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April 15, 2024
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/15/rural-americans-are-way-more-likely-die-young-why/
President Biden issued an executive order incorporating the White House’s covid-19 response team into its pandemic preparedness office, in the latest sign the administration believes the unique viral threat has largely faded.
In addition to the restructuring, Biden quietly rescinded three pandemic-era executive orders, including mandates for face coverings in federal facilities and a ban on medical supply hoarding. The move dissolved the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force and transferred authority for issuing guidance on covid-19 and other public health emergencies to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
While most pandemic staff have already left the White House, the order also officially terminated positions created to manage the public health crisis, including the covid-19 response coordinator role, vacant since Ashish Jha departed last June.
The backdrop: All told, nearly 1.2 million U.S. residents have died of covid-19 since the initial outbreak more than four years ago. Today, infections are falling in most states, but a federal forecast predicts that the country could see up to 2,300 daily covid hospital admissions in the beginning of May.
Biden rolls back three pandemic-era executive orders, including COVID mask mandate for federal employees
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/15/rural-americans-are-way-more-likely-die-young-why/
President Biden issued an executive order incorporating the White House’s covid-19 response team into its pandemic preparedness office, in the latest sign the administration believes the unique viral threat has largely faded.
In addition to the restructuring, Biden quietly rescinded three pandemic-era executive orders, including mandates for face coverings in federal facilities and a ban on medical supply hoarding. The move dissolved the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force and transferred authority for issuing guidance on covid-19 and other public health emergencies to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
While most pandemic staff have already left the White House, the order also officially terminated positions created to manage the public health crisis, including the covid-19 response coordinator role, vacant since Ashish Jha departed last June.
The backdrop: All told, nearly 1.2 million U.S. residents have died of covid-19 since the initial outbreak more than four years ago. Today, infections are falling in most states, but a federal forecast predicts that the country could see up to 2,300 daily covid hospital admissions in the beginning of May.
April 15, 2024
RAMONA, Okla. (AP) — Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania broke a world record in the discus throw that had stood since 1986 on Sunday at the Oklahoma Throws Series competition.
Alekna’s throw of 243 feet, 11 inches (74.35 meters) eclipsed the mark of 243 feet (74.08 meters) set by Germany’s Jurgen Schult on June 6, 1986. Alekna’s throw was originally measured at 244-1 (74.41) but later revised, according to World Athletics. The record is subject to ratification.
The 21-year-old Alekna, a junior at the University of California, is a two-time medal winner at the world outdoor championships. He captured a silver medal at the 2022 worlds in Oregon and bronze last summer in Hungary.
His big throw bumped his father, Virgilijus, to third on the career list. Virgilijus Alekna had a toss of 242-4 (73.88) in 2000. Mykolas Alekna’s big day comes a day after Cuba’s Yaimé Perez recorded the longest women’s discus throw since 1989 at 239-9 (73.09).
https://twitter.com/beau_throws/status/1779637216819491047
Lithuania's Mykolas Alekna breaks discus throw world record that stood since 1986
https://apnews.com/article/alekna-world-record-track-3beef674d3c7e39a343c5addcbc09d63RAMONA, Okla. (AP) — Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania broke a world record in the discus throw that had stood since 1986 on Sunday at the Oklahoma Throws Series competition.
Alekna’s throw of 243 feet, 11 inches (74.35 meters) eclipsed the mark of 243 feet (74.08 meters) set by Germany’s Jurgen Schult on June 6, 1986. Alekna’s throw was originally measured at 244-1 (74.41) but later revised, according to World Athletics. The record is subject to ratification.
The 21-year-old Alekna, a junior at the University of California, is a two-time medal winner at the world outdoor championships. He captured a silver medal at the 2022 worlds in Oregon and bronze last summer in Hungary.
His big throw bumped his father, Virgilijus, to third on the career list. Virgilijus Alekna had a toss of 242-4 (73.88) in 2000. Mykolas Alekna’s big day comes a day after Cuba’s Yaimé Perez recorded the longest women’s discus throw since 1989 at 239-9 (73.09).
https://twitter.com/beau_throws/status/1779637216819491047
April 15, 2024
As the founder of Concerned Women for America, she organized an army of ‘kitchen-table lobbyists’ to oppose the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion and gay rights
https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/04/14/beverly-lahaye-dead-cwa/
https://archive.ph/e5z0i
Beverly LaHaye, an evangelical activist who helped organize a powerful right-wing backlash to the feminist movement, rallying opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion, gay rights and other perceived threats to “traditional family values,” died April 14 at a retirement home in El Cajon, Calif. She was 94. Her death was announced in a statement by Concerned Women for America, the Washington-based public policy organization she founded and once led. The statement did not give a cause. While her husband, Southern Baptist minister Tim LaHaye, preached about the “end times” and made a fortune as a co-author of the best-selling “Left Behind” series of apocalyptic novels, Mrs. LaHaye developed a following of her own as the longtime president of Concerned Women for America, or CWA.
