good political spot right now.
I can see him screaming "war on coal," "war on oil," "war on jobs," plus the bolded below, coupled with enticement from Moscow Mitchy Baby with plum committee assignments that he can steer dollars to his political backers. WV is basically a red state on the meat & potato issues and with 4 years left, "outraged" dems, who are center, center-right dems anyway, will have forgotten about his party switching.
Good morning. Why is there a big debate over the filibuster? Because it benefits one political party much more than the other.
Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, returning to his office after a speech on the Senate floor.Erin Schaff/The New York Times
Status quo vs. change
If you examine the history of the filibuster — a Senate rule requiring a supermajority vote on many bills, rather than a straight majority — you will quickly notice something: It has benefited the political right much more than the left.
• In the 1840s (before the term “filibuster” existed), Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina used the technique to protect slavery.
• Over the next century, Southern Democrats repeatedly used the filibuster to prevent Black Americans from voting and to defeat anti-lynching bills.
• From the 1950s through the 1990s, Senate Republicans, working with some conservative Democrats, blocked the passage of laws that would have helped labor unions organize workers.
• Over the past two decades, the filibuster has enabled Republicans to defeat a long list of progressive bills, on climate change, oil subsidies, campaign finance, Wall Street regulation, corporate offshoring, gun control, immigration, gender pay equality and Medicare expansion.
The early days of Joe Biden’s presidency, with the Democrats narrowly controlling the Senate, have intensified a debate over whether the party should eliminate the filibuster. If Senate Democrats did, they could try to pass many bills — say, on climate change, voting rights, Medicare expansion and tax increases on the rich — with 51 votes, rather than 60.
As part of the debate, many observers have pointed out that both parties have used the filibuster, and both could suffer from its demise. Democrats, for example, filibustered some of President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees, as well as abortion restrictions and an estate-tax cut. A Senate without the current filibuster really would cause problems for Democrats at times.
On balance, however, there is no question about which party benefits more from the filibuster. Republicans do, and it’s not close.
The dictionary test
This makes sense, too. Consider the words conservative and progressive. A conservative tends to prefer the status quo, while a progressive often favors change. “The filibuster is a tool to preserve the status quo and makes it harder to make change,” Adam Jentleson, a former Democratic Senate aide and the author of “Kill Switch,” a new book on the filibuster, told me. (I’m reading the book now and recommend it.)
Jentleson documents that the country’s founders did not intend for most legislation to require a supermajority and that the filibuster emerged only in the 1800s. Alexander Hamilton and James Madison both wrote passionate defenses of simple majority rule. They protected minority rights by creating a government — with a president, two legislative chambers and a judiciary — in which making a law even with simple majorities was onerous.
“What at first sight may seem a remedy,” Hamilton wrote, referring to supermajority rule, “is, in reality, a poison.” If a majority could not govern, he explained, it would lead to “tedious delays; continual negotiation and intrigue; contemptible compromises of the public good.”
What now?
The filibuster isn’t going anywhere yet. Some past Democratic supporters of the filibuster — like Senator Jon Tester of Montana and Biden himself — have said they might consider eliminating it if Republicans continued to reject compromise. Others — like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema — say they remain opposed.
But the issue won’t be decided in the abstract, as the Republican strategist Liam Donovan has noted. When the Senate is next considering a specific bill that has the support of a majority but not a supermajority, that will be the crucial moment.
Related: Jamelle Bouie, a Times Opinion columnist, has made cases for scrapping the filibuster. In The Washington Post, Carl Levin, a former senator, and Richard Arenberg have made the case for keeping it. And Molly Reynolds of the Brookings Institution has described how it might be reformed.
THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
• Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, signaled that Democrats could try to pass Biden’s pandemic relief plan through the budget reconciliation process, which requires only a majority vote.
• In their first phone call as fellow presidents, Biden and Vladimir Putin agreed to extend the last remaining nuclear arms treaty between their countries, but Biden also confronted Putin on several topics, including Russian election interference.
• “The call was, in essence, the opening act of what promises to be a deeply adversarial relationship between the two leaders,” The Times’s David E. Sanger and Anton Troianovski write.
• Biden plans to announce executive actions today to deal with climate change, but hurdles lie ahead. Here are four things to watch for.
• Kamala Harris, the first female vice president, swore in Janet Yellen, the first woman to be Treasury secretary. (Fun fact: Yellen is also the first woman who has had all three top economic jobs in the government.)
