Listening to irate New York hedge fund billionaire Leon Cooperman on CNBC right now lamenting people "sitting at home getting their checks from the government, trading their stocks."
— Jake Offenhartz (@jangelooff) January 28, 2021
“This fair share is a bullshit concept," he shouts. "It’s a way of attacking wealthy people." pic.twitter.com/zFW6o1MFND
Look at that. The both sides came together and found a compromise solution.
The commission has also received recommendations to divide some of the more prominent streets, picking different names depending on the neighborhood - an idea with significant racial overtones. For example, the commission’s current recommendation is to rename Robert E. Lee Boulevard for musician Allen Toussaint, but an alternative would call it Toussaint in the Black neighborhoods of Gentilly and Hibernia or Lake Boulevard in the majority-white areas of Lakeview.
This project that was begun in order to correct a shameful legacy of white supremacy now proposes to do that by coding the notion that all the Black people live over here and all the White people live over there right into the name(s) of the street. That's what this was all about, right?
Susan Brooks runs a string of four bars under the Igor’s name as well as Brooks Seahorse Tavern by the Fair Grounds and the legendary Uptown dive The Club Ms. Mae’s, which she bought last summer to preserve a local institution.
She has kept all of them closed since the city’s last rule changes in December, and they will remain closed for now, foregoing even go-cup service.
“It seemed like the responsible thing to do,” said Brooks
However, she said it is demoralizing to watch customers lining up to visit other businesses still continuing under looser restrictions.
“I do wish that it was more of a shared burden, if everybody was doing the same thing we would bend the curve a lot faster and we could all get back to business,” she said.
We could have all agreed at the beginning of this that we'd all get back to business faster by sharing the burden. We could have locked down every lock downable thing and paid everyone to stay home and be safe. We could have preserved just about everyone's job. We could have saved every city and state government from bankruptcy. We could have protected every homeowner and renter from eviction. We chose not to do these things because the bosses and banks and landlords preferred to win the pandemic. And now look where we are.
Anyway, we're not going to change tactics now. It's already clear the new Congress and President aren't going to send us the kind of relief bill that would help us share the burden. This weekend the city is going right back into its chaotic pattern of shifting rules and blame according to whims and political alliances. Because local powerbrokers are in position to win the pandemic too. Or at least they will get to pick who shares the burden and who reaps the benefits.
We could have licked this thing a long time ago. But to do that would have meant truly behaving as though we were all in it together. But no one with the power to make these decisions actually believes that.
House floats are popping up all over town I've seen a few of these. But in the COVID times one only travels a short distance along the same route every day with fewer stops in between so I can't say I've seen a lot of them yet. I'm sure I'll get out and take some pictures sooner or later. I have noticed a number of different takes on the phenomenon over the past few weeks. The class politics of it are a little bit fraught. One could complain that it's a high barrier to entry kind of event. In order to have your own display, you gotta own a house and afford to pay for the art. The inherent tie to home ownership can signify gentrification, especially given what we've been told about high enthusiasm among wealthy young transplants for participating.
But, when you think about it, regular Mardi Gras basically works the same way. The floats and riders represent a certain wealth holding class. Although, we should note, there is wide variation there that has become elaborated over time. Once there were only krewes comprised of white elites. Now there is basically a krewe for every sub-strata, race, or gender of the upper middle class. So, you know, progress. But, as always, the real event is in the party that chaotically evolves from public participation all around it. The parade of blue bloods (or moderately well off so and sos) is just a reason to be there. It's the people dancing and shouting and drinking and just standing around talking to their neighbors that we're all there to see. Obviously we can't have that this year. Not the way we are used to, anyway. Look what happened last time.
We did walk out to see the Phorty Phunny Phellows on Twelfth Night thinking it would be the closest anyone would come to seeing a real live Carnival thing happen this year. A larger (but still sparse and well distanced) crowd than usual showed out probably thinking the same thing. It was a weird vibe. Uneasy, uncomfortable and concerned that maybe this anti-climactic non-event we usually take in as an ironic amusement would be the most celebrating we would do all season.