Formed in San Diego in 1979, the organization was envisioned as an evangelical answer to feminist groups such as the National Organization for Women and helped propel the rise of the Christian right through its advocacy efforts, legal campaigns and educational programs. Within a decade of its creation, the group boasted of having more than 500,000 members, with “Prayer/Action” chapters in all 50 states and an army of “kitchen-table lobbyists,” as Mrs. LaHaye called her supporters, who learned how to organize their neighbors and lobby government officials on behalf of school prayer, the criminalization of abortion, the teaching of creationism and other evangelical causes. The organization’s political clout was so strong that President Ronald Reagan delivered the keynote address at its 1987 national convention, praising Mrs. LaHaye as “one of the powerhouses on the political scene today, and one of the reasons that the grass roots are more and more a conservative province.”
Critics such as Gregory King, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, called Mrs. LaHaye “a professional hatemonger,” arguing in a 1993 interview with the Detroit Free Press that “she uses bigotry to make a buck” through her condemnation of LGBTQ+ people and others who shunned her right-wing views. But for the better part of two decades, she remained one of the most prominent female leaders in the new Christian right, a movement that was otherwise dominated by men such as Pat Robertson, the head of the Christian Coalition, and Jerry Falwell, who launched his Moral Majority movement in the 1970s with backing from Tim LaHaye. In 2001, Falwell called Mrs. LaHaye “without a doubt the most influential woman in America.” “Women have been the driving force of this movement in a lot of ways, particularly at the grass-roots level. I’m not sure that happens without Beverly LaHaye,” said Emily Suzanne Johnson, a history professor at Ball State University in Indiana and the author of “This Is Our Message: Women’s Leadership in the New Christian Right.”
At a time when some evangelical churchgoers were uneasy about mixing faith with activism, and when politics was seen within much of the community as the work of men, not women, Mrs. LaHaye “gave a lot of women a language for understanding women’s conservative activism as absolutely necessary,” Johnson added in a phone interview. “It’s not just that women should join in to what men are doing, but that conservative voices are really needed to counter this narrative that feminism is women’s politics and the Christian right is misogynist.” Mrs. LaHaye, she said, was among the only leaders in the Christian right arguing that women “need to be part of this movement if it’s going to be successful.” Mrs. LaHaye rose to prominence while condemning mainstream feminism, which she considered “a philosophy of death” that was “threatening the survival of our nation.” As she saw it, “the churchwomen had been asleep” and needed to be awakened to the menace posed by “lesbianism, Marxism and extreme social change.”
snip
One less piece of christofash hogshit floating about: Beverly LaHaye, influential evangelical activist, dies at 94
As the founder of Concerned Women for America, she organized an army of ‘kitchen-table lobbyists’ to oppose the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion and gay rights
https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/04/14/beverly-lahaye-dead-cwa/
https://archive.ph/e5z0i
Beverly LaHaye, an evangelical activist who helped organize a powerful right-wing backlash to the feminist movement, rallying opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion, gay rights and other perceived threats to “traditional family values,” died April 14 at a retirement home in El Cajon, Calif. She was 94. Her death was announced in a statement by Concerned Women for America, the Washington-based public policy organization she founded and once led. The statement did not give a cause. While her husband, Southern Baptist minister Tim LaHaye, preached about the “end times” and made a fortune as a co-author of the best-selling “Left Behind” series of apocalyptic novels, Mrs. LaHaye developed a following of her own as the longtime president of Concerned Women for America, or CWA.
Formed in San Diego in 1979, the organization was envisioned as an evangelical answer to feminist groups such as the National Organization for Women and helped propel the rise of the Christian right through its advocacy efforts, legal campaigns and educational programs. Within a decade of its creation, the group boasted of having more than 500,000 members, with “Prayer/Action” chapters in all 50 states and an army of “kitchen-table lobbyists,” as Mrs. LaHaye called her supporters, who learned how to organize their neighbors and lobby government officials on behalf of school prayer, the criminalization of abortion, the teaching of creationism and other evangelical causes. The organization’s political clout was so strong that President Ronald Reagan delivered the keynote address at its 1987 national convention, praising Mrs. LaHaye as “one of the powerhouses on the political scene today, and one of the reasons that the grass roots are more and more a conservative province.”
Critics such as Gregory King, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign in Washington, called Mrs. LaHaye “a professional hatemonger,” arguing in a 1993 interview with the Detroit Free Press that “she uses bigotry to make a buck” through her condemnation of LGBTQ+ people and others who shunned her right-wing views. But for the better part of two decades, she remained one of the most prominent female leaders in the new Christian right, a movement that was otherwise dominated by men such as Pat Robertson, the head of the Christian Coalition, and Jerry Falwell, who launched his Moral Majority movement in the 1970s with backing from Tim LaHaye. In 2001, Falwell called Mrs. LaHaye “without a doubt the most influential woman in America.” “Women have been the driving force of this movement in a lot of ways, particularly at the grass-roots level. I’m not sure that happens without Beverly LaHaye,” said Emily Suzanne Johnson, a history professor at Ball State University in Indiana and the author of “This Is Our Message: Women’s Leadership in the New Christian Right.”