But this playing out on social media isn’t helpful for the family. It escalated an already bad situation I would suspect. I get that Conway was a public official, but now disgraced and I just think since it doesn’t impact our lives why invest time with it. At the same time, if we all stop paying attention perhaps they have a better shot of working all this out.
Again, the kid is the priority. Just let the police handle it and not indulge the conways using Twitter to attack themselves. If KA is convicted of a crime we can read about it on the news.
I don’t believe that there’s any way that KA Conway posted that pic. Whatever one may think of her politics, she’s a smart woman and there is absolutely nothing to gain by doing this and a hell of a lot to lose, including jail time.
I agree with just leaving the family alone. Whatever is going on for them, it isn’t helped by massive public attention.
my small self... like a book amongst the many on a shelf
I don’t believe that there’s any way that KA Conway posted that pic. Whatever one may think of her politics, she’s a smart woman and there is absolutely nothing to gain by doing this and a hell of a lot to lose, including jail time.
I agree with just leaving the family alone. Whatever is going on for them, it isn’t helped by massive public attention.
agreed. my first instinct is that the daughter did it to spite her mother and is now regretting it saying her mom's phone was hacked. total BS.
"Oh Canada...you're beautiful when you're drunk" -EV 8/14/93
I don’t believe that there’s any way that KA Conway posted that pic. Whatever one may think of her politics, she’s a smart woman and there is absolutely nothing to gain by doing this and a hell of a lot to lose, including jail time.
I agree with just leaving the family alone. Whatever is going on for them, it isn’t helped by massive public attention.
agreed. my first instinct is that the daughter did it to spite her mother and is now regretting it saying her mom's phone was hacked. total BS.
Could be, but I wouldn’t be surprised if KA’s Twitter was hacked. It’s not like that’s never happened happened before, and this choice of image is more harmful to KA than most of what otherwise could be fraudulently posted.
my small self... like a book amongst the many on a shelf
0
g under p
Surfing The far side of THE Sombrero Galaxy Posts: 18,197
His troubles continue, his residence in Mar A Lago under review.....
*We CAN bomb the World to pieces, but we CAN'T bomb it into PEACE*...Michael Franti
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
The
Department of Homeland Security issued a warning Wednesday to alert the
public about a growing risk of attacks by “ideologically-motivated
violent extremists” agitated about President Biden’s inauguration and
“perceived grievances fueled by false narratives.”
DHS
periodically issues such advisories through its National Terrorism
Advisory System, but the warnings have typically been generated by
elevated concerns about attacks by foreign governments or radical
groups, not domestic extremists.
In a statement, the department said the purpose of the new bulletin
was to warn the public about a “heightened threat environment” across
the United States “that is likely to persist over the coming weeks.”
The
bulletin is a lesser-status warning designed to alert the public about
general risks, rather than an imminent attack linked to a specific
threat.
White
House press secretary Jen Psaki on Jan. 22 announced the National
Security Council will build new capability to focus on domestic
extremism. (The Washington Post)
“DHS
does not have any information to indicate a specific, credible plot;
however, violent riots have continued in recent days and we remain
concerned that individuals frustrated with the exercise of governmental
authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived
grievances and ideological causes fueled by false narratives, could
continue to mobilize a broad range of ideologically-motivated actors to
incite or commit violence,” the statement read.
The most recent bulletins
DHS has issued — both this month — warned the public about an elevated
threat from Iran. No other bulletin in recent years has been issued to
alert Americans about violence by domestic extremists.
“Throughout
2020, Domestic Violent Extremists (DVEs) targeted individuals with
opposing views engaged in First Amendment-protected, nonviolent protest
activity,” the bulletin states. “DVEs motivated by a range of issues,
including anger over covid-19 restrictions, the 2020 election results,
and police use of force have plotted and on occasion carried out attacks
against government facilities.”
It
added: “DHS is concerned these same drivers to violence will remain
through early 2021 and some DVEs may be emboldened by the January 6,
2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. to target
elected officials and government facilities.”
The new bulletin will remain in place through April 30.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
The U.S. economy shrank by 3.5 percent in 2020, as the coronavirus
pandemic ravaged factories, businesses and households, pushing U.S.
economic growth to a low not seen since the U.S. wound down war-time
spending in 1946.
