Author Archives: jason330

About jason330

Jason330 is a deep cover double agent working for the GOP. Don't tell anybody.

DL Open Thread Monday March 13 2023

I just knew SVB gamblers were going to made whole. (Heck of a job, Coonsie.)

Privatized Gains & Socialized Losses

Washington, DC — The following statement was released by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen, Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell, and FDIC Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg:

Today we are taking decisive actions to protect the U.S. economy by strengthening public confidence in our banking system. This step will ensure that the U.S. banking system continues to perform its vital roles of protecting deposits and providing access to credit to households and businesses in a manner that promotes strong and sustainable economic growth.

After receiving a recommendation from the boards of the FDIC and the Federal Reserve, and consulting with the President, Secretary Yellen approved actions enabling the FDIC to complete its resolution of Silicon Valley Bank, Santa Clara, California, in a manner that fully protects all depositors. Depositors will have access to all of their money starting Monday, March 13. No losses associated with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank will be borne by the taxpayer.

We are also announcing a similar systemic risk exception for Signature Bank, New York, New York, which was closed today by its state chartering authority. All depositors of this institution will be made whole. As with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank, no losses will be borne by the taxpayer.

Counterpoint:

Matthew C. Klein
@M_C_Klein
“We aren’t using taxpayer money to do a bailout, we are just using the ESF and also having the Fed pretend that banks haven’t lost money on their bond portfolios and we are going to charge depositors at banks that didn’t fail to make depositors whole at banks that did”

One More:

Cassandra Marshall @CTMinDE

 

I didn’t see any of these movies

Everything Everywhere All at Once’ wins seven Oscars, including best picture and acting nods for Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis. Brendan Fraser was named best actor for ‘The Whale’ plus ‘’Naatu, Naatu’ RRR’ wins best original song plus host Jimmy Kimmel’s best jokes – here’s the biggest moments at the 2022 Emmy Awards!

Lt Gov Poll Results & Next Week’s Poll

Concerning the question – Who do you want to be Delaware’s next Lt. Governor?

Kevin Hensley wins!  26% of poll takers want Hensley which is probably 13% Republicans happy to see a Republican show up in one of our weekly polls and 13% people from the 9th RD who are ready for Hensley to move on and vacate the district.  Rest assured, he has no chance of being the next Lt Gov.

Among people who stand a chance of being the next Lt Gov, Debbie Harrington and Bryan Townsend tied for first with 10%.  I’m good with either one of those guys.   Also being considered: Dee Durham(8%), Coby Owens (7%), Sherry Dorsey Walker (7%), Jamie Collins (7%), Madinah Wilson-Anton(6%), & Eugene Young(4%)

I’m just glad Sarah McBride only gathered 4% of the vote.  I take that outcome to mean that DL readers and lurkers agree with me that McBride for Lt Gov would be a shameful waste of political talent & energy.

Onward – Senators Chris Coons and Tom Carper considered themselves honorary tech-bros when they supported the Trump administration’s weakening of Dodd-Frank.

Now that the deregulation has come home to roost in a number of bank failures (and lightning quick bail outs), do you think Carper of Coons will act like full grown men, and comment on the fact that the votes they lent to Trump’s vandalism of Dodd-Frank were dead wrong?

 

36 year old grandmother, Lauren Boebert, continues to be a walking advertisement for comprehensive sex-ed

These white people just can’t control themselves. They are like animals, just fucking and creating wingnut welfare babies, day and night.

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) announced this week at the Conservative Political Action Conference that she’s going to be a 36-year-old grandmother. At the very same gathering, the anti-abortion lawmaker also said that she wants to ban comprehensive sex ed in public schools. Huh!

Boebert won the Mothers of Influence Award at the CPAC Women’s Breakfast last weekend, and shared in her acceptance speech the news that her 17-year-old son, Tyler, had gotten his girlfriend pregnant, and they’re having a boy. It’s not known how old his girlfriend is, but Tyler turns 18 on March 21, and Boebert said the baby is due in April.

Boebert—who came very close to losing her seat in November—herself dropped out of high school during her senior year when she was pregnant with Tyler and later earned a GED. She has four boys with husband Jayson, who exposed himself to a teenager at a bowling alley, for which he served jail time and two years’ probation.