At a time when some evangelical churchgoers were uneasy about mixing faith with activism, and when politics was seen within much of the community as the work of men, not women, Mrs. LaHaye “gave a lot of women a language for understanding women’s conservative activism as absolutely necessary,” Johnson added in a phone interview. “It’s not just that women should join in to what men are doing, but that conservative voices are really needed to counter this narrative that feminism is women’s politics and the Christian right is misogynist.” Mrs. LaHaye, she said, was among the only leaders in the Christian right arguing that women “need to be part of this movement if it’s going to be successful.” Mrs. LaHaye rose to prominence while condemning mainstream feminism, which she considered “a philosophy of death” that was “threatening the survival of our nation.” As she saw it, “the churchwomen had been asleep” and needed to be awakened to the menace posed by “lesbianism, Marxism and extreme social change.”
snip
April 15, 2024
The US today has extraordinary levels of gun ownership. But to see this as a venerable tradition is to misread history
https://aeon.co/essays/america-fell-for-guns-recently-and-for-reasons-you-will-not-guess
In 1970, amid a national confrontation with the United States’ gun culture following the assassinations of Robert F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr, the historian Richard Hofstadter struggled to make sense of how the country had become the ‘only industrial nation in which the possession of rifles, shotguns, and handguns is lawfully prevalent among large numbers of its population.’ Writing for the magazine American Heritage, he expressed grave concern for a country ‘afloat with weapons – perhaps as many as 50 million of them – in civilian hands.’ If the US was afloat then, it’s flooded now.
Half a century later, Americans own approximately 400 million firearms and the country carries the unfortunate distinction of being the only one in the world in which guns are known to be the leading cause of child and adolescent death. Today, Americans live with around 1.2 guns per capita – double that of the next-highest scoring country, Yemen. Despite having less than 5 per cent of the global population, the US possesses nearly half of the world’s civilian-owned guns. Moreover, in recent years Americans have witnessed a surge in gun sales and gun-related deaths, unfolding against a backdrop of increasingly lenient gun laws across states. In light of these developments, Hofstadter’s question takes on renewed urgency: ‘Why is it that in all other modern democratic societies those endangered ask to have such men disarmed, while in the United States alone they insist on arming themselves?’ How did the US come to be so terribly exceptional with regards to its guns?
From the viewpoint of today, it is difficult to imagine a world in which guns were less central to US life. But a gun-filled country was neither innate nor inevitable. The evidence points to a key turning point in US gun culture around the mid-20th century, shortly before the state of gun politics captured Hofstadter’s attention. Firearm estimates derived from gun sales and surveys indicate that, in 1945, there were somewhere around 45 million guns in the US at a time when the country had 140 million people. A quarter-century later, by 1970, the number of guns doubled, whereas the population increased by a little less than 50 per cent. By 2020, the number of guns had skyrocketed to nearly tenfold of its 1945 rate, while the population grew less than 2.5 times the 1945 number.
From the mid-20th century to today, guns also changed from playing a relatively minor role in US crime to taking centre-stage. Research by the criminologist Martin Wolfgang on Philadelphia’s homicide patterns from 1948 to 1952 reveals that only 33 per cent of the city’s homicides involved a firearm. Today, 91 per cent of homicides in Philadelphia feature a gun. Similarly, the national firearm homicide rate is 81 per cent. In addition, opinion polls traced the evolution over the second half of the 20th century from Americans buying guns primarily for hunting and recreation to buying them for self-protection against other people. Together, these findings reveal a sea change in US gun culture between the mid-20th century and the present day. So, how did this change happen? Until recently, it’s been difficult to say. The paucity of historical data on gun availability has left the origins of the country’s exceptional gun culture a mystery.
snip
Why America fell for guns
The US today has extraordinary levels of gun ownership. But to see this as a venerable tradition is to misread history
https://aeon.co/essays/america-fell-for-guns-recently-and-for-reasons-you-will-not-guess
In 1970, amid a national confrontation with the United States’ gun culture following the assassinations of Robert F Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr, the historian Richard Hofstadter struggled to make sense of how the country had become the ‘only industrial nation in which the possession of rifles, shotguns, and handguns is lawfully prevalent among large numbers of its population.’ Writing for the magazine American Heritage, he expressed grave concern for a country ‘afloat with weapons – perhaps as many as 50 million of them – in civilian hands.’ If the US was afloat then, it’s flooded now.
Half a century later, Americans own approximately 400 million firearms and the country carries the unfortunate distinction of being the only one in the world in which guns are known to be the leading cause of child and adolescent death. Today, Americans live with around 1.2 guns per capita – double that of the next-highest scoring country, Yemen. Despite having less than 5 per cent of the global population, the US possesses nearly half of the world’s civilian-owned guns. Moreover, in recent years Americans have witnessed a surge in gun sales and gun-related deaths, unfolding against a backdrop of increasingly lenient gun laws across states. In light of these developments, Hofstadter’s question takes on renewed urgency: ‘Why is it that in all other modern democratic societies those endangered ask to have such men disarmed, while in the United States alone they insist on arming themselves?’ How did the US come to be so terribly exceptional with regards to its guns?
From the viewpoint of today, it is difficult to imagine a world in which guns were less central to US life. But a gun-filled country was neither innate nor inevitable. The evidence points to a key turning point in US gun culture around the mid-20th century, shortly before the state of gun politics captured Hofstadter’s attention. Firearm estimates derived from gun sales and surveys indicate that, in 1945, there were somewhere around 45 million guns in the US at a time when the country had 140 million people. A quarter-century later, by 1970, the number of guns doubled, whereas the population increased by a little less than 50 per cent. By 2020, the number of guns had skyrocketed to nearly tenfold of its 1945 rate, while the population grew less than 2.5 times the 1945 number.