We have to have something, though. Our spiritual health demands that. And house floats are as good a place as any to start. Maybe there are other kinds of public art and just ways of hanging out that can embellish that central event. Back in the normal universe from which we are currently estranged, Krewe Du Vieux would have been parading this weekend. Instead they are offering a "virutal parade" on their website as well as a series of house float style art installations in various locations across the city. See their website for a map. Hopefully we'll see more events like this. Sooner or later we're going to learn that lots of things besides houses can probably be floats.
The good news, in the meantime, is that it's proving to be a way to keep artists working this year who otherwise wouldn't be.
Devin DeWolf then took the concept a step further and focused specifically on job creation with his website HireAMardiGrasArtist.com. “Caroline Thomas knew that I had organized Feed the Frontline NOLA, which brought 90,000 restaurant meals and 10,000 coffees to local health workers as a moral boost. We hired unemployed local musicians as delivery people,” said DeWolf, who is also the organizer and founder of the Krewe of Red Beans, and the charity project Feed the Second Line.
“Red Beans has a lot of members who care about the community and are very grass roots, so when Caroline Thomas had the idea to crowdfund Mardi Gras worker jobs back, she turned to us,” said DeWolf. HireAMardiGrasArtist.com collects donations of all sizes. “And every time we raise $15,000, we raffle off a house float to someone who donated. We also take commissions from people and businesses who want to hire artists to create $15,000 projects. We’ve raised a quarter of a million dollars in just a month, and are currently employing 45 full-time artists at a minimum of $30-per-hour. We’ve completed 22 float houses since December 5th when we announced the idea.”
What this proof of concept suggests, though, is that we could go bigger. Imagine a COVID stimulus bill that includes a WPA style program for hiring artists and other participants in the so-called cultural economy to keep this sort of work going. Not year-round house floats, per se. Carnival does come to an end, after all. But surely there are other creative ways to employ creative people who haven't been able to do their ordinary work during the pandemic. There are unique talents and resources in New Orleans. We should learn from this unusual Carnival season that they are talents worth investing in.
The race to stop COVID before the situation becomes much worse is more urgent than ever. We are told there is "no way to sugarcoat" that.
If the variants alter the virus enough, tests, treatment and vaccines might not work as well, said Straif-Bourgeois. A new variant might be able to slip past antibodies, re-infecting someone who has already had COVID-19. Potentially, such a variant could complicate the path to herd immunity.
“There is no way to sugarcoat this,” said Garry. “It does look like some of the variants may not be as effectively blocked by the vaccine.”
The virus is leveling up. The longer these variants are out there unchecked, the more likely they are to develop into something that beats the vaccine. If those strains become dominant worldwide then we have to start all over. As of right now, we are told the vaccines are still effective against the so-called "UK variant" everyone is worried about. But also that more infectious and deadlier strain has been detected in New Orleans already. So this is not the time to let up on our mask and distance precautions. It's not the time to pressure the schools to reopen. And it's definitely not the time to be welcoming visitors for Mardi Gras. This is the time to get some shots into some arms, as they say.
And for a minute there it seemed like that was indeed the plan. But then a funny thing happened.
The Biden administration has told Louisiana officials that shipments of the coronavirus vaccine won’t be increasing much for at least a month, the latest challenge to the state’s effort to ramp up vaccinations.
The revelation that shipments won’t be increasing — which has long been the promise made to states by federal officials — means Louisiana likely won’t be able to hold mass vaccination events anytime soon, Gov. John Bel Edwards said at a press conference Friday.
Vaccine shipments to the state this week and next are expected to remain flat at about 58,000 doses per week, with potentially only a 5% to 10% bump through most of February. Louisiana has received roughly flat shipments of vaccine doses for the past month, Edwards said, amid supply issues that are impacting distribution across the U.S.
Whoops! They took the Trump administration at their word and that turned out to be bullshit. Now the planned ramping up of vaccinations could be delayed by a month or so. Do we have even that long before things get even more complicated? Guess we'll find out.
Either way the "post-pandemic era" is coming. We might decide to mark its arrival at the time of our successfully containing the virus. Or we could call it when get a certain percentage of the population vaccinated. More than a few people might like to mark it at the end of Joe Biden's first 100 days in office. It really depends on how soon you might want the checks to stop coming. But wherever we decide the pandemic ends, the conditions it will leave in its wake are setting us up for a cascade of further disasters which we are not likely prepared to mitigate.