Russian officials being told to surrender their passports

As for me, nothing would make me want to flee Russia like being told “You may not flee Russia.”

Russian officials and employees of state-owned companies are increasingly being told to surrender their passports to members of the security services to ensure they cannot flee the country, a joint investigation by independent media outlets Current Time and Radio Liberty has concluded.

Requirements vary from job to job, with some state employees told to hand in their foreign passports to the FSB or a similar special department at their workplace, while others were just advised in no uncertain terms not to travel abroad on vacation, according to the investigation.

Officials who fail to hand their passports over are threatened with having them revoked, while employees at state-owned companies are generally given the opportunity to resign if they refuse to hand over their passports for safekeeping.

Travel restrictions may range from a complete ban on leaving Russia for some to having permission only to visit one of Russia’s dwindling number of allies or members of the Eurasian Economic Union for others.

Coons & Carper Votes to Repeal Dodd-Frank Directly Linked to Bank Failures

Who could have predicted it?  

THE COLLAPSE OF SVB AND THE PARTIAL REPEAL OF DODD-FRANK

Remember when Trump and the Republican leadership, in collaboration with a critical group of moderate and conservative Democrats, rolled back some of the regulations Dodd-Frank placed on regional banks? Well:

Some banking experts on Friday pointed out that a bank as large as Silicon Valley Bank might have managed its interest rate risks better had parts of the Dodd-Frank financial-regulatory package, put in place after the 2008 crisis, not been rolled back under President Trump.

In 2018, Mr. Trump signed a bill that lessened regulatory scrutiny for many regional banks. Silicon Valley Bank’s chief executive, Greg Becker, was a strong supporter of the change, which reduced how frequently banks with assets between $100 billion and $250 billion had to submit to stress tests by the Fed.

Mr. Becker, who had been on the San Francisco Fed’s board of directors, was no longer on the board as of Friday, a Fed spokesperson said.

 

The new “Republican populism” has the same policy agenda as Paul Ryan.

Meanwhile, another example of “every libertarian is a socialist if they and/or their buddies make a bad investment”

Coons and Carper were the only “Blue State” Democrats to support Trump’s vandalism.  

Why 17 Democrats voted with Republicans to ease bank rules

The Senate voted 67 to 31 on Wednesday to ease regulations on all but the largest banks, in what would become the biggest rewrite of financial laws since the Dodd-Frank reform act passed after the global financial crisis. The legislation would raise the level at which banks are considered “systemically important” and exempts smaller banks from other rules aiming to curb risky behavior.

Critics objected to a provision raising the threshold for an institution to be considered “too big to fail” to $250 billion in assets from $50 billion in assets, arguing it opens taxpayers up to more potential liability should a mid-sized institution fail. Under the bill, the entities below $250 billion in assets would no longer have to go through a “stress test” to prove they can survive a crisis. Some Democrats also criticized a provision related to mortgage data that they say will make it harder for the government to target discriminatory or predatory lenders.

It is unclear if the GOP-majority House will seek to pass the legislation or a more drastic rollback of bank rules that Senate Democrats would be reluctant to support.

The bank legislation left Democrats balancing competing concerns as they battle for control of Congress in November. Some members of the party have long argued smaller banks and lenders in rural areas should face fewer restrictions. Several Senate Democrats like Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota face re-election in November in states President Donald Trump won in 2016 and have tried to create an appearance of supporting bipartisan or moderate policies.

On the other hand, progressive Senate Democrats like Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts warned against passing the bill, arguing it would apply to too many banks and damage efforts to protect consumers after the financial crisis. Ahead of November’s midterms, Democrats want to cast themselves as better defenders of workers and consumers than Republicans.

Voting on the bill largely reflects the midterm political realities. The Democrats running in safer seats this year tended to oppose the bill, while the lawmakers in races that election handicappers consider close were more likely to back the plan.

Ten of the 17 Democrats who voted for the plan will run for re-election this year. Seven of them — Heitkamp, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Jon Tester of Montana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Bill Nelson of Florida — face tough races in states Trump carried.