Overall,
the economy was surprisingly resilient in the second half of the year,
given the fall-off at the start of the public health crisis, according
to data released Thursday from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Yet, the
1-percent growth in the fourth quarter signaled a faltering recovery
and a long road ahead with 9.8 million jobs still missing and 23.8
million adults struggling to feed their families.
“Twenty-twenty
has no precedent in modern economic history,” said David Wilcox, senior
fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a
former director of the domestic economics division at the Federal
Reserve. “The influenza of 1918 and 1919 predates our modern system of
economic statistics, and since World War II, there’s never been a
contraction that even remotely approached the severity and the breadth
of the initial collapse in 2020.”
It’s
the first time the economy has contracted for the year since 2009, when
gross domestic product shrank by 2.5 percent during the depths of the
Great Recession. The next worst plunge was 1946, when the economy shrank
by 11.6 percent as the nation demobilized from its wartime footing.
Consumer
spending slowed down in all 15 categories tracked by the BEA, as the
sectors that powered third-quarter growth faltered. Americans spent less
on restaurants and hotels, a surprising third-quarter bright spot, and
the growth of spending on motor vehicles and health care slowed after a
steep third-quarter acceleration.
“There
has been a broad recovery but, economically speaking, we’re not out of
the woods yet,” said Ben Herzon, executive director at IHS Markit.
Senate
Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) seized on the new GDP
figures in a speech on the Senate floor, arguing that they make the case
for passing a big new relief bill.
“Given
these economic numbers, the need to act big and bold is urgent,”
Schumer said. “Given the fact that the GDP sunk by 3.5 percent last
year, we need recovery and rescue quickly.”
President Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion rescue package with money for individual Americans and cities and states, as well as coronavirus testing and vaccines, among other provisions.
Schumer
reiterated Thursday that he intends to take steps to move the package
forward next week, with or without GOP support. Many Republicans say the
proposal is too costly and unnecessary on top of about $4 trillion in
relief that Congress already passed, including $900 billion in December.
Even
as the economy shed jobs like never before in 2020, personal income
grew significantly, BEA data shows, largely because of $1,200 stimulus
checks and enhanced unemployment benefits provided by the Cares Act.
Disposable personal income grew faster for lower-income households than
it did for the average household, according to an analysis
published Thursday by Jason Furman, a senior fellow at the Peterson
Institute for International Economics and a former top economist in the
Obama administration, and Wilson Powell III of the Harvard Kennedy
School.
However,
those gains were front-loaded and have begun to erode. Federal stimulus
drove personal income to record highs in the late spring, but the
levels fell off significantly in the second half of the year as relief
programs under the Cares Act wound down or expired. Congress also
approved a $900 billion stimulus package
last month, which sent Americans new $600 stimulus checks and newly
extended unemployment benefits to $300 a week through mid-March.
“The
package enacted at the end of December was completely welcome, but
we’re clearly seeing that it took some time to roll out and get that aid
to folks,” said Wendy Edelberg, director of the Hamilton Project at the
Brookings Institution and former chief economist at the Congressional
Budget Office.
This
is the last GDP report from former president Donald Trump’s tenure.
Until the pandemic, Trump was on track for an economic record that put
him near the middle of the pack among recent presidents. But the
coronavirus crisis ensured that Trump oversaw the slowest economic
growth of any president in the period since World War II.
Economic chaos reigned in 2020. In the second quarter,
gross domestic product contracted at the fastest quarterly rate ever
for the United States, as the pandemic walloped workers and businessesand kept millions from leaving their homes.Then, in the third quarter, GDP soaredat a record pace as parts of the economy reopened and businesses brought workers back onto their payrolls.
The
nascent economic recovery was propelled by a rebound of sales of
automobiles and household goods such as furniture, and in renovations
and supplies for home offices. Consumer spending — which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity — used to be driven by an ever-growing demand for services, including leisure and hospitality, and restaurants and bars.
But
as the pandemic warped tried-and-true shopping habits, economists
watched consumers move their spending from services to goods. Purchases
of computers, home office equipment and fire pits quickly overtook those
of hotel rooms and movie tickets.
In
fact, 2020 was the best year ever for Bedford Fields Home & Garden
Center in the forested hills of Bedford, a suburb of Manchester, N.H.
When
the pandemic hit, “literally everybody became gardeners,” office
manager Tracey Auger said. The GDP category that includes nurseries and
garden-supply stores was one of fastest-growing in 2020.
“So
many people were home, and we were deemed essential and one of the few
places people could go to shop,” Auger said. “They needed somewhere to
go, a project to do.”