From the mid-20th century to today, guns also changed from playing a relatively minor role in US crime to taking centre-stage. Research by the criminologist Martin Wolfgang on Philadelphia’s homicide patterns from 1948 to 1952 reveals that only 33 per cent of the city’s homicides involved a firearm. Today, 91 per cent of homicides in Philadelphia feature a gun. Similarly, the national firearm homicide rate is 81 per cent. In addition, opinion polls traced the evolution over the second half of the 20th century from Americans buying guns primarily for hunting and recreation to buying them for self-protection against other people. Together, these findings reveal a sea change in US gun culture between the mid-20th century and the present day. So, how did this change happen? Until recently, it’s been difficult to say. The paucity of historical data on gun availability has left the origins of the country’s exceptional gun culture a mystery.
snip
April 14, 2024
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-04-12-financial-irregularities-house-candidate-patel/
As first-term Congresswoman Summer Lee (D-PA) faces an onslaught of far-right cash attacking her in her April 23 primary, a Prospect investigation has found that the main beneficiary of that spending, local official and primary opponent Bhavini Patel, failed to disclose a substantial gift she received, in violation of campaign finance laws. Additionally, a review of publicly available information has found that Patel may be engaged in a complex scheme to elide federal campaign finance limits, and failed to make required personal financial disclosures during her abortive 2022 campaign for Congress. The revelations come as a super PAC backed by Jeffrey Yass, the largest Republican donor in 2024, has spent $606,000 attacking Lee and boosting Patel, according to a review of federal campaign finance records.
Patel has also received significant fundraising assistance from groups like the Hindu American PAC, which works to elect candidates supportive of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi is a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the world’s largest far-right organization, whose early leaders effusively praised Hitler and cooperated with British rule. Last year, a member of Modi’s cabinet called Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, who was a member of the RSS, a “worthy son” of India. The RSS has a major network in the U.S., and figures active in that network have fundraised for Patel, The Intercept reported in February. Super PACs supporting pro-Israel candidates, like Democratic Majority for Israel and United Democracy Project, have stayed out of the race, despite making Rep. Lee one of their top targets previously.
Patel is a member of the Edgewood, Pennsylvania, Borough Council. Had she been in elective office in December 2020, she would have been required to disclose a substantial gift she received then, wherein she was deeded onto a house with a market value of about $110,000 for the price of $1—a gift with an approximate value of $55,000. The person who deeded her the house is named Vinay Patidar. Both Patidar and Patel are unmarried. As she is currently unemployed while running for Congress, the rental income from both this house in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, and another house in Pittsburgh that she used the home in Monroeville as collateral for, provides the majority of her income, disclosures show. Those same disclosures show that she received between $15,000 and $50,000 in rental income for the Monroeville property, which Patidar continued to list as his address on an October 2021 mortgage application.
Even just $15,000 in annual rent for a $110,000 property with just 50 percent ownership of the home is well above market value, according to a Prospect analysis of local rents. In October 2021, Patidar and Patel received what appears to be a home equity line of credit for $130,000, which Patel almost certainly used to purchase a house in Swissvale, Pennsylvania, for exactly $130,000 the following month. The Swissvale house, however, is exclusively in Patel’s name—so the home equity line of credit likely produced an additional $65,000 gift from Patidar, on top of the $55,000 stake she received in December 2020. Patel never disclosed a $65,000 gift from Patidar in her 2021 filing, where Patel erroneously stated that she had no real property interests. The Prospect was able to track Patel’s real estate stakes from a review of Allegheny County property records. Failure to make required disclosures is a misdemeanor, with fines of up to $1,000 and up to a year’s incarceration.
snip
Financial Irregularities Surround House Candidate Bhavini Patel
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-04-12-financial-irregularities-house-candidate-patel/
As first-term Congresswoman Summer Lee (D-PA) faces an onslaught of far-right cash attacking her in her April 23 primary, a Prospect investigation has found that the main beneficiary of that spending, local official and primary opponent Bhavini Patel, failed to disclose a substantial gift she received, in violation of campaign finance laws. Additionally, a review of publicly available information has found that Patel may be engaged in a complex scheme to elide federal campaign finance limits, and failed to make required personal financial disclosures during her abortive 2022 campaign for Congress. The revelations come as a super PAC backed by Jeffrey Yass, the largest Republican donor in 2024, has spent $606,000 attacking Lee and boosting Patel, according to a review of federal campaign finance records.
Patel has also received significant fundraising assistance from groups like the Hindu American PAC, which works to elect candidates supportive of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi is a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the world’s largest far-right organization, whose early leaders effusively praised Hitler and cooperated with British rule. Last year, a member of Modi’s cabinet called Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin, who was a member of the RSS, a “worthy son” of India. The RSS has a major network in the U.S., and figures active in that network have fundraised for Patel, The Intercept reported in February. Super PACs supporting pro-Israel candidates, like Democratic Majority for Israel and United Democracy Project, have stayed out of the race, despite making Rep. Lee one of their top targets previously.
