Wicked Blue
Wicked Blue's JournalFacebook imposes additional special restrictions ahead of inauguration
CNN
Brian Fung
Facebook will prevent repeat violators of its policies from being able to stream live videos or create new events, groups or pages on its platform through Inauguration Day, the company said Friday evening.
In addition, Facebook is banning the creation of new event pages tied geographically to Washington, DC, and state capitols, the company announced in a blog post.
The move is intended to "further prevent people from trying to use our services to incite violence," Facebook said in an update to a blog post.
Facebook is currently reviewing existing Facebook events and removing those linked to the inauguration that violate company policies, it added.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/biden-inauguration-security-dc-capitol-news-01-15-21/h_44275aaf05a7b504e57c0f8b8a39e914
No plans to test most National Guard members for Covid-19 before they deploy across DC
CNN
Keri Enriquez and Zachary Cohen
The overwhelming majority of 20,000 National Guard members expected in Washington for President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration will not be tested for coronavirus before they are deployed from states around the country or upon their arrival in the nation’s capital, a National Guard spokesperson tells CNN.
Testing for National Guard members sent to DC is “case dependent” but not widely required, the spokesperson said, noting there are some screening procedures, such as temperature checks, in place.
“Incoming Guard men and women are screened upon departure from their individual states and upon arrival to the DC Armory according to CDC guidelines. Temperature checks and screening questions are in place; masks and social distancing are required where the mission allows,” the DC National Guard said in a statement to CNN Friday.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/biden-inauguration-security-dc-capitol-news-01-15-21/h_44275aaf05a7b504e57c0f8b8a39e914
Stay safe!
Congressional Republicans balk at Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion relief plan, complicating push for quick
Washington Post
By Jeff Stein and Erica Werner
A growing number of congressional Republicans are expressing opposition to President-elect Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion economic relief proposal, complicating the incoming administration’s push to quickly inject additional aid into the U.S. economy.
Congressional Republican lawmakers and aides on Friday predicted widespread GOP opposition to the plan Biden unveiled the day before, particularly over its provisions to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and provide $350 billion in state and local aid.
Democrats will have a narrow Senate majority and could pass a relief package without any Republican votes. But doing so would require a parliamentary Senate procedure that could take weeks and may require Biden to jettison key parts of his proposal, such as the increase in the minimum wage. Approving a relief package solely with Democratic votes would also fly against Biden’s repeated campaign pledges to unify lawmakers and cut bipartisan deals across party lines.
Biden officials this week made early overtures to the centrist congressional Republicans in the bipartisan group that broke the logjam over stimulus spending in December, according to three people granted anonymity to share details of private conversations. That group included Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and Susan Collins (R-Maine.), among others. Major concessions to this group could also spur a backlash among liberal Senators.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/01/15/biden-stimulus-gop/
Not surprised
Coronavirus: EU anger over reduced Pfizer vaccine deliveries
BBC
Several EU countries are receiving significantly fewer doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine than expected, after the US firm slowed shipments.
Six nations called the situation "unacceptable" and warned it "decreases the credibility of the vaccination process".
Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia urged the EU to apply pressure on Pfizer-BioNTech.
Pfizer said the reduced deliveries are a temporary issue.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55666399
I'm starting to suspect that we're running out of the vaccine everyplace. What the hell is going on?
Debt collectors, payday lenders collected over $500 million in federal pandemic relief
Washington Post
By Peter Whoriskey, Joel Jacobs and Aaron Gregg
A Texas firm that describes itself as one of the nation’s largest medical bill collectors was racking up consumer complaints last year.
“For months this company has been reporting inaccurate, unverifiable, erroneous things on my credit report and I am sick of it!!!” states one consumer’s report to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in January 2020.
***
The firm, Capio Asset Servicing, came under investigation last year as part of Operation Corrupt Collector, an enforcement sweep of the debt-collection industry by federal and state officials. In a September lawsuit, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas (D) alleged that the company was seeking to collect debts that were not owed and “causing emotional and physical stress when they threaten and intimidate consumers.”
Yet the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program last year also gave the company a helping hand: It provided $2.4 million in forgivable loans to Capio and an affiliated firm, the Law Office of Mitchell D. Bluhm and Associates, which works with Capio, investigators said.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/01/15/debt-collectors-payday-ppp/
Investigators have opened up 275 new cases, US attorney says
CNN
From CNN's Katelyn Polantz
Investigators have so far opened up 275 cases where they are pursuing subjects including for violence outside or inside the Capitol building, DC US Attorney Michael Sherwin said.
He said that number will easily grow to more than 300 soon.