For example, I'm very curious where we decide to define the new level of "structural unemployment."
The labor market has rebounded somewhat since the initial coronavirus wave in the spring. But of the 22 million jobs that disappeared, nearly 10 million remain lost.
“Compared to then, we are doing better,” said AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist at the career site Indeed, referring to the spring. “But compared to the pre-Covid era, we still have so far to go.”
Consider that each of the last four recessions has occasioned a deeper and longer lasting period of job loss than its predecessor. The so-called "Great Recession" of 2008 was historically frightening. Here is a somewhat famous very frightening graph of our declining economic resilience.
These numbers do not even tell the whole story, of course. Each recession sets off a new exacerbation of precarities as the jobs that comprise each recovery are more exploitative and less secure with fewer hours and fewer benefits. So even as the line eventually goes back up, material conditions continue to worsen.
To dig ourselves out of that hole we are going to need a more aggressive
and determined commitment from the federal government than we have seen
in generations. We will need real support and relief. That should come
in the form of monthly payments to make up the income lost during
stay-at-home orders. It should include a guarantee that your boss can't
expose you to danger and that a landlord or a bank can't kick you out
of your home. We need to rescue our state and municipal governments
before they collapse into bankruptcy exposing everyone to more chaos.
Unfortunately, none of the above is Joe Biden's priority. Making Mitch McConnell happy is.
President-elect Joe Biden will seek a deal with Republicans on another round of Covid-19 relief, rather than attempting to ram a package through without their support, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The approach could mean a smaller initial package that features some priorities favored by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. The idea is to forgo using a special budget process that would remove the need to get the support of at least 10 Republicans in the Senate, which will be split 50-50 and under Democratic control only thanks to the vice president’s vote.
Rather than taking the challenges of the pandemic-depression seriously, Biden's first concern is rehabilitating the image of the Republican Party after its leadership instigated a riot at the Capitol intended to disrupt the certification of his own election. And since delivering justice or even just the hope of a better world isn't as important as making sure he's got a "strong opposition party" around to do deals with, Joe is opening the negotiations at... one time checks for $1400.
The stimulus package has a price tag above $1.5 trillion and includes a commitment for $1,400 stimulus checks, according to a source familiar with the proposal, and Biden is expected to commit to partner with private companies to increase the number of Americans getting vaccinated.
A significant portion of the additional financial resources will be dedicated to minority communities. “I think you will see a real emphasis on these underserved communities, where there is a lot of hard work to do,” said another transition official.
We'll examine that "emphasis on underserved communities" more closely when there are more details. But there isn't much reason to believe this is anything beyond the usual noble-sounding framing for unnecessary and counterproductive means testing. More to the point, after everything that's happened, pushing people to accept $1400 as $2000 if you count the accrued $600 store credit from December is just shitty messaging. Even though we've shoveled trillions of dollars in tax cuts and subsidies for billionaires out the door all year, Joe wants you to know now that he is counting every penny you might get your grubby little hands on.
The millionaires who comprise the Biden led faction of congressional Democrats may not feel this personally but their performative miserliness put on to please the op-ed writers does more than just insult people. It abandons whole communities to ravaging predators.
The New Orleans area has earned an unwelcome financial distinction during the coronavirus pandemic: more homeowners here are at risk of losing their homes due to unpaid mortgages than in any other major American city.
More than one-in-ten borrowers in the New Orleans-Metairie metro area are now at least 30 days late with mortgage payments and could be at risk of foreclosure on their properties, according to federal data.
New Orleans was already being hollowed out and gentrified by predatory capital before the pandemic began. Without drastic action, COVID will surely lead to an exponential expansion of that crisis.
"Our numbers for folks seeking help with evictions already are through the roof — up 300% since the pandemic started," said Laura Tuggle, executive director of Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, a non-profit legal aid provider for low income Louisianans. "The deluge on mortgages is going to come."
With a relatively high concentration of low-income households, the New Orleans area already had one of the nation's highest mortgage delinquency rates before the pandemic, according to Andy Walden, economist and director of market research at Black Knight, a Jacksonville, Florida, firm that tracks mortgage trends nationwide.