Auger,
who has worked at Bedford Fields for nine years, said the shop has
based its 2021 orders on the assumption that this year will be somewhere
between a normal year, like 2019, and the housebound plant madness of
2020. Bedford Fields has doubled its seed order for 2021 and has secured
a full order of plants; after months of shortages, growers have finally
caught up to surging demand.
But
for every business that has thrived in the era of social distancing,
dozens of others have continued to suffer as customers stay home and
governments restrict activity at high-contact businesses such as bars,
restaurants and event centers.
Speaking
at a news conference Wednesday, Powell said the pace of the recovery in
economic activity and employment has moderated in recent months, with
service-sector workers — mainly women and people of color — struggling
to regain a foothold in the workforce.
“That
is really the main thing about the economy, is getting the pandemic
under control, getting everyone vaccinated, getting people wearing masks
and all that,” Powell said. “That’s the single most important economic
growth policy that we can have.”
The businesses that have been hit hardest disproportionately employ women, people of color and workers without college educations.
Americans in those groups are suffering. Economists call it the
K-shaped recovery: The top end of the economy continues to improve, even
as lower earners fall further behind.
Constance
Hunter, chief economist at KPMG, pointed to different slices of the
economy that have their own versions of the K-shaped recovery. Among
corporations, tech companies such as Zoom and Netflix are soaring.
Airlines, less so.
For
workers, Hunter said that among Americans who can work from home, the
unemployment rate is 3.9 percent. The rate is 8.5 percent for people who
have to report to a job site.
“In
general, the GDP number is informative about the economy,” Hunter said.
But “because of this corporate K, a household K, a geographic K, we
have to dig under the hood in a different way.”
In
the fourth quarter of 2020, spending from state and local governments
fell 2.5 percent from the same quarter last year, adjusted for
inflation. That’s the sharpest decrease since mid-2012, and mirrored the
toll from 2008-2009 financial crisis.
In
the years after the Great Recession, economists pointed to the slow
return of public-sector jobs as a drag on the broader recovery. The
coronavirus crisis has once again spurred many left-leaning economists
and policymakers to push for continued aid to state and local
governments.
“I
just want us to learn the lessons from the 2008-2009 Great Recession,"
said Lisa Cook, an economist at Michigan State University. “With greater
funding for state and local governments, [a relief package] will stem
the adverse affects of what we’re seeing with respect to the virus.”
Cristal
Farrington, 48, was laid off in May after more than two decades of
climbing the corporate ladder at New York City firms that buy and
distribute specialty foods and restaurant equipment.
Farrington
is looking for whatever work she can get but said she was not
optimistic that business would pick up in 2021, because the timelines
for vaccine rollout and reopening remain fuzzy. And even if things turn
around, it will be years before Black women like her are welcomed back
into the workforce, she said.
“People
of color, we’ve always been on the edge, teetering,” Farrington said.
“Because we always know we’re going to be the first ones let go and the
last ones hired.”
Economists surveyed
by the Wall Street Journal predict a strong rebound in 2021, with the
economy growing by 4.3 percent. That would be the best year since the
late 1990s, as high earners unleash the billions they have saved during
the pandemic.
One bright spot in 2020is
that the personal saving rate hit the highest on record, and some
businesses are betting that — combined with a vaccine rollout, the
December stimulus and any future Biden administration stimulus — all
that saving will power a swift rebound.
The online review site Yelp this week reported
that more businesses reopened in December than in any month since June.
It also augurs well for this year that, in December, interest in
wedding planning soared 22 percent above its 2019 level — a sign of hope
for the battered live-events industry.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Failing economy is a direct extension of his inability to manage a crisis. Dump deserves his share of the responsibility.
Yes, pretending it doesn't exist is never a good recipe.
Bush also did terribly in the fall of 08. He seemed to be paralyzed. He would come out every day like a cuckoo clock and say everything is okay, and then recede.
Had a friend who worked there and she took us up to the presidential suite where the POTUS elect stays before moving into the WH. Had to call the secret service first to say how many of us would be in the suite. Stepped out on the balcony and the secret service was scoped in on us with binocs. Both cool and a little scary. I kept waiting for the red dot.