“You can’t blame [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer for not wanting to twist the arms of red-state Democrats against home-state banking interests,” former Schumer aide and Hillary Clinton advisor Brian Fallon told The Associated Press. “But from the standpoint of the larger party messaging, it’s a missed opportunity to not strike a bright-line contrast on behalf of consumers.”

Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, who also face re-election in states Trump won this year, notably opposed the bank plan. Both lawmakers appear to have an easier path to a November win than Democrats in more heavily Republican states like North Dakota.

The bill exposed fault lines among Democrats ahead of the midterms. In recent tweets, Warren hit her Democratic colleagues who supported the plan, saying it “wouldn’t be on the path to becoming law” without her party.

Heitkamp told the AP “I came here to represent North Dakota, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.” She argued the bill “will make a huge difference for rural America.”

Not just the vulnerable Democrats up for re-election this year backed the proposal. Sen. Doug Jones, who won a special election in deep-red Alabama last year, supported the bill. He will face another election in 2020.

Both senators who represent safe blue Delaware, Chris Coons and Tom Carper, backed the plan. The banking industry has a strong presence in the state.

Biden’s Budget Heresy – Tax the Rich

“Democrat” Chris Coons is going to fucking hate this budget proposal. That’s good news for America.

The real message of Biden’s budget

The president is picking a fight with Republicans on their own turf — fiscal responsibility and defense spending.

A lot is squeezed into President Joe Biden’s new 182-page budget proposal, which the president describes as “a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America in a fiscally responsible way.”

Congress is unlikely to pass all, or even most, of the $6.88 trillion budget as written. Still, presidential budgets are important: They tell lawmakers and voters about an administration’s political priorities. And even though Congress often simply ignores major portions of the request, the president’s budget can still serve as a starting point for legislative talks. Last year, the White House’s priorities for an infrastructure deal influenced the final package Congress ultimately passed.

This year, as Democrats no longer have control of Congress, the resulting budget document reflects both political pragmatism and political ambition. It also gives the clearest glimpse yet into how the White House plans to position itself in the upcoming fights around the debt ceiling and the 2024 reelection campaign. Biden is embracing the rhetoric of fiscal responsibility and national security, domains that have historically been Republicans’ turf. But he is doing so while rejecting any calls to roll back the welfare state. Instead, the budget lays the groundwork to expand it.

In addition to calls for increased military spending and new investments in the social safety net, the Biden budget aims to protect programs like Medicare and Social Security, largely by promoting new taxes on corporations and the richest Americans.

Highlands Bunker Podcast – RISE Delaware (w/ Karen Peterson)

Is your blood in need of boiling? If so listen to Karen Peterson break down how John Carney and his posse of the putrescent worked to fuck over Delaware retirees.  

E232 – RISE Delaware (w/ Karen Peterson)

Former State Senator Karen Peterson joins Rob in the bunker to talk about the state’s attempts to privatize Medicare for public sector retirees and how RISE Delaware has been working to push back.

Show Notes:

Fox News Staffer: I think no regular person could read this and look at Fox like a news organization at this point.

Chris Coons: I’m no regular person.

In the wake of bombshell legal filings showing that Fox News executives and stars seemingly sought to pacify their disgruntled MAGA viewers by airing election lies, while punishing and censoring the employees attempting to deliver the actual truth, the above observation has become commonplace within media circles.

According to nine Fox News staffers and insiders, the pre-trial filings in Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News further impugn and sully the reputation of the network’s “straight news” journalists, especially since they show Fox was “operating out of fear” over losing viewers to smaller right-wing competitors following its Decision Desk’s early (and accurate) Arizona election night call for President Joe Biden.

“We are not happy,” one reporter told The Daily Beast.

His Majesty’s Royal Chism

The BBC reports that the impending coronation of King Charles III will break from the established rituals of the British monarchy, altering the recipe of the sacred “chism oil” — yes, really — used to anoint the new monarch. This special magic juice is so hallowed that it was not even allowed to be shown on television during the coronation of Chuck’s mum, Queen Elizabeth II. Traditionally the “chism oil” — yes, really — has contained ingredients derived from the secretions of civets (also known as “those poop coffee cats“) as well as ambergris from the bile ducts of sperm whale intestines.