That story is from a few weeks ago. There is a new one in today's paper that further confirms what's happening here. Housing sale prices are up in Orleans Parish by 16% this year. But those numbers really just show us the rich getting richer. Meanwhile...
Meanwhile, the broad numbers mask big discrepancies between the upper and lower end of the market, and some of the strains in housing across the area. According to federal data, more than one-in-ten borrowers in the New Orleans-Metairie metro area are at least 30 days late on their mortgage payments, putting them at risk of foreclosure.
About a month ago we wondered what was happening with the "large portfolio of foreclosed properties" that had been held by the embattled Bank of Louisiana before the younger generation of management there began selling them off. We wondered about that specifically because a foreclosure crisis is typically followed up by a wave of vulture capitalism that results in even more intense and damaging wealth consolidation. One can only assume that will get even worse now with so much of the city ripe for the picking.
So we find ourselves, not only in a desperate race to stop the virus before it mutates beyond our control, but also in a race to protect working class New Orleanians from the ravages of the post-pandemic economy. At the beginning of the year we wrote that policy choices by both the mayor and the assessor indicate they intend to side with the asset speculators over the city's residents. In this month's Antigravity, MACCNO voices similar concerns about the assessor.
Cutting property taxes for commercial property owners—who tend to be wealthier and whiter than the general population—without a corresponding benefit for commercial tenants, while simultaneously increasing residential property taxes and rent, would be a recipe for displacement and gentrification no matter when it happened. But during a pandemic that has already created economic disaster for musicians, small businesses, artists, and other members of the cultural community, the effects could be especially devastating. Williams himself acknowledges the situation he is creating but avoids responsibility, telling The Advocate he “is not the tax collector,” even though he doesn’t “see how everybody is going to be able to pay their taxes on time.”
Is anyone coming to help? It's not clear that they are. Biden's inaugural speech sounded a lot like a redux of his convention speech. Which is to say he was long on affected empathy for your suffering but short on resolve to do anything about it. The "unity" talk even evoked unpleasant Mitch Landrieu "One City One Voice" flashbacks. Yes, of course, bad things are happening to you. Maybe you've lost your job. Maybe you can't pay for health care. Maybe you are facing eviction. Maybe the planet is on fire and we're facing a future of diminishing prospects for most of us. We know about all of these things and acknowledge that they are bad. But the one thing we really can't tolerate is any complaints.
So Joe Biden is going to open the schools in 100 days. If we can't vaccinate people by then and the virus is still out of control, that is too bad. Someone will just find a way to blame the teachers. So New Orleans is open for Carnival visitors. If cases start to spike because workers were compelled by their bosses to go serve food and drinks to tourists, that is too bad. The mayor will inevitably just go on TV and yell at the residents again. The post-pandemic is coming. Hopefully it comes sooner than later because lives are at stake in that. But, in its wake, the fortunes and livelihoods of the vulnerable working class are going to be exposed. And it's highly doubtful they'll find many friends in power willing to do anything about that.
Important to remember that these personages who push themselves into public prominence and manage to remain there are not doing that for anyone's benefit but their own.
Thus, the two Tony Faucis were born: one, the shrewd political operator who has survived six presidential administrations, as Roberts wrote, “an A-list party get in D.C. social circles” who moves “freely between TV green rooms, think-tanks and the city’s tonier salons, mixing easily among both Democrats and Republicans;” the other, the humble man of science, the blunt truth-teller, who couldn’t possibly know or care about the petty striving and mudslinging of the world of smoked-filled rooms. This approach, I suspect, has profited both Fauci and the presidents he has served. His pristine, apolitical reputation lends credibility to the White House during a health crisis, but his appreciation for realpolitik means they can rely on him to appreciate the circumstances when science must take a backseat to politics. “The folks I know who know Fauci tend to respect and/or admire him,” tweeted Nicholas G. Evans, a bioethicist at UMass Lowell. “But no one denies he’s more Game of Thrones than Mr Rogers [sic].”