That's what it was like. I used to go to another roof top bar in a hotel across from the WH, I can't remember the name but it was old and a little run down, reasonably priced drinks and appies and it literally looked out over the WH. I think its a W now and they turned the roof top bar into a ball room, not as nice as the old place. Anyway, we'd go there and watch the secret service watch us and have cocktaols and appies. One time, during a NATO summit, we call and ask if we can go to the bar and they say yes. But DC had closed all streets in a 10 block radius of the WH. We drive as close as we can and park and walk to the hotel. We walk in, ask again if the roof top bar is open and are told yes. We get on the elevator with a guy in a tux and his wife, elderly DC looking denizens in a gown, look at each other and shrug. Elevator gets to the roof top floor, doors open, we let the DC denizens out and then we go to get out and a huge black guy in a suit fills the door, pushes us both in the chest back in, pushing the lobby button, doors close and down we go. Fuck, now what? Walking back to the car, my buddy decides to open his golf umbrella and hide beneath it. About 10 secret service agents pop up from surrounding roof tops, scoping us with binocs. I implore him to get up unless he wants to be sniped. We walk back to the car and decide to go to Sequoia, a yacht themed restaurant on the Potomoc at the base of Georgetown for dinner. Go have a nice dinner, cocktails and decide to go to Nathan's for music and fun. Walk up the hill to Nathan's, an old DC bar that's been around forever and is notable for the DC muckrakers and politicos to go and hang out. Being a Saturday night, its busy and we ask to share a table. Meet some women, laugh, have a great time and around midnight, three or four guys ask to join us because we had table space. Get to exchanging names, what do you do, etc. Turns out these guys were secret service and had just wrapped up their NATO summit duties. We didn't believe them so they showed us their IDs and gave us their Secret Service lapel pins. They and us proceeded to get shit hammered, them buying shot after shot. They were definitely high strung and letting loose. We asked them what would have happened had my buddy not gotten up from under the umbrella, after telling them the story. They said they would have yelled to come out and if not, fired a warning shot. Walking back to the car, I got stuck by a bridge abutment. Walked right into it and kept moving my legs trying to walk. My buddy walked like another block until he turned around and saw me walking in place against the bridge abutment. Had to come back and pull me back to the sidewalk. Got to the car in the parking garage and we wisely decided to sleep it off seeing how we were already past the hour to be charged a days worth of parking. Nathan's is gone, the old hotel is a W and I'm too old for that shit. Times, they are a changing.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Comments
The Golden Age is 2 months away. And guess what….. you’re gonna love it! (teskeinc 11.19.24)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Wrigley; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Hopefully they can work it out for the kid’s sake.
a) daughter is being a manipulative twatty teenager, it's not newsworthy.
if it's
b) former senior advisor to the president abusing her daughter, mentally, physically, and now possibly sexually, it's newsworthy.
-EV 8/14/93
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
But this playing out on social media isn’t helpful for the family. It escalated an already bad situation I would suspect. I get that Conway was a public official, but now disgraced and I just think since it doesn’t impact our lives why invest time with it. At the same time, if we all stop paying attention perhaps they have a better shot of working all this out.
-EV 8/14/93
https://www.aol.com/news/palm-beach-conducting-legal-review-224354837.html
Peace
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
Homeland security bulletin warns Americans about violence by grievance-fueled domestic
The Department of Homeland Security issued a warning Wednesday to alert the public about a growing risk of attacks by “ideologically-motivated violent extremists” agitated about President Biden’s inauguration and “perceived grievances fueled by false narratives.”
DHS periodically issues such advisories through its National Terrorism Advisory System, but the warnings have typically been generated by elevated concerns about attacks by foreign governments or radical groups, not domestic extremists.
In a statement, the department said the purpose of the new bulletin was to warn the public about a “heightened threat environment” across the United States “that is likely to persist over the coming weeks.”
The bulletin is a lesser-status warning designed to alert the public about general risks, rather than an imminent attack linked to a specific threat.
“DHS does not have any information to indicate a specific, credible plot; however, violent riots have continued in recent days and we remain concerned that individuals frustrated with the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances and ideological causes fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize a broad range of ideologically-motivated actors to incite or commit violence,” the statement read.
The most recent bulletins DHS has issued — both this month — warned the public about an elevated threat from Iran. No other bulletin in recent years has been issued to alert Americans about violence by domestic extremists.
“Throughout 2020, Domestic Violent Extremists (DVEs) targeted individuals with opposing views engaged in First Amendment-protected, nonviolent protest activity,” the bulletin states. “DVEs motivated by a range of issues, including anger over covid-19 restrictions, the 2020 election results, and police use of force have plotted and on occasion carried out attacks against government facilities.”