Due to concerns about animal cruelty, however, King Charles will use a special, animal-free variant of the “chism oil.” This will also be in keeping with his image as an environmentalism (which is not exactly an image I typically associate with Charles, but whatever).

Huckabee Sanders closes the circle on what “Pro-Life” really means for Arkansas children

I mean, I get it. How else can we compete with China’s endless supply of child labor?

WashingtonCNN — 

Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill into law this week that rolls back a number of child labor protections across the state, including a measure that had required employers to obtain work certificates for children under the age of 16.

“The Governor believes protecting kids is most important, but this permit was an arbitrary burden on parents to get permission from the government for their child to get a job,” Sanders’ spokesperson Alexa Henning said in a statement. “All child labor laws that actually protect children still apply and we expect businesses to comply just as they are required to do now.”

A RadioGPT version of Rick Jensen would be a huge improvement

Jensen is a clunky beta version. He is only programed to do one thing – listen the Sean Hannity each night and regurgitate that nonsense during the day – whereas an up-to-date AI version could listen to Hannity each night and regurgitate that nonsense during the day in the style of Tennessee Williams.

Replacing Humans “Is the Furthest Thing From Our Mindset,” Says the Company Selling an A.I. Radio Host

RadioGPT can talk. It can research. It can take your calls. And it could be coming to your market.

The humble broadcast-radio host, whether a disc jockey or interviewer or reporter, has been going through it for decades now. The 1996 Telecommunications Act fueled the consolidation of local stations, decimating their staffs. The explosion of online radio, music and video streaming, and podcasting have upended ratings for shows on public airwaves. Phones and computers and smart speakers increasingly supplant radio sets. Funding for public radio is notoriously unreliable. It isn’t the best time for your modern-day Wolfman Jacks, or for any media profession.

On top of all that, your local DJ was already on the losing end of the artificial-intelligence revolution. Before the A.I. hype from last year, and even before the COVID recession demolished media ad markets, broadcast networks were gutting on-air talent at the both the national and collegiatelevel to trim budgets and automate programming: syndicating well-known shows and brands, prerecording and prearranging late-night broadcasts, training a roboticized voice to fill in the space when needed. Coupled with major streaming services’ dependence on algorithms and automation to curate playlists and make user recommendations—often with bizarre side effects—these developments make clear that the music industry anticipates the need for fewer humans down the line.

Here is the paragraph from above in the style of a Tennessee Williams monologue:

(Enter a disheveled and downtrodden radio host, pacing back and forth on an empty stage.)

You know, folks, it ain’t easy being a radio host these days. It ain’t easy at all. The world’s changin’, and it’s leaving us behind.

It started with the 1996 Telecommunications Act, and it ain’t stopped since. Local stations, once the heart and soul of our communities, consolidated and cut staff. The explosion of online radio, streaming, and podcasting has taken our listeners away. People don’t even use radio sets no more; they got phones and computers and smart speakers.

And it ain’t just that. No, sir. We was already losin’ out to the machines. Artificial intelligence they call it. Before the COVID recession, before the A.I. hype, networks were cuttin’ on-air talent left and right, automatin’ everything from syndicated shows to late-night broadcasts. And now, even the music industry is getting in on the action, usin’ algorithms and automation to pick playlists and make recommendations.

It’s like they don’t need us no more, folks. They don’t need our human touch, our personality, our soul. They just need a voice, any voice, to fill the silence. And that ain’t right.

We’re the Wolfman Jacks of today, and we’re bein’ left behind. It’s a tough time for any media profession, but it’s especially tough for us. We gotta fight to keep our place in this world, to keep our voices heard.

But damn it, we will. We’ll fight for every second of airtime we can get. We’ll fight for every listener, every fan, every soul out there who needs a voice in the night. We may be down, but we ain’t out. Not yet.

DL Open Thread Wednesday March 8 2023

Uh…Can it be because our health care system is utter shit?

Why a million Americans a year risk Mexico medical tourism

 

Israel’s elite fighter pilots escalate judicial reform protest.