Also, 98 criminal cases have been opened with the majority of them being federal felony cases, Sherwin said.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/biden-inauguration-security-dc-capitol-news-01-15-21/index.html
Peyote-Loving 'QAnon Shaman' Vowed to Attend Inauguration, Left Chilling Note for Pence: Docs
Daily Beast
Pilar Melendez
The so-called QAnon Shaman who stormed the U.S. Capitol last week in Viking garb before sitting in Vice President Mike Pence’s chair on the Senate dais admitted to federal agents he intended to return to D.C. to “protest” President-elect Biden’s inauguration.
“I’ll still go, you better believe it,” Jacob Chansley bragged in an interview with FBI agents the day after the violent insurrection. “For sure I’d want to be there, as a protestor, as a protestor, fuckin’ a.”
The admission by Chansley, also known as Jake Angeli, is one of several prosecutors detailed in an 18-page detention memo arguing for the 33-year-old Arizona man to be held before trial.
***
Prosecutors said Chansley should be detained because the “self-proclaimed leader” of QAnon has previous felonies, doesn’t have a stable job, and lied to authorities about his drug use, telling them he only smoked weed “three times weekly in the past” but bragging on a podcast about taking mushrooms and peyote regularly.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/peyote-loving-qanon-shaman-jacob-chansley-vowed-to-attend-inauguration-doj-alleges?ref=home
Surprised he didn't demand fresh organic peyote with his jail meals.
'Saved by the Bell' star Dustin Diamond diagnosed with cancer
Agence France-Presse via Raw Story
The actor Dustin Diamond, best known for playing Samuel 'Screech' Powers in hit US children's TV show "Saved by the Bell", has been diagnosed with cancer, according to his representatives.
His official Facebook page confirmed the news in a statement Thursday, asking fans to "respect Dustin's privacy during this difficult time."
The 44-year-old's representative Roger Paul also confirmed the diagnosis to USA Today and said Diamond was undergoing treatment at a Florida hospital for stage 4 cancer.
https://www.rawstory.com/u/agence_france-presse
Trump Supporters' Main Problem Was Never The Economy
HuffPost
Emily Peck
Safe to say, the Donald Trump supporters who ransacked the U.S. Capitol last week weren’t short on cash or propelled by severe economic anxiety.
The insurrectionists came to Washington by plane. They stayed in Airbnbs and at the Embassy Suites. They wore costumes and carried weapons and iPhones. Some were cops. There were doctors, lawyers, a Chicago real estate broker, teachers ― even a school therapist. A CEO.
Sure, some of them could’ve been impoverished former coal miners, as so many pundits have described a certain sect of Trump voters. But these people weren’t raging over the decline of the carbon-based economy. This was a riot about race and power. If there was economic anxiety, it was spurred by the rioters’ false notion that their place in the world isunder threat.
We can stop talking about how white Americans voted for Trump because of economic interest. His appeal was never about money. (And Trump is leaving office with the economy in tatters, by the way. On Thursday, 1.15 million more people filed for unemployment.)
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-core-support-never-about-economy_n_6000b785c5b62c0057bb6dfc
These Textbooks In Thousands Of K-12 Schools Echo Trump's Talking Points
HufPost
By Rebecca Klein
Christian textbooks used in thousands of schools around the country teach that President Barack Obama helped spur destructive Black Lives Matter protests, that the Democrats’ choice of 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton reflected their focus on identity politics, and that President Donald Trump is the “fighter” Republicans want, a HuffPost analysis has found.
The analysis, which focused on three popular textbooks from two major publishers of Christian educational materials ― Abeka and BJU Press ― looked at how the books teach the Trump era of politics. We found that all three are characterized by a skewed version of history and a sense that the country is experiencing an urgent moral decline that can only be fixed by conservative Christian policies. Language used in the books overlaps with the rhetoric of Christian nationalism, often with overtones of nativism, militarism and racism as well.
Scholars say textbooks like these, with their alternate versions of history and emphasis on Christian national identity, represent one small part of the conditions that lead to events like last week’s riot at the U.S. Capitol, an episode that was permeated with the symbols of Christian nationalism. Before storming the Capitol, some groups prayed in the name of Jesus and asked for divine protection. They flew Christian and “Jesus 2020” flags and pointed to Trump’s presidency as the will of God. The linkage between Christian beliefs and the violent attack on Congress has since pushed evangelical leaders to confront their own relationship with Trump and their support for the rioters.
“These textbooks made this brand of nationalism more mainstream,” said Kathleen Wellman, a Southern Methodist University history professor who is working on a book about the two Christian publishers. “I’m struck by how coherent of a worldview [the textbooks] promote and how thoroughly it resonates in current culture.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/christian-textbooks-trump-capitol-riot_n_6000bce3c5b62c0057bb711f
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