Patel is a member of the Edgewood, Pennsylvania, Borough Council. Had she been in elective office in December 2020, she would have been required to disclose a substantial gift she received then, wherein she was deeded onto a house with a market value of about $110,000 for the price of $1—a gift with an approximate value of $55,000. The person who deeded her the house is named Vinay Patidar. Both Patidar and Patel are unmarried. As she is currently unemployed while running for Congress, the rental income from both this house in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, and another house in Pittsburgh that she used the home in Monroeville as collateral for, provides the majority of her income, disclosures show. Those same disclosures show that she received between $15,000 and $50,000 in rental income for the Monroeville property, which Patidar continued to list as his address on an October 2021 mortgage application.
Even just $15,000 in annual rent for a $110,000 property with just 50 percent ownership of the home is well above market value, according to a Prospect analysis of local rents. In October 2021, Patidar and Patel received what appears to be a home equity line of credit for $130,000, which Patel almost certainly used to purchase a house in Swissvale, Pennsylvania, for exactly $130,000 the following month. The Swissvale house, however, is exclusively in Patel’s name—so the home equity line of credit likely produced an additional $65,000 gift from Patidar, on top of the $55,000 stake she received in December 2020. Patel never disclosed a $65,000 gift from Patidar in her 2021 filing, where Patel erroneously stated that she had no real property interests. The Prospect was able to track Patel’s real estate stakes from a review of Allegheny County property records. Failure to make required disclosures is a misdemeanor, with fines of up to $1,000 and up to a year’s incarceration.
snip
April 14, 2024
https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-04-12-fed-keeps-getting-inflation-wrong/
President Biden made two catastrophically bad appointments. One was Attorney General Merrick Garland. The other was Fed Chair Powell. Either could literally cost Biden his presidency and the country its democracy—Garland by having slow-walked Trump’s prosecution and Powell by needlessly slowing the economy. The latest inflation report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, released Wednesday, showed the Consumer Price Index ticking up by 0.4 percent in March, the same as in February, but slightly higher than expected. This in turn set off signals from the Fed that expected rate reductions would have to be postponed, and near-hysterical media commentary. The Dow duly dropped more than a thousand points.
According to one press report after another, the economy was stuck with high inflation; high interest rates would persist; and Biden’s election-year good-news economy would be stuck with a bad-news story. But if you bother to take a close look at the details of the actual price increases by sector, they have nothing to do with the kind of inflation that justifies high interest rates. Some of the Fed’s own research confirms that. Nearly all of the price hikes came from a few sectors, none of which have anything to do with overheated demand. Take homeowner insurance, where costs have soared, rising 20 percent between 2021 and 2023. That has everything to do with climate-related losses that insurance companies try to make up by hiking rates on other homeowners, and nothing to do with demand. High interest rates don’t touch that.
Likewise auto insurance rates, which increased a staggering 22.2 percent in 2023, according to the March CPI report. Why? Accidents rose during the pandemic, apparently because stressed drivers with cabin fever expressed their frustrations via road rage. More complex systems in cars also increased repair costs. The Fed’s policy can’t fix any of that either. A few outlier studies by economists at regional Fed banks confirm the errors in both the Fed’s analysis and its policies. This March report by two researchers at the San Francisco Fed, titled “What’s Driving Inflation?,” concludes that “current inflation is being driven almost entirely by services such as health care, transportation, accommodations, and housing rents.” People with spare purchasing power are not “demanding” more health care. Rather, the health system, including drug companies, has too much market power to rig prices.
Rather than hiking rates, the Fed should be pressing the Federal Trade Commission for even tougher antitrust enforcement. Some of the recent increase in the transportation sector is driven by idiosyncratic hikes in gasoline prices. For instance, California, with more than 27 million licensed drivers, experiences a more extreme version of the climate-friendly policy of requiring refiners to shift from “winter blend” to “summer blend” gasoline every spring. Because of transition costs, the current price of gas in California is about $5.43 a gallon for regular, or almost two bucks higher than the $3.63 average in the rest of the country, according to AAA. Powell’s high interest rates can’t fix that either. Nor can they solve the housing shortage. This is wonky stuff, but not that wonky. The media should be doing a better job of explaining it, as a counterweight to Powell’s bad instincts; and the economists in the Fed’s employ should be bolder about pointing out Powell’s bad economics.
snip
How the Fed Keeps Getting Inflation Wrong
https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2024-04-12-fed-keeps-getting-inflation-wrong/
President Biden made two catastrophically bad appointments. One was Attorney General Merrick Garland. The other was Fed Chair Powell. Either could literally cost Biden his presidency and the country its democracy—Garland by having slow-walked Trump’s prosecution and Powell by needlessly slowing the economy. The latest inflation report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, released Wednesday, showed the Consumer Price Index ticking up by 0.4 percent in March, the same as in February, but slightly higher than expected. This in turn set off signals from the Fed that expected rate reductions would have to be postponed, and near-hysterical media commentary. The Dow duly dropped more than a thousand points.
According to one press report after another, the economy was stuck with high inflation; high interest rates would persist; and Biden’s election-year good-news economy would be stuck with a bad-news story. But if you bother to take a close look at the details of the actual price increases by sector, they have nothing to do with the kind of inflation that justifies high interest rates. Some of the Fed’s own research confirms that. Nearly all of the price hikes came from a few sectors, none of which have anything to do with overheated demand. Take homeowner insurance, where costs have soared, rising 20 percent between 2021 and 2023. That has everything to do with climate-related losses that insurance companies try to make up by hiking rates on other homeowners, and nothing to do with demand. High interest rates don’t touch that.