In another moment of lucidity in May 2020, Trump said of Fauci, “He wants to play all sides of the equation.” I think that’s right. In the past, Fauci has plausibly played all sides to the benefit of the public. His shrewd AIDS advocacy assuaged homophobic politicians, motivated apolitical scientists, and met the demands of activists and patients. In the case of Covid-19, it’s harder to see how Fauci’s machinations have helped anyone — except Anthony Fauci.
The medicine and policy part of the job can always be done without stepping in front of a single TV camera. The being a celebrity part of the job, not so much. And since the being a celebrity part of the job means lending credibility to the most evil and wretched sorts in government, what, ultimately, does that make you?
That is the answer to the question. I realize there is a fun parlor game going on in trying to make it something else but that's what it's going to be and most of the people playing the game know this already.
Now that Eddie Rispone has given up, Lance Harris is running for State GOP Chair. He says he wants to change the culture.
Harris said the party needs a “culture change” and that he wants to bring “consistency and stability” to the leadership.
His announcement comes less than a week before the Republican State Central Committee meeting in Baton Rouge on Saturday where officers are set to be elected.
He is challenging LAGOP Chairman Louis Gurvich, a New Orleans businessman who took over the party in 2018 after long-time party chair Roger Villere stepped down.
Previously, we heard about this "culture change" business from party secretary Mike Bayham who appeared to be favoring Rispone. But as far as we can tell the actual dispute here is over how much Republican candidates will have to pay Villere's consulting firm if they want party support. Gurvich appears to be the pro-Villere candidate. Looks like Harris is signaling he is the "culture change" guy now that Rispone is out.
Some quick notes on what's being reported from the Revenue Estimating Conference today. The projection they adopted expects the overall budget to shrink by about $223 million this year. BUT there are multiple caveats and what-ifs that will determine the eventual impact on services.
The REC is itself a politically contentious process. Its purpose is to set an initial framework for the Governor's budget proposal before the legislative session begins. After that, lawmakers can figure out how to find more money if they want or just move everything around. But this is where they come up with the number that sets the starting point. But that starting point isn't an absolute truth ordained from the heavens. It's something that gets argued over by the committee. The result of that isn't so much as an agreement on the most reasonable forecast as much as it is an agreement to stop arguing.
The four-member Revenue Estimating Conference, made up of (JBE's Commissioner of Administration Jay) Dardenne, (Senate President Page) Cortez, independent economist Stephen Barnes, and House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, picked the less rosy of the two available forecasts.
Manfred Dix, an economist for the governor’s administration, forecasted a drop of only $35 million in the state general fund for the upcoming fiscal year, citing what he sees as a quicker recovery as vaccinations ramp up.
Dardenne initially moved to recognize Dix’s forecast, saying the panel would meet again in two months to revise its forecast. President-elect Joe Biden’s administration is also expected to push for aid to state and local governments now that he has Democratic control in Congress.
The panel’s independent economist, Barnes, sided with Dardenne, but Cortez and Schexnayder refused, with Cortez saying the panel should proceed cautiously with so many unknowns. Instead, all four agreed to the more conservative estimate, with Dardenne saying he wanted to avoid going without a revenue forecast, something that had thrown the budget process into chaos amid previous disagreements.
So the REC number is important. But remember not to take it too seriously. Predicting the future is, after all, always more of an art than a science. For example, it says here that state sales tax revenues during the pandemic weren't quite as bad most people expected. Also there's a fair amount federal money already allocated for Louisiana that hasn't been factored in yet simply because the rules for spending it haven't been established.
However, the $292 million in higher-than-expected tax collections this year could be used to help cover some of next year’s expenses. In addition, Louisiana is receiving new federal aid passed by Congress in December, some of which could help offset state budget cuts next year. Louisiana and other states still are awaiting federal guidance on what strings exist on the latest assistance.And, of course, no one expects that to be the end of the federal aid. We could end up being disappointed about the eventual size of it. But right now there are reasons to be optimistic that the next stimulus package could include real fiscal help for the states. Even Cortez thinks so.
Once President-elect Joe Biden takes office, Congress could also put even more federal funding relief on the table — and that could also affect how large any state budget cuts would need to be.
“We fully expect to get more stimulus dollars,” said Senate President Page Cortez, R-Lafayette, a member of the Revenue Estimating Conference.