It added: “DHS is concerned these same drivers to violence will remain through early 2021 and some DVEs may be emboldened by the January 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. to target elected officials and government facilities.”
The new bulletin will remain in place through April 30.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
2020 was the worst year for economic growth since World War II
New federal data offers comprehensive snapshot of a year marred by staggering job losses, waves of small-business closures and mounting inequality
The U.S. economy shrank by 3.5 percent in 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged factories, businesses and households, pushing U.S. economic growth to a low not seen since the U.S. wound down war-time spending in 1946.
Overall, the economy was surprisingly resilient in the second half of the year, given the fall-off at the start of the public health crisis, according to data released Thursday from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Yet, the 1-percent growth in the fourth quarter signaled a faltering recovery and a long road ahead with 9.8 million jobs still missing and 23.8 million adults struggling to feed their families.
“Twenty-twenty has no precedent in modern economic history,” said David Wilcox, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former director of the domestic economics division at the Federal Reserve. “The influenza of 1918 and 1919 predates our modern system of economic statistics, and since World War II, there’s never been a contraction that even remotely approached the severity and the breadth of the initial collapse in 2020.”
It’s the first time the economy has contracted for the year since 2009, when gross domestic product shrank by 2.5 percent during the depths of the Great Recession. The next worst plunge was 1946, when the economy shrank by 11.6 percent as the nation demobilized from its wartime footing.
Consumer spending slowed down in all 15 categories tracked by the BEA, as the sectors that powered third-quarter growth faltered. Americans spent less on restaurants and hotels, a surprising third-quarter bright spot, and the growth of spending on motor vehicles and health care slowed after a steep third-quarter acceleration.
The recession may be over — technically
“There has been a broad recovery but, economically speaking, we’re not out of the woods yet,” said Ben Herzon, executive director at IHS Markit.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) seized on the new GDP figures in a speech on the Senate floor, arguing that they make the case for passing a big new relief bill.
“Given these economic numbers, the need to act big and bold is urgent,” Schumer said. “Given the fact that the GDP sunk by 3.5 percent last year, we need recovery and rescue quickly.”
President Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion rescue package with money for individual Americans and cities and states, as well as coronavirus testing and vaccines, among other provisions.
Schumer reiterated Thursday that he intends to take steps to move the package forward next week, with or without GOP support. Many Republicans say the proposal is too costly and unnecessary on top of about $4 trillion in relief that Congress already passed, including $900 billion in December.
The economy is getting even worse for Americans with a high school diploma or less education
Even as the economy shed jobs like never before in 2020, personal income grew significantly, BEA data shows, largely because of $1,200 stimulus checks and enhanced unemployment benefits provided by the Cares Act. Disposable personal income grew faster for lower-income households than it did for the average household, according to an analysis published Thursday by Jason Furman, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former top economist in the Obama administration, and Wilson Powell III of the Harvard Kennedy School.
However, those gains were front-loaded and have begun to erode. Federal stimulus drove personal income to record highs in the late spring, but the levels fell off significantly in the second half of the year as relief programs under the Cares Act wound down or expired. Congress also approved a $900 billion stimulus package last month, which sent Americans new $600 stimulus checks and newly extended unemployment benefits to $300 a week through mid-March.
“The package enacted at the end of December was completely welcome, but we’re clearly seeing that it took some time to roll out and get that aid to folks,” said Wendy Edelberg, director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution and former chief economist at the Congressional Budget Office.
This is the last GDP report from former president Donald Trump’s tenure. Until the pandemic, Trump was on track for an economic record that put him near the middle of the pack among recent presidents. But the coronavirus crisis ensured that Trump oversaw the slowest economic growth of any president in the period since World War II.
Economic chaos reigned in 2020. In the second quarter, gross domestic product contracted at the fastest quarterly rate ever for the United States, as the pandemic walloped workers and businesses and kept millions from leaving their homes. Then, in the third quarter, GDP soared at a record pace as parts of the economy reopened and businesses brought workers back onto their payrolls.
Governors’ shutdowns did not cause the pandemic jobs crisis
The nascent economic recovery was propelled by a rebound of sales of automobiles and household goods such as furniture, and in renovations and supplies for home offices. Consumer spending — which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity — used to be driven by an ever-growing demand for services, including leisure and hospitality, and restaurants and bars.