Likewise auto insurance rates, which increased a staggering 22.2 percent in 2023, according to the March CPI report. Why? Accidents rose during the pandemic, apparently because stressed drivers with cabin fever expressed their frustrations via road rage. More complex systems in cars also increased repair costs. The Fed’s policy can’t fix any of that either. A few outlier studies by economists at regional Fed banks confirm the errors in both the Fed’s analysis and its policies. This March report by two researchers at the San Francisco Fed, titled “What’s Driving Inflation?,” concludes that “current inflation is being driven almost entirely by services such as health care, transportation, accommodations, and housing rents.” People with spare purchasing power are not “demanding” more health care. Rather, the health system, including drug companies, has too much market power to rig prices.
Rather than hiking rates, the Fed should be pressing the Federal Trade Commission for even tougher antitrust enforcement. Some of the recent increase in the transportation sector is driven by idiosyncratic hikes in gasoline prices. For instance, California, with more than 27 million licensed drivers, experiences a more extreme version of the climate-friendly policy of requiring refiners to shift from “winter blend” to “summer blend” gasoline every spring. Because of transition costs, the current price of gas in California is about $5.43 a gallon for regular, or almost two bucks higher than the $3.63 average in the rest of the country, according to AAA. Powell’s high interest rates can’t fix that either. Nor can they solve the housing shortage. This is wonky stuff, but not that wonky. The media should be doing a better job of explaining it, as a counterweight to Powell’s bad instincts; and the economists in the Fed’s employ should be bolder about pointing out Powell’s bad economics.
snip
April 13, 2024
Nothing like a potential major regional Middle East War to push Trumpy Thee Traitor's Trial off the front pages.
Not to mention, IF shit really hits the fan, how potentially sustained 8, 10 dollar a gallon (or higher) petrol prices in the US will effect the 2024 election.
Fucking Netanyahu shivving Biden in the back with a broadsword. That motherfucker Bibi has been trying to spin up a war with Iran (with the US as the war hammer) for ages.
April 13, 2024
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-04-12-reformers-narrowly-lose-fisa-reform-patriot-act-2.0/
Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), center, and Chip Roy (R-TX) talk with reporters outside the U.S. Capitol after the House reauthorized Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on Friday.
The House of Representatives voted on Friday to reauthorize a new version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Section 702, with provisions that amount to the greatest expansion of government surveillance powers since the Patriot Act of 2001. The bill, which is intended to retain a tool for intelligence on foreign subjects, would expand the scope of backdoor searches on U.S. persons by allowing the government to target immigrants traveling to the U.S., and seize a broad range of companies’ information on Americans, including data centers, commercial real estate landlords, and other communication equipment operators. Members of Congress, however, will get a special exemption from some of Big Brother’s all-seeing eye because of a provision stating that politicians must be notified when a search query is conducted on them without a warrant, unlike the rest of the public.
Critically, an amendment backed by reformers, which would have added a requirement that government authorities need to obtain a warrant before spying on American citizens, was narrowly defeated when it ended in a 212-212 tie on the House floor. This warrant requirement is the core issue at the heart of a fight that’s been raging for over a decade about government overreach and violation of civil liberties via Section 702. “This failure to protect Americans’ privacy may well have just handed Donald Trump dramatically expanded warrantless surveillance powers, while defeating the single meaningful privacy reform that remained in the debate by the slimmest conceivable margin,” said Sean Vitka, policy director of Demand Progress, in a statement.
This new surveillance apparatus being handed to the government was cleared through by the leadership of both parties after several days of negotiations this week. On Wednesday, a procedural rule paving the way for the floor vote failed to pass because of a variety of concerns about what it included. Leadership changed very little about the substance of the text other than agreeing that it would sunset over a shorter horizon, two years instead of the usual five years. That cosmetic change assured enough members for it to clear a rule vote on Friday; it was sold to the Freedom Caucus members who previously blocked the rule as giving Donald Trump an opportunity to further reform FISA should he get elected president again.
After several amendments were dealt with, with all of those proposed by the status quo–minded House Intelligence Committee passing and those proposed by the pro-reform Judiciary Committee failing, the final bill easily passed, 273-147. It will now go to the Senate, where there could be changes. After the House bill passed, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) put out a statement promising to “do everything in [his] power” to stop its passage. Wyden is just one voice though, and the reauthorization is ultimately likely to make it through and then get signed into law by President Biden. The warrant amendment’s failure begins with several high-ranking members of leadership in both parties, who’d previously backed the reform but then flipped sides on Friday to crush it.
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Reformers Narrowly Lose on FISA Reform, Now Get Patriot Act 2.0: A bad day for civil liberties in the House
https://prospect.org/politics/2024-04-12-reformers-narrowly-lose-fisa-reform-patriot-act-2.0/
Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), center, and Chip Roy (R-TX) talk with reporters outside the U.S. Capitol after the House reauthorized Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on Friday.
