Good morning, CivMixers.
I rarely say it, because it’s a trite cliche and I tend to shy away from those as a rule, but TGIF. What a WEEK it has been!
Was it only last week that we were enjoying the lull between Christmas and New Year’s? It seems like a lifetime ago. This week was indeed a rude introduction back into the swing of things. And I thought 2021 was supposed to be an improvement over 2020.
Perhaps you need a little bit of a break from the heavy-hitting news cycle. I mean, we’re going to get to that in a moment, of course. But just a wee bit of frivolity before we dive in…indulge me.
It’s National Argyle Day, celebrating the pattern derived from the tartan of Clan Campbell, of Argyll in western Scotland.
The pattern typically includes made of overlapping diamonds or lozenges, as well as intersecting diagonal lines, that sometimes create a single, larger diamond. The overlapping patterns add a sense of three-dimensionality, movement, and texture.
A little history:
“Argyle knits and woolens rose to popularity after World War I after Pringle of Scotland employed the pattern, capitalizing on its association with the Duke of Windsor, formerly known as King Edward VIII before his 1936 abdication. It became a popular golfing pattern used in the long socks worn with the plus-fours trousers of the day.”
The pattern is usually associated with preppy sportiness. It’s sometimes worn ironically, as on Argyle Day. If you’ve got some in your closet, it’s time to dig it out and wear it with pride..
OK. Now it’s time to get serious and wrap up this never-ending week. Amen.
At least the weather is cooperating. There’s almost nothing to report there – more clouds in the morning, giving way to sun in the afternoon, with temperatures in the low 30s.
In the headlines…
In a scripted, stilted video, President Donald Trump condemned the mayhem unleashed by his supporters in the U.S. Capitol and admitted unequivocally – more than two months after his election loss – that he will no longer be president in 12 days.
Trump shared the video on Twitter – his first post since he was locked out of his account following the riot.
“Now tempers must be cooled, and calm restored. We must get on with the business of America,” Trump said. “A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power. This moment calls for healing and reconciliation.”
The outgoing president also said: “To those who engaged in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country. And to those who broke the law, you will pay.”
In his nearly three-minute video, Trump accepted no responsibility for the riot, which followed a rally where the president urged supporters to head to the Capitol and “fight.”
Facebook and Instagram will block Trump’s accounts for at least until the end of his presidency, and perhaps “indefinitely,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.
The Justice Department said that it would not rule out pursuing charges against Trump for his possible role in inciting the mob that marched to the Capitol, overwhelmed officers and stormed the building a day earlier.
Trump has suggested to aides he wants to pardon himself in the final days of his presidency – a move that would mark one of the most extraordinary and untested uses of presidential power in American history.
In the wake of the riot at the Capitol, companies moved to cut ties with Trump and his supporters and fired workers who participated.
A growing cohort of legislators, including at least one Republican, expressed support for stripping Trump of his powers under the 25th Amendment, even as Vice President Mike Pence — who would have to lead that process — was said to oppose the idea.
“This man is deadly to our democracy and to our people,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. “We have 13 days more of Donald Trump to deal with…but I don’t trust whatever the president might have in mind because I think he’s a very dangerous man.”
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Congress “should reconvene to impeach the president” if Pence and the Cabinet do not invoke the 25th Amendment.
The U.S. Capitol Police says Brian Sicknick, an officer who was injured after responding to riots at the Capitol, has died.
D.C. police named all four people who died during the violent pro-Trump assaults on the U.S. Capitol that shocked the world and forced lawmakers to flee the building in the middle of certifying Joe Biden’s electoral win.
Aaron Mostofsky, New York City man who breached the U.S. Capitol building wearing a bizarre fur costume, is the son of a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge.
Some members of the mob were infamous white nationalists and noted conspiracy theorists who have spread dark visions of pedophile Satanists running the country, while others were anonymous.
The FBI released a photo of a possible suspect related to placing pipe bombs at the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters on Wednesday.
Some top remaining administration officials are preparing to resist any unlawful or dangerous orders in the closing days of Trump’s presidency.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos — one of Trump’s longest-serving cabinet members — announced her resignation, citing his encouragement of the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Former White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney quit his post as special envoy for Northern Ireland over the president’s shameful handling of the insurrection.
U.S. officials said they underestimated the potential for Trump supporters to become a mob who quickly seized the U.S. Capitol for hours, making a series of decisions before the attack that backfired spectacularly.
Three top security officials on Capitol Hill stepped down a day after a mob of pro-Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, congressional leaders said.
Omarosa Manigault Newman, former communications director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, thinks Trump’s refusal to accept the election results stems from psychosis.
The White House has fired Gabriel Noronha, the State Department official who said Trump was “entirely unfit to remain in office” following riots at the U.S. Capitol.
Some of the unhinged pro-Trump rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol defecated inside the historic building and “tracked” their feces in several hallways.
Police in Washington D.C. have released dozens of photos of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol, causing widespread damage and sending the nation’s capital into lockdown.
The police officer who shot and killed an invading Air Force veteran during the riot inside the U.S. Capitol was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation of the deadly encounter, officials said.
The violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is intensifying scrutiny over security at an inauguration ceremony for Biden already reshaped by a pandemic and the prospect that his predecessor may not attend.
Tensions on Capitol Hill boiled over in the early hours yesterday when a Democrat and a Republican lawmaker nearly got into a fistfight on the House floor and had to be separated by their colleagues.