Cortez said he does worry any money coming from the federal government after Biden becomes president might not arrive in time to help prop up the state budget. Congress still has to negotiate the new package and the legislature often finishes Louisiana’s budget in June, right before it takes effect in July.
It's hard to know whether or not Page is joking there. If the last few years have taught us anything it is that this legislature is not worried in the least bit about fiscal deadlines.
The upshot is the pandemic fiscal doom is not yet upon us. Which is an important thing to remember when Republicans start talking about belt tightening during the session this year. They are still in charge of deciding whether or not you have to suffer in order to protect the petro-bosses who fund pretty much all of them. There are better choices, though.
Oh also be sure and check out this FB event hosted by the LA Budget Project. Looks like they will be talking about a lot of this stuff.
“I’m very, very concerned that we’ve now gone from a virus that we could control to a virus that we really can’t, unless we do something very dramatic,” said Kristian Andersen, an infectious diseases expert at Scripps Research Institute.
A spike in infections — on top of the existing caseloads — could force hospital leaders to consider how to surge capacity, staff, and resources — and weigh what happens if they have too many patients to care for. It could force schools to close again or delay plans to reopen. The variants are also ramping up the pressure on the country’s sputtering vaccine rollout, to try to protect more people and snuff out transmission before the variants become dominant
Are we prepared to tighten down further? The promise of the vaccine rollout plus general 2020 fatigue strongly suggests we are not. But, as we saw this week, the vaccines aren't quite rolling out as quickly as we had hoped. So the critical matter now, if we want to handle this correctly, is that we don't botch the federal relief effort a second time. Unfortunately it looks like we are well on the way to botching it a second time.
Biden is seeking to garner 10 Republican votes for the plan and approve it through "regular order," the usual path for legislation. But it's already running into early Republican opposition ranging from Rep. Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, to Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee.
"Republicans have made it clear they're not going to go for something of this size," Jim Manley, a former senior Democratic aide and now a political strategist, told Insider. "I can't imagine Republicans going for a package like this that includes minimum wage."
Republicans, of course, do not care who lives and who dies as long as the bosses and owners make out okay. And Joe Biden obviously doesn't care about anything as much as he cares about making Republicans happy. So here we go again. A whole new chance to get it right and a whole new chance to blow it. Is it too much to ask that we try at least?
Abusive murderer and music producer Phil Spector was responsible for a lot of things you might remember from then. One of those things might be the now dominant culturally subconscious idea that it's all downhill from wherever you are.
“I get a little angry when people say it’s bad music,” Spector said of his music while talking to Wolfe for the piece. “It has limited chord changes, and people are always saying the words are banal and why doesn’t anybody write lyrics like Cole Porter anymore, but we don’t have presidents like Lincoln anymore either.”
Turns out Eddie Rispone, despite having spent the past several months scheming and maneuvering and spending a fair amount of money in an effort to become the next chair of the state Republican Party, has suddenly discovered he's too busy.
Eddie Rispone, the Republican businessman who lost a bid to unseat Louisiana’s Democratic governor in 2019, is suspending his campaign for chairman of the party, weeks after saying he wanted to take over after seeing the party outworked and outspent during the governor’s race.
Rispone said in an interview he has “major obligations” in his personal and business life that would prevent him from devoting enough time to party chair.
Can't even spare them decency of coming up with a convincing lie. Boss move.
On the other hand why bother when he's got Mike Bayham around to make stuff up for him.
Mike Bayham, the secretary of the party, said Rispone “got a taste of unfortunately how fratricidal this party is.” Bayham has previously said the party needs a “culture” change, pointing to an attack mailer against him in his race for re-election to the Republican State Central Committee, whose origins weren’t disclosed.
“The guy is a serious businessman,” Bayham said. “I think he didn’t fully appreciate how much herding of cats there would be involved. When you’re chairman of the party you answer theoretically to over 220 (central committee) members.”
See the thing is Rispone, who spent the 2019 gubernatorial election on television cartoonishly praising Donald Trump in front of as many pickup trucks as he could find, is just too good for this party. And since the "culture change" he's hoping for has more to do with who gets paid to make ads than anything else, maybe he's got a point.
Looks like that expanded vaccine distribution isn't happening as soon as we thought.
