Tip Jar for Orl

Ready to move on from 2020 for other reasons than Covid!!!!! 2021 has to be better

Fools and their money are soon parted

Man sues for refund of $2.5m he donated to Trump election challenge group

Trumpcorps group; True the vote offered the guy 1 million back as the donor was disappointed as he feels the group didnt “investigate, litigate and expose suspected illegal balloting and fraud in the 2020 general election,”

thanks orl :O)

In northeastern Ohio, the Greater Cleveland Food Bank planned to distribute 12,000 meals, a 5,000-meal increase from a year ago.

“We’re now seeing families who had an emergency fund but it’s gone and they’re at the end of their rope,” Kristin Warzocha, president of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, told the Guardian. “We’re going to be doing this for a really long time, and that’s frankly terrifying given the impact hunger has on physical health, learning and development for children, and parents’ stress.”

In Texas’ second-largest city, the San Antonio Food Bank distributes eight semi-trucks full of food every day, but still was forced to resort to rationing due to soaring need.

This is the reality we’re dealing with now. Nearly 26 million Americans say they didn’t have enough to eat in the past week.

No one should be too poor to buy food for Thanksgiving. https://t.co/QyhTN4MwLp

— Barbara Lee (@BLeeForCongress) November 25, 2020

By the end of this year, more than 50 million people could experience food insecurity, according to @FeedingAmerica, the country’s largest hunger-relief organization https://t.co/t6Vc9d0x5T

— National Geographic (@NatGeo) November 26, 2020

https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/1332749852376227843?s=20

As of the last week of November, Covid-19 has claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people who live and work in long-term care facilities in the United States, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s latest analysis of state-reported data.

The following chart depicts the growth in Covid-19 deaths among nursing home residents and staff in the U.S. since April. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), 40% of the nation’s Covid-19 deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities.

Bleak Milestone

https://twitter.com/ddoniolvalcroze/status/1332820861519159296?s=20

This is from FOX:

John Kasich faces liberal backlash for shrugging off outrage over Flynn pardon, urging everyone to ‘move on’

During a panel discussion on Wednesday following the president’s announcement, Jim Acosta began by noting how prominent Republicans are “cheering this development” and asked Kasich, a persistent Trump critic, what his “message was to fellow Republicans.”

Kasich’s response wasn’t exactly what Acosta expected.

“Let’s get on with all of this,” Kasich, now a CNN senior analyst, answered. “The president has lost [the election]. Now we’re having a big debate about his pardons. Every president has the ability to pardon. … There’s gonna be more pardons that are gonna come. That’s what presidents do. I mean, I remember when Bill Clinton had some pardons and people went crazy. That’s the power that they have! And frankly, he’s done! He’s gonna leave. The transition has started, let’s just move on!”

“I mean, tomorrow’s Thanksgiving. Can we just, like, move on a little bit? We’re gonna have a new administration coming in. I think their early appointments have been good, it seems to be kind of pulling the country together. People are beginning to say, ‘You know what, this is not so bad!’ And so, that’s kind of where my head is,” Kasich later said.

His remarks did not sit well with members of the #Resistance.

“Watching John Kasich on CNN trying to be all casual and tell us all that we need to move on and get over it that Trump is now pardoning the people who helped him in his four year crime spree,” Lincoln Project senior adviser Tom Nichols reacted.

Lincoln Project trying to squeeze more outrage bucks out of #Resistance?

“It’s possible to compromise with Republicans on issues like taxing and spending. It is not possible to find a middle ground on corruption or criming,” Vox journalist Aaron Rupar said.

Personally? I’d trade outrage (the lack thereof I mean) over Flynn’s pardon over compromising with Republicans “on issues like taxing and spending” any day!

The timing of this “purge” seems silly to me, but I didn’t know until now that Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright were both still in deep at the Pentagon.

Pentagon Purges Leading Advisors From Defense Policy Board

Several members of the top federal advisory committee to the U.S. Department of Defense have been suddenly pushed out, multiple U.S. officials told Foreign Policy, in what appears to be the outgoing Trump administration’s parting shot at scions of the foreign-policy establishment.

The directive, which the Pentagon’s White House liaison Joshua Whitehouse sent on Wednesday afternoon, removes 11 high-profile advisors from the Defense Policy Board, including former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright; retired Adm. Gary Roughead, who served as chief of naval operations; and a onetime ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, Jane Harman. Rudy De Leon, a former chief operating officer at the Pentagon once considered by then-Defense Secretary James Mattis for a high-level policy role, will also be ousted.

Also booted in today’s sweep of the board, which is effective immediately, were former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and David McCormick, a former Treasury Department undersecretary during the George W. Bush administration. Both had been added to the board by Mattis in 2017. Jamie Gorelick, a Clinton administration deputy attorney general; Robert Joseph, a chief U.S. nuclear negotiator who convinced Libya to give up weapons of mass destruction; former Bush Deputy National Security Advisor J.D. Crouch II; and Franklin Miller, a former top defense official, have also been removed.

The board, overseen by the Pentagon’s top policy official, the undersecretary of defense for policy, serves as a kind of in-house think tank on retainer for top military leaders, providing independent counsel and advice on defense policy. The Defense Policy Board includes former top military brass, secretaries of state, members of Congress, and other senior diplomats and foreign-policy experts.

While the board has no tangible role inside the Pentagon in the policymaking process, it routinely advises senior military leadership on some of the top strategic national security threats facing the United States. The board convened in October for classified discussions on formulating a long-term strategy toward China and deterrence in space, according to a notice from the Federal Register. The meeting included briefings from the CIA, the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment, and other senior Pentagon policy officials.

An interesting vote coming up tomorrow in Switzerland:

Crucial referendum in Switzerland tomorrow!

Can a multinational corporation be held liable for human rights and environmental abuses when the wrongdoing was committed in a foreign country by a subsidiary or a supplier it works closely with? https://t.co/YL6qvMJSkw

— CEO (@corporateeurope) November 28, 2020

The question has divided the country ahead of a referendum on Sunday, and it could have far-reaching consequences for multinational firms like Nestlé (NSRGY) and mining giant Glencore (GLCNF).

Supporters of the Responsible Business Initiative have hung banners and signs from balconies and fences across the country. Swiss banks and other powerful businesses, meanwhile, have taken out expensive newspaper ads warning of dire consequences for the economy. The Swiss government also opposes the measure and is backing a watered-down alternative.

Even so, polls indicate that the “vote yes” camp could emerge victorious. A poll by Swiss broadcaster SRF in early November found 46% plan to vote in favor, while another 11% are leaning in that direction.

“I think it’s going to be very close,” said Guillaume Zumofen, a political science researcher at the University of Bern.

Supporters of the initiative say that the referendum — which would amend the Swiss constitution if it passes — is essential given the global footprint of top companies in Switzerland, a hub for consumer goods, finance and commodities trading. They also point to the lack of remedies available to victims of wrongdoing.

The initiative would mandate that Swiss firms assess the human rights and environmental practices not just of their own operations, but also of subsidiaries, suppliers and business partners, ensuring they’re in line with international standards. Companies could then be held liable in Swiss courts for violations committed by subsidiaries and suppliers they control unless management proves proper due diligence was carried out.

“We need these clear rules and we need [a] clear accountability mechanism for damage,” said Danièle Gosteli Hauser, Amnesty International’s head of economic relations and human rights in Switzerland.

She pointed to Glencore’s copper and cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo as an example of a high-risk activity. The prevalence of child labor and other dangerous practices in the country’s mines has been well documented. Glencore (GLCNF) has said it’s a responsible miner and does not tolerate any such practices.