January 11, 2021

JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs Join U.S. Corporations Halting Political Donations After Capitol Riot

Source: CNBC

By Hugh Son, CNBC • Published January 11, 2021

JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs announced six-month pauses in contributions for Republicans and Democrats.

Citigroup told employees it is suspending PAC donations to all lawmakers during the first quarter.

Of the six biggest U.S. banks, only Morgan Stanley made it clear that it will not make donations to members of Congress who opposed the Electoral College certification of Biden.

JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup announced temporary suspensions of political donations following last week's invasion of the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters.

JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, is pausing political action committee contributions for Republicans and Democrats for "at least" the next six months, spokesman Steve O'Halloran said. The New York-based bank will use that time to consider changes to its political-donation strategies.

Read more: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/business/money-report/jpmorgan-and-citigroup-join-u-s-corporations-halting-political-donations-after-capitol-riot/2536691/

January 11, 2021

Biden names William J. Burns as CIA pick

Source: Washington Post

By
John Wagner
National political reporter
Jan. 11, 2021 at 9:38 a.m. EST

President-elect Joe Biden announced Monday that he plans to name William J. Burns, a career diplomat who served in both Democratic and Republican administrations, to run the CIA. The choice marked Biden's last major personnel announcement as he prepares to enter the White House on Jan. 20.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/11/trump-impeachment-biden-transition-live-updates/

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More info

Agence France-Presse via Raw Story

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Burns spent over three decades in the US foreign service, including a stint as ambassador to Russia from 2005-2008, and high-ranking jobs in the State Department.

"Bill Burns is an exemplary diplomat with decades of experience on the world stage keeping our people and our country safe and secure," Biden said in a statement released by his transition team.

Burns, who holds a masters and doctoral degrees from Oxford University, also served as US ambassador to Oman from 1998-2001.

He retired from the foreign service in 2014 and is the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an international affairs think tank in the United States.

https://www.rawstory.com/biden-taps-career-diplomat-william-burns-as-cia-chief/

CNN:

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"The American people will sleep soundly with him as our next CIA Director," Biden said in a statement.
If confirmed, Burns would become the first leader in the CIA's history whose lifelong experience comes from the State Department.

"Bill Burns is an exemplary diplomat with decades of experience on the world stage keeping our people and our country safe and secure," Biden said. "He shares my profound belief that intelligence must be apolitical and that the dedicated intelligence professionals serving our nation deserve our gratitude and respect."

Biden was drawn to Burns because of his diplomatic experience and his perceived ability to restore credibility to the intelligence agency in the post-Trump era, people familiar with the matter said, along with his expertise on Russia. His selection would bypass other contenders with more formal experience in the intelligence field.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/11/politics/william-burns-cia-director-nomination/index.html

January 11, 2021

DC Mayor Asks Feds to Cancel Demonstration Permits, Plan Inauguration Security

By Mark Segraves and NBC Washington Staff

The mayor of Washington, D.C., asked federal officials to cancel permits for demonstrations and plan to protect federal property around Inauguration Day “given the new threats from insurgent acts of domestic terrorists.”

Mayor Muriel Bowser asked Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf to cancel public gathering permits for the next two weeks, from Jan. 11 to Jan. 24. The request is “essential to demonstrating our collective resolve in ensuring the constitutional transfer of power and our nation’s capital,” Bowser wrote in a letter Saturday, days after a stunning riot inside the U.S. Capitol Building.

Additionally, the mayor asked federal officials to extend the “national special security event” period from Jan. 11 to Jan. 24, instead of its current Jan. 19 to Jan. 21. The extension will allow local and federal officials to better prepare for Inauguration Day, she wrote. D.C. urged DHS to get permission from Congress to include the Capitol and its grounds in the security perimeter.

D.C. asked for a pre-disaster declaration, and urged DHS to coordinate with Congress, the Justice Department and the Supreme Court to plan to protect federal property so D.C. officers can focus on local, D.C. land.

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/dc-mayor-asks-feds-to-cancel-demonstration-permits-plan-inauguration-security/2536542/

January 9, 2021

Deutsche Bank to pay more than $100 million in deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecuto

CNN
Sonia Moghe
Updated 4:38 PM ET, Sat January 9, 2021

Deutsche Bank entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors who allege the bank violated anti-bribery laws while doing business abroad. The bank has agreed to pay more than $100 million in penalties, prosecutors announced Friday.

The German bank entered into the agreement with Brooklyn federal prosecutors remotely. The criminal complaint charges the bank with two counts including conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and wire fraud conspiracy affecting a financial institution.

The agreement does not include mention of any connection to an investigation by Manhattan federal prosecutors into whether President Donald Trump misled or defrauded Deutsche Bank by inflating the value of some of his assets. But it does say that Deutsche Bank would "cooperate fully" with other investigations.