Now, health officials across the country who had anticipated their extremely limited vaccine supply as much as doubling beginning next week are confronting the reality that their allocations will not immediately increase, dashing hopes of dramatically expanding eligibility for millions of elderly people and those with high-risk medical conditions. Health officials in some cities and states were informed in recent days about the reality of the situation, while others are still in the dark.
Just yesterday, Louisiana Health Department officials said they were expecting some 58,000 doses in their next shipment as they get ready to ramp up vaccinations. I wonder if that number is affected by this or if it just means they won't be able to move as quickly as they had hoped.
No better indication of what our tourism bloodsuckers have done to the French Quarter than this.
Louis and his brother John Matassa have long run the grocery together. The store wends across a number of connected buildings, filled with narrow aisles and a small deli known for its plate lunches, breakfast biscuits and po-boys. Matassa's sturdy delivery bicycles have been a common sight bouncing along French Quarter streets, bringing sacks of grocery and cases of beer to customers’ doors.
But Catalanotto said slow business during the pandemic has been “the last straw” for a grocery that had struggled over the years as the French Quarter’s residential population declined and one-time homes were converted to condos and short-term rentals.
“People say this is a great time for the grocery business and that’s true, but not in the French Quarter,” he said. “It’s a different market here.”
Can't "shop local" when there are no locals. There could be a lesson here for what we want our city to look like after COVID. But we all know we're going to double down on turning our historic neighborhoods into theme parks.
If we took it seriously, Trump would already have been removed. Instead he's giving a speech in Texas today while everybody keeps arguing over what the most civil, move-forwady, bipartisan response can be. If we took it seriously, the large majority of congressional Republicans would be resigning today. Don't expect they're going anywhere.
If we took it seriously, Jeff Landry would resign in disgrace. Instead he's going to remain a likely candidate for Governor in 2023, in disgrace nonetheless. But still...
Anyway the point is, in a week they're going to change the subject. Maybe it won't exactly be a thing where nobody remembers this happened. But it will definitely be digested into the regular theater by then.
Was it a coup? Is it still a coup? Will it be a coup? Who is a terrorist? Should we use that word at all? What color is the "threat level"? Are we frightened enough? Who knows? Does it matter?
At the end of the day somebody is going to make a lot of money building a bigger and scarier surveillance apparatus. That's what's really important.
Defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton made an undisclosed strategic investment in Tracepoint, a technology startup with Baton Rouge roots.
Tracepoint LLC, a digital forensics technology startup in New Orleans, was co-founded by Baton Rouge-based disaster response business Plexos Group and several other experts in the field in 2012.
Plexos Group CEO David Odom said that the investment "affirms the unique value this growing company brings to the cybersecurity industry." Plexos Group develops new companies and invests in startups as part of its market strategy, according to the company.
Tracepoint conducts background screening for employment, tenants, credit checks and drug and alcohol testing.
The new economy is built on shock-driven paranoid reaction. Can't do anything to stop the pandemic-depression causing people to lose jobs and homes and descend into despair. But we sure can invest in keeping an eye on them.
Cameron Henry's brother has run into some kind of a problem. Let's try not to imagine what it could be with so little information available.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana lawmaker from Jefferson Parish has abruptly resigned from his elected position.
The House of Representatives clerk’s office confirmed Tuesday that Republican Rep. Charles Henry submitted his resignation to House Speaker Clay Schexnayder on Monday. The resignation from the 105-member chamber was effective immediately.
“As of today, he is no longer a member,” said House Clerk Michelle Fontenot.
Because if we don't give him the benefit of the doubt and it is what we think it could be, then why are Steve Scalise and John Kennedy not resigning as well?
Jason Williams was sworn in as DA today. We are, as always, prepared to be disappointed in how he actually plans to translate his rhetoric into practice. But he does know the rhetoric well.
Williams says he will end the use of Louisiana’s stringent habitual offender laws, never transfer juveniles to adult court and become much pickier about charging cases for prosecution. Underscoring his new approach, his large transition team includes many liberal policy advocates and former colleagues in the defense bar.
"Being more selective about prosecutions will allow us to focus on the crimes that matter most to all of us. We’ve got to go beyond punishment and invest in our community," Williams said in his inauguration speech.