Fighter pilots in an elite Israeli Air Force squadron have vowed not to attend training, in an unprecedented protest against the government.  Nearly all of the 40 reservist pilots from 69th Squadron have refused to join a one-day training exercise this week.

It is seen as an unparalleled political move by some of Israel’s most strategically important reservists. It is also a sign of growing opposition to the ruling nationalist coalition’s plans to overhaul the legal system.  One unnamed pilot told the Ynet news website that the squadron was “signalling that we won’t be prepared to serve a dictatorial regime”.

Meanwhile, the national airline El Al said it had found a crew to fly Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife to Italy for a planned state visit this week, following media reports its pilots had refused to fly the couple as part of the protests.

And in a further sign of growing concern among Israel’s military leadership, 10 former Israeli Air Force chiefs published an open letter calling on Mr Netanyahu to “stop and find a solution” to the crisis, given the level of protest among pilots and aircrews.

“We are fearful over the consequences of these processes and the serious and tangible danger posed to the national security of the State of Israel,” the letter said.

 

“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society’0

Yet another oxymoronic “responsible gun owner” exposes a child to politeness.

In the United States, there are now more guns than people.

Make no mistake: the common denominator in all these incidents is not the responsible gun owners, nor is it the victims, children or otherwise. It’s not even the stupid.

It’s the guns.

http://pineviewfarm.net

Trump’s superpower is the ability to do all of his crimes and have all of his contacts with Putin occur in broad daylight.  As they say, it is the coverup not the crime.  In Trump’s case there is never a coverup, so the media reads it all as not intrinsically criminal.   

Thousands of pro-Trump bots are attacking DeSantis, Haley

WASHINGTON (AP) — Over the past 11 months, someone created thousands of fake, automated Twitter accounts — perhaps hundreds of thousands of them — to offer a stream of praise for Donald Trump.

Besides posting adoring words about the former president, the fake accounts ridiculed Trump’s critics from both parties and attacked Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador who is challenging her onetime boss for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

When it came to Ron DeSantis, the bots aggressively suggested that the Florida governor couldn’t beat Trump, but would be a great running mate.

A sweat-soaked Chris Coons gulped nervously and tugged at his short collar when… 

Biden proposed something nobody ever thought of – increase the tax rate on high earners

President Biden is proposing to extend the solvency of the Medicare national healthcare program by 25 years with an increased tax rate on high earners.

The proposal, unveiled Tuesday morning, would fund the program into the 2050s by increasing the Medicare tax rate from 3.8 percent to 5 percent for households making more than $400,000 a year.

The Medicare trust fund is set to run out in 2028 under current tax and spending levels.

“Since Medicare was passed, income and wealth inequality in the United States have increased dramatically. By asking those with the highest incomes to contribute modestly more, we can keep the Medicare program strong for decades to come,” the White House said in a statement.

The White House’s tax increase would apply to both “earned and unearned income” above $400,000.

“High-income people are supposed to pay a 3.8 percent Medicare tax on all of their income, but some high-paid professionals and other wealthy business owners have managed to shield some of their income from tax by claiming it is neither earned income nor investment income,” the White House said.

The plan also beefs up a requirement that pharmaceutical companies pay into Medicare when they increase prices faster than inflation. By making this rule apply to commercial health insurance, the White House aims to dedicate around $200 billion to Medicare’s hospital trust fund over the next 10 years.

Is Delaware Ready to Legalize Recreational Marijuana for Black People ?

Having been legal for white people for a while now (let’s be honest), House Bill 1 is set to be voted on today.

Second Time’s a Charm? Delaware House Set to Vote on Recreational Marijuana Bill

DOVER, Del.- Delaware lawmakers are once again taking aim at the controversial issue of legalizing recreational marijuana in the state.

House Bill 1 is set to be voted on tomorrow in the House of Representatives, but last year’s efforts to legalize marijuana fell short, with Gov. John Carney’s opposition being a major obstacle.

However, many Dover neighbors are more than ready to legalize the drug.

Verna Uptigrow of Dover argues that marijuana has actually “never been a drug,” as it grows from the ground and helps with pain and anxiety she said.