But as the pandemic warped tried-and-true shopping habits, economists watched consumers move their spending from services to goods. Purchases of computers, home office equipment and fire pits quickly overtook those of hotel rooms and movie tickets.
In fact, 2020 was the best year ever for Bedford Fields Home & Garden Center in the forested hills of Bedford, a suburb of Manchester, N.H.
When the pandemic hit, “literally everybody became gardeners,” office manager Tracey Auger said. The GDP category that includes nurseries and garden-supply stores was one of fastest-growing in 2020.
Federal Reserve Chair Powell says ‘nothing more important’ to economy than vaccinating Americans
“So many people were home, and we were deemed essential and one of the few places people could go to shop,” Auger said. “They needed somewhere to go, a project to do.”
Auger, who has worked at Bedford Fields for nine years, said the shop has based its 2021 orders on the assumption that this year will be somewhere between a normal year, like 2019, and the housebound plant madness of 2020. Bedford Fields has doubled its seed order for 2021 and has secured a full order of plants; after months of shortages, growers have finally caught up to surging demand.
But for every business that has thrived in the era of social distancing, dozens of others have continued to suffer as customers stay home and governments restrict activity at high-contact businesses such as bars, restaurants and event centers.
Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, Powell said the pace of the recovery in economic activity and employment has moderated in recent months, with service-sector workers — mainly women and people of color — struggling to regain a foothold in the workforce.
“That is really the main thing about the economy, is getting the pandemic under control, getting everyone vaccinated, getting people wearing masks and all that,” Powell said. “That’s the single most important economic growth policy that we can have.”
The businesses that have been hit hardest disproportionately employ women, people of color and workers without college educations. Americans in those groups are suffering. Economists call it the K-shaped recovery: The top end of the economy continues to improve, even as lower earners fall further behind.
The covid-19 recession is the most unequal in modern U.S. history
Constance Hunter, chief economist at KPMG, pointed to different slices of the economy that have their own versions of the K-shaped recovery. Among corporations, tech companies such as Zoom and Netflix are soaring. Airlines, less so.
For workers, Hunter said that among Americans who can work from home, the unemployment rate is 3.9 percent. The rate is 8.5 percent for people who have to report to a job site.
“In general, the GDP number is informative about the economy,” Hunter said. But “because of this corporate K, a household K, a geographic K, we have to dig under the hood in a different way.”
In the fourth quarter of 2020, spending from state and local governments fell 2.5 percent from the same quarter last year, adjusted for inflation. That’s the sharpest decrease since mid-2012, and mirrored the toll from 2008-2009 financial crisis.
In the years after the Great Recession, economists pointed to the slow return of public-sector jobs as a drag on the broader recovery. The coronavirus crisis has once again spurred many left-leaning economists and policymakers to push for continued aid to state and local governments.
“I just want us to learn the lessons from the 2008-2009 Great Recession," said Lisa Cook, an economist at Michigan State University. “With greater funding for state and local governments, [a relief package] will stem the adverse affects of what we’re seeing with respect to the virus.”
Cristal Farrington, 48, was laid off in May after more than two decades of climbing the corporate ladder at New York City firms that buy and distribute specialty foods and restaurant equipment.
Farrington is looking for whatever work she can get but said she was not optimistic that business would pick up in 2021, because the timelines for vaccine rollout and reopening remain fuzzy. And even if things turn around, it will be years before Black women like her are welcomed back into the workforce, she said.
“People of color, we’ve always been on the edge, teetering,” Farrington said. “Because we always know we’re going to be the first ones let go and the last ones hired.”
Economists surveyed by the Wall Street Journal predict a strong rebound in 2021, with the economy growing by 4.3 percent. That would be the best year since the late 1990s, as high earners unleash the billions they have saved during the pandemic.
One bright spot in 2020 is that the personal saving rate hit the highest on record, and some businesses are betting that — combined with a vaccine rollout, the December stimulus and any future Biden administration stimulus — all that saving will power a swift rebound.
The online review site Yelp this week reported that more businesses reopened in December than in any month since June. It also augurs well for this year that, in December, interest in wedding planning soared 22 percent above its 2019 level — a sign of hope for the battered live-events industry.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Bush also did terribly in the fall of 08. He seemed to be paralyzed. He would come out every day like a cuckoo clock and say everything is okay, and then recede.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
halifax be like ^^^^
-EV 8/14/93
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Used to go there periodically as well
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©