The Bank has loaned the Trump Organization more than $300 million, and CNN reported that the private bankers who worked with Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner resigned weeks before Trump's last day in office.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/09/business/deutsche-bank-anti-bribery-fine-agreement/index.html

January 9, 2021

Buzzfeed News: These Black Capitol Police Officers Describe Fighting Off "Racist Ass Terrorists"

Emmanuel Felton BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on January 9, 2021, at 4:32 p.m. ET

The first glimpse of the deadly tragedy that was about to unfold came at 9 a.m. on the morning of the insurrection for one Black veteran of the US Capitol Police. But it didn't come from his superiors — instead the officer had to rely on a screenshot from Instagram sent to him by a friend.

"I found out what they were planning when a friend of mine screenshot me an Instagram story from the Proud Boys saying, 'We're breaching the capitol today, guys. I hope y'all ready.'" The officer, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation from his superiors, told BuzzFeed News that it was just a sign of the chaos that was to come, which saw officers regularly finding themselves unprepared and then outmanned and overpowered by the mob.

The officer said that while the department's upper management had been telling them to prepare for Wednesday's storming of the Capitol like they would for any other protest, that Instagram post sent a clear message: this wasn’t going to be just some kind of free speech protest, this was going to be a fight.

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“You have the nerve to be holding a blue lives matter flag, and you are out there fucking us up,” he told one group of protestors he encountered inside the Capitol. “[One guy] pulled out his badge and he said, ‘we're doing this for you.’ Another guy had his badge. So I was like, ‘well, you gotta be kidding.’”

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmanuelfelton/black-capitol-police-racism-mob?ref=bfnsplash

January 9, 2021

Bathroom nightmare

I needed a laugh today. Many more bizarre bathrooms and rooms at link.

https://www.boredpanda.com/home-interior-design-fails/

January 9, 2021

Our dog Bailey is improving a little, but still can't breathe on his own

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181452642

Veterinary Referral Associates, where he is hospitalized, called this morning and said he is starting to respond a little to the steroids and other medication they are giving him. He still can't breathe without the supplemental oxygen he is receiving.

The vets say he is such a sweetheart. He really is. They've sent a few pictures of him.

He must be terribly scared to be without my daughter and our two other dogs, Penny and Daisy. He's never been seriously ill in his 13 years.

Between Bailey's illness, and the horror that took place at the U.S. Capitol, we are nervous wrecks.

Thank you all for your good wishes, blessings and healing vibes for Bailey. I am immensely grateful.

January 9, 2021

Is there any legal avenue to void lifetime judicial appointments

made by the Un-American Terrorist Republican Party?

Asking for a friend

January 9, 2021

Twitter warns of new violence to come, brewing again on social media, as reason for Trump ban

Washington Post
By Craig Timberg and Drew Harwell
Jan. 9, 2021 at 9:56 a.m. EST

Twitter’s extraordinary action against President Trump on Friday night was driven both by the violent rampage of his supporters in Washington and what the company said was a looming “secondary attack” on the U.S. Capitol and state government facilities next weekend — a finding that tracks with the open threats of violence independent researchers have also found across the Web.

Calls for widespread protests on the days leading up to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden have been rampant online for weeks. These demonstrations are scheduled to culminate with what organizers have dubbed a “Million Militia March” on Jan. 20 as Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris are to be sworn in on the same Capitol grounds that rioters overran on Wednesday.

As with the online chatter ahead of that assault on the Capitol, these calls to action have bristled with violent talk and vows to bring guns to Washington in defiance of the city’s strict weapons laws. Twitter cited some of these posts in its announcement Friday night stripping Trump of his account and preventing him from creating new ones in the future. Some event listings are openly discussing delivering “justice” for Ashli Babbitt, a rioter and Air Force veteran who was fatally shot by police inside the Capitol on Wednesday.

“Plans for future armed protests have already begun proliferating on and off-Twitter, including a proposed secondary attack on the US Capitol and state capitol buildings on January 17, 2021,” Twitter’s announcement said Friday night, noting two recent Trump tweets it said were “likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/09/trump-twitter-protests/

January 9, 2021

Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin needs to get T-rump indicted by a DC grand jury

One way to stop the terrorist President, in my opinion, would be for Sherwin, as the top prosecutor in Washington DC, to convene a grand jury for the purpose of indicting T-rump on charges relating to the January 6 insurrection.

I know nothing about Sherwin's political leanings, but he reportedly has not ruled it out. This was posted on CNBC on Thursday:

"The top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., on Thursday pointedly did not rule out charging President Donald Trump in connection with inciting a riot after his supporters invaded the U.S. Capitol complex a day earlier.

Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin said the Department of Justice will consider lodging criminal charges against anyone who played a role in the riot, which for hours delayed the confirmation by Congress of Joe Biden’s election as the next president."

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/07/federal-prosecutor-doesnt-rule-out-prosecuting-trump-for-inciting-capitol-riot.html