The House of Representatives voted on Friday to reauthorize a new version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Section 702, with provisions that amount to the greatest expansion of government surveillance powers since the Patriot Act of 2001. The bill, which is intended to retain a tool for intelligence on foreign subjects, would expand the scope of backdoor searches on U.S. persons by allowing the government to target immigrants traveling to the U.S., and seize a broad range of companies’ information on Americans, including data centers, commercial real estate landlords, and other communication equipment operators. Members of Congress, however, will get a special exemption from some of Big Brother’s all-seeing eye because of a provision stating that politicians must be notified when a search query is conducted on them without a warrant, unlike the rest of the public.
Critically, an amendment backed by reformers, which would have added a requirement that government authorities need to obtain a warrant before spying on American citizens, was narrowly defeated when it ended in a 212-212 tie on the House floor. This warrant requirement is the core issue at the heart of a fight that’s been raging for over a decade about government overreach and violation of civil liberties via Section 702. “This failure to protect Americans’ privacy may well have just handed Donald Trump dramatically expanded warrantless surveillance powers, while defeating the single meaningful privacy reform that remained in the debate by the slimmest conceivable margin,” said Sean Vitka, policy director of Demand Progress, in a statement.
This new surveillance apparatus being handed to the government was cleared through by the leadership of both parties after several days of negotiations this week. On Wednesday, a procedural rule paving the way for the floor vote failed to pass because of a variety of concerns about what it included. Leadership changed very little about the substance of the text other than agreeing that it would sunset over a shorter horizon, two years instead of the usual five years. That cosmetic change assured enough members for it to clear a rule vote on Friday; it was sold to the Freedom Caucus members who previously blocked the rule as giving Donald Trump an opportunity to further reform FISA should he get elected president again.
After several amendments were dealt with, with all of those proposed by the status quo–minded House Intelligence Committee passing and those proposed by the pro-reform Judiciary Committee failing, the final bill easily passed, 273-147. It will now go to the Senate, where there could be changes. After the House bill passed, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) put out a statement promising to “do everything in [his] power” to stop its passage. Wyden is just one voice though, and the reauthorization is ultimately likely to make it through and then get signed into law by President Biden. The warrant amendment’s failure begins with several high-ranking members of leadership in both parties, who’d previously backed the reform but then flipped sides on Friday to crush it.
snip
April 13, 2024
Trade unionist made for political opposition whose son became Speaker of the Commons
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lord-hoyle-obituary-veteran-labour-backbencher-and-parliamentary-party-chairman-gw9z5ppxs
https://archive.ph/WlNo1
Hoyle, right, with the former prime minister and Labour leader Harold Wilson during the Warrington by-election, 1981, which he won against an SDP insurgency
During Doug Hoyle’s long career as a Labour MP he experienced significant changes in the party’s fortunes and its policies. A man of the left, he shifted his views only slightly under New Labour and Tony Blair. He became something of a grandee when he was elected by MPs as chairman of the parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) in his last spell in the Commons (1992-97); and having once called for the abolition of the House of Lords, he took a life peerage shortly after his retirement as an MP. His political life centred on Lancashire. He unsuccessfully fought Clitheroe in the 1964 general election and then won Nelson & Colne in October 1974, by 669 votes. In such a marginal seat it was no surprise that he was defeated in the pro-Conservative swing that brought Margaret Thatcher to office in 1979.
Hoyle’s return to the Commons came about in dramatic circumstances. In the Warrington by-election in July 1981, the new Social Democratic Party launched its first parliamentary election campaign. It was largely a breakaway group from the Labour Party. Its well-known candidate was Roy Jenkins, recently returned from having been president of the European Commission. At the time Jenkins — smooth, wealthy, son of a Labour MP, and until recently leader of the Labour right wing — represented all that Hoyle detested. He dismissed Jenkins as “a class traitor” and “a retired pensioner from the EEC”. Although Warrington was one of the safest Labour seats in the country, all the media interest was on how the SDP would do.
Hoyle was ill at ease in what turned out to be something of a media circus. He won the by-election, but the margin was reduced from 10,000 to less than 1,800. Before a large television audience, Jenkins in his concession speech said that it had been the greatest result of his career and congratulated Hoyle on achieving Labour’s lowest vote in the seat for 50 years. For Labour and Hoyle it was a pyrrhic victory. Flanked by the party’s regional agent, Hoyle was persuaded to be brief but denounced the SDP campaign and attacked the press coverage. The by-election proved that the SDP was now an effective political force and a threat to both Labour and Conservative parties. However, at the 1983 general election, Warrington became Warrington North and reverted to being a safe Labour seat with Hoyle as its MP.
Short, stocky and with a trademark moustache, Hoyle was easily recognisable — a colleague compared him to a moustachioed version of the film actor Edward G Robinson. He was usually ready with a quote, often populist, expressed in his soft Lancastrian accent, and would introduce himself as “Doug ’oyle”. He was made for political opposition and indeed most of his career was spent with his party out of office: he was not considered for a frontbench position and did badly when he stood in elections for the shadow cabinet. In 1953 he married Pauline Spencer, who later acted as his secretary. She predeceased him in 1991. They had one son, Lindsay, who also became a Labour MP (elected for Chorley in 1997); he was knighted in the 2018 new year’s honours list and has served as Speaker of the House of Commons since 2019. Lindsay, a more politically centrist figure than Doug, was named by his cricket-loving father after the Australian cricket captain Lindsay Hassett.