Some scientists fear that the mayhem on Capitol Hill may prove to have been a so-called super-spreading event.
With his victory recognized by Congress and his party set to control both the House and Senate, Biden moved to fill out his cabinet, while aides and allies drafted plans for an ambitious legislative agenda headlined by $2,000 stimulus checks to Americans.
The United States set a new grim milestone yesterday with more than 4,000 COVID-19 deaths recorded in a single day.
The newly reported fatalities push the nation’s death toll above 365,000, according to Johns Hopkins data. More than 21.5 million people in the U.S. have been infected with the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic.
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine appeared to work against a key mutation in the highly transmissible new variants of the coronavirus discovered in the UK and South Africa, according to a laboratory study conducted by the U.S. drugmaker.
Self-employed and gig workers applied for unemployment benefits last week at half the level from the week prior, according to Labor Department data.
Overall figures released by the Labor Department show 787,000 Americans filed first-time jobless claims in the week ended Jan. 2, lower than the 800,000 forecast by Refinitiv economists.
That was a slight decrease in claims from the prior week and marginally fewer than economists had expected. But that might be more noise than reality.
By state, Colorado and Kansas reported the greatest increase in new claims last week, with these rising by more than 18,800 and 15,000, respectively. Illinois saw by far the greatest drop in new claims with a decrease of nearly 63,000.
Elon Musk just became the richest person in the world, surpassing Jeff Bezos, with a net worth of more than $185 billion.
The Cuomo and de Blasio administrations descended into squabbling over COVID-19 vaccine distribution on Twitter, as new data showed both the city and state continue to lag in actually getting the vital shots into the arms of New Yorkers.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo applauded New York hospitals for increasing the amount of COVID vaccines distributed this week, while warning that new strains of the virus could hamper efforts to stem the spread.
A new and more contagious strain of the coronavirus that was first discovered in the United Kingdom could force New York into another economic shutdown if it spreads unchecked and weakens the state’s hospitals, Cuomo said.
The governor said hospital systems who haven’t used their vaccine allocation by today would have their supply reallocated. More details are expected to be announced shortly.
The Cuomo administration has ordered nursing homes statewide to ramp up coronavirus testing of all staffers to twice weekly amid an outbreak of the killer bug at numerous facilities.
Cuomo’s coronavirus vaccination team, which has come under fire for a roll-out that arguably faltered in its first few weeks, has told New York’s county leaders that they will be more involved in the distribution and administration of the vaccines.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio fired back at Cuomo a day after the governor quashed the mayor’s announcement that 25,000 NYPD personnel were eligible to receive their first vaccine doses under revised state guidelines.
New York City’s public hospital system has “thousands of slots available” for New Yorkers to get the COVID-19 vaccine – but the doses going unused because of state restrictions, officials charged.
SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras announced that Upstate Hospital has administered 82% of its vaccines.
New York City health officials issued a new and heightened warning this week to people age 75 and up, citing concerning case growth rates and more disturbing numbers on hospitalizations and deaths in the last 30 days.
EJ McMahon: “Any help in Biden’s expected stimulus bill will only put off Albany’s day of fiscal reckoning for another year or two.”
De Blasio is demanding “immediate answers” from the NYPD after video showed an officer in Queens apparently kneeling on a Black man’s neck during a reckless driving arrest.
A crowd of several thousand anti-Trump protesters gathered at Barclays Center in Brooklyn last night, and then filled Flatbush Avenue for a peaceful march to the Prospect Park West home of Chuck Schumer.
A cancer patient opened fire inside a Manhattan’s Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital last night before barricading himself in a bathroom for several hours, sources and police said.
Homicides and shootings in New York City rose sharply in 2020, New York Police Department officials said, as police resources were stretched thin by the Covid-19 pandemic and responses to large-scale protests over the killing of George Floyd.
A former NYPD sergeant was charged in connection with a 9/11 disability scam in which she falsely claimed to have spent hundreds hours toiling at a Staten Island landfill filled with dangerous World Trade Center debris.
Miya Ponsetto, 22, the woman caught on video attacking and accusing a Black teen of stealing her phone in a SoHo hotel, has been arrested in California.
The MTA is asking de Blasio for more cops to be stationed on subways and buses after a rash of attacks on transit workers and riders.
A Trump supporter attending a rally outside the state Capitol on Wednesday was stabbed multiple times and underwent emergency surgery to repair an eviscerated bowel at Albany Medical Center Hospital.
The Capital Region crossed another grim milestone yesterday, as five more COVID-19 deaths among residents brought the region’s known death toll from the disease past the 600-mark.
A judge has denied a bid by former Schenectady County Human Rights Commission Executive Director Angelicia Morris to get her $69,496-a- year job back, but ruled she is entitled to a hearing to try to clear her name and restore her reputation.
The county Board of Supervisors has fired county Administrator Spencer Hellwig and replaced him with the former chairman of the Saratoga County Republican Committee, Steven Bulger.
Solar farms proposed for southern Albany County and northern Schoharie County got the go-ahead from the state Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment.
Skiing is expected to resume today at Hunter Mountain, days after a coronavirus outbreak among the staff forced the resort to close.
“The Ellen DeGeneres Show” is set to resume in-studio production without an audience Monday after its host tested positive for COVID-19 last month.
RIP Neil Sheehan, the Vietnam War correspondent and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who obtained the Pentagon Papers for The New York Times, leading the government for the first time in American history to get a judge to block publication of an article on grounds of national security. He has died at the age of 84.