snip
Lord Hoyle obituary: Labour backbencher and parliamentary party chairman
Trade unionist made for political opposition whose son became Speaker of the Commons
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lord-hoyle-obituary-veteran-labour-backbencher-and-parliamentary-party-chairman-gw9z5ppxs
https://archive.ph/WlNo1
Hoyle, right, with the former prime minister and Labour leader Harold Wilson during the Warrington by-election, 1981, which he won against an SDP insurgency
During Doug Hoyle’s long career as a Labour MP he experienced significant changes in the party’s fortunes and its policies. A man of the left, he shifted his views only slightly under New Labour and Tony Blair. He became something of a grandee when he was elected by MPs as chairman of the parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) in his last spell in the Commons (1992-97); and having once called for the abolition of the House of Lords, he took a life peerage shortly after his retirement as an MP. His political life centred on Lancashire. He unsuccessfully fought Clitheroe in the 1964 general election and then won Nelson & Colne in October 1974, by 669 votes. In such a marginal seat it was no surprise that he was defeated in the pro-Conservative swing that brought Margaret Thatcher to office in 1979.
Hoyle’s return to the Commons came about in dramatic circumstances. In the Warrington by-election in July 1981, the new Social Democratic Party launched its first parliamentary election campaign. It was largely a breakaway group from the Labour Party. Its well-known candidate was Roy Jenkins, recently returned from having been president of the European Commission. At the time Jenkins — smooth, wealthy, son of a Labour MP, and until recently leader of the Labour right wing — represented all that Hoyle detested. He dismissed Jenkins as “a class traitor” and “a retired pensioner from the EEC”. Although Warrington was one of the safest Labour seats in the country, all the media interest was on how the SDP would do.
Hoyle was ill at ease in what turned out to be something of a media circus. He won the by-election, but the margin was reduced from 10,000 to less than 1,800. Before a large television audience, Jenkins in his concession speech said that it had been the greatest result of his career and congratulated Hoyle on achieving Labour’s lowest vote in the seat for 50 years. For Labour and Hoyle it was a pyrrhic victory. Flanked by the party’s regional agent, Hoyle was persuaded to be brief but denounced the SDP campaign and attacked the press coverage. The by-election proved that the SDP was now an effective political force and a threat to both Labour and Conservative parties. However, at the 1983 general election, Warrington became Warrington North and reverted to being a safe Labour seat with Hoyle as its MP.
Short, stocky and with a trademark moustache, Hoyle was easily recognisable — a colleague compared him to a moustachioed version of the film actor Edward G Robinson. He was usually ready with a quote, often populist, expressed in his soft Lancastrian accent, and would introduce himself as “Doug ’oyle”. He was made for political opposition and indeed most of his career was spent with his party out of office: he was not considered for a frontbench position and did badly when he stood in elections for the shadow cabinet. In 1953 he married Pauline Spencer, who later acted as his secretary. She predeceased him in 1991. They had one son, Lindsay, who also became a Labour MP (elected for Chorley in 1997); he was knighted in the 2018 new year’s honours list and has served as Speaker of the House of Commons since 2019. Lindsay, a more politically centrist figure than Doug, was named by his cricket-loving father after the Australian cricket captain Lindsay Hassett.
snip
April 13, 2024
April 12 (Reuters) - Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli, known for his animal-print designs loved by showbusiness stars, has died at the age of 83, his company said. Cavalli, who founded his label in the early 1970s, had been ill for some time. He is survived by his six children and his partner Sandra Bergman Nilsson.
"The Roberto Cavalli company shares condolences with Mr. Cavalli's family, his legacy remains a constant source of inspiration," Sergio Azzolari, chief executive of Roberto Cavalli, said in a post on Instagram. The designer died on Friday at his home in Florence, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
Cavalli, who used bright colours and patchwork effects in his often revealing creations, was an extroverted art lover who wore tinted glasses and smoked a cigar. He expanded into real estate and often spent evenings in his popular "Just Cavalli Cafe," a nightclub in central Milan.
Giorgio Armani said he always had "enormous respect" for Cavalli even though his vision of fashion could not have been more different. "Roberto was a true artist, wild and wonderful in his use of prints, capable of transforming fantasy into seductive clothes," he posted on social media platform X.
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RIP
Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli dies aged 83
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italian-fashion-designer-roberto-cavalli-dies-aged-83-2024-04-12/April 12 (Reuters) - Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli, known for his animal-print designs loved by showbusiness stars, has died at the age of 83, his company said. Cavalli, who founded his label in the early 1970s, had been ill for some time. He is survived by his six children and his partner Sandra Bergman Nilsson.
"The Roberto Cavalli company shares condolences with Mr. Cavalli's family, his legacy remains a constant source of inspiration," Sergio Azzolari, chief executive of Roberto Cavalli, said in a post on Instagram. The designer died on Friday at his home in Florence, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
Cavalli, who used bright colours and patchwork effects in his often revealing creations, was an extroverted art lover who wore tinted glasses and smoked a cigar. He expanded into real estate and often spent evenings in his popular "Just Cavalli Cafe," a nightclub in central Milan.
Giorgio Armani said he always had "enormous respect" for Cavalli even though his vision of fashion could not have been more different. "Roberto was a true artist, wild and wonderful in his use of prints, capable of transforming fantasy into seductive clothes," he posted on social media platform X.
snip
RIP
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