Again, we'll see if those words carry any sort of commitment. We already expect the increase in crime commensurate with worsening economic conditions during the pandemic will lead to new political pressures on every politician to "get tough." That's especially likely to be worse during a municipal election year.
Speaking of which, the timing of Jason's resignation from City Council means there will not be an additional election just to fill his seat.
Monday also brought some clarity regarding Williams’ now vacant at-large seat on the City Council. Tyronne Walker, Williams former campaign manager and transition director, said that his resignation of the seat was effective Monday at 11 a.m., meaning his seat will be filled by an appointment by members of the City Council. If he had decided to resign any earlier, there would have been more than a year left in his term. Under city law, that means the seat would have been required to be filled by a special election.
On Monday morning about an hour before the ceremony began, Walker told The Lens that Williams had not recommended an interim candidate for the council to consider. Council President Helena Moreno on Monday announced the opening of applications for the post.
So.. you know.. if you're looking for a job...
Should have been done by now but they do say they are ready to do it... "later in the week."
At least 218 Democrats have now signed onto an impeachment resolution, enough to pass the measure should it come to the floor later this week, according to a congressional aide involved in the process.
Pelosi has indicated she will bring the resolution for a vote this week if Trump doesn't resign or Vice President Mike Pence doesn't initiate other processes to remove him.
There are Democrats already falling into 8 dimensional calculus trying to rationalize not moving quickly. Some of them, despite having nearly witnessed what could have been a lynching if executed by a more competent and purposeful mob, are still waiting for the bi-partisanship fairy to arrive. Others are just hoping it all blows over and they never have to do anything.
And maybe they won't. Just give it another week or so and President Biden will wanting to get straight into his hundred days agenda. Apparently tops on that list is building back better a "strong opposition party" and how is he supposed to do that when the congress is bogged down in a "divisive" after the fact impeachment of an ex-President?
Anyway you can see where it might go if they don't get a move on. Not to be too naive about it. I mean there are politics to consider here. But the reason to impeach and remove Trump now is because... Trump, however stupidly and incompetently, did in fact, incite a riot that resulted in injuries, deaths, and endangered the lives of members of Congress and the Vice President. I know our track record for holding our Presidents accountable for crimes like this is not good. But that doesn't make it any less imperative.
So of course Trump didn’t have a plan for losing the election. He expected that the people working under him—that is, the entire United States government—would find a way to stop the election that he’d lost from becoming official when he gave that order, but he had no sense of how that might work beyond them just somehow doing it. He promised evidence that would show he was right and then told other people to find it. It never came, but at some point he just started acting as if it had been delivered and denied, and began talking about how unfair that was.
Big fun for the cosplayers at the Capitol today. Looks like the cops let the other cops dressed up like..uh.. vikings or something run wild inside the building for a while. The President put out a video telling them they are all "special people." The other President is on TV right now complaining about broken windows. Nobody knows when the cops will finally ask the other cops to leave. Maybe they will spend the night there. Who knows?
Overall, I gotta say, not great. But, despite the breathless hype-slobber coming out of the cable news regulars, it's not a "coup." It's more like, well like this.
It’s a coup in their minds but not in real life. The United States government cannot be sacked by a mob of angry white dudes. If the police or the military wanted to flex and end this right now, they could. They’ve decided to let them blow off steam
— Keeanga-Yamahtta T. (@KeeangaYamahtta) January 6, 2021
It is a shocking display of double standards, the rot of the GOP, and the utter racism of American police and those who direct them. This is desperation, not an actual plan to take power. it’s frightening and appalling, but I don’t think the US govt is abt to collapse.
— Keeanga-Yamahtta T. (@KeeangaYamahtta) January 6, 2021
Trust me, we are still living under the same shitty undemocratic and racist regime of increasingly authoritarian oligarchy. Today's LARP will not interrupt that. If anything, it can only make it.. more of what it already is. Looking around Twitter and TV the only possible acceptable policy response will come in the form of an expansion of police powers and a crackdown on political organizing. Not a crackdown on the kind of people who made the riot happen, of course, but there will definitely be some cracking down. Probably on leftist and Black Lives Matter groups first. You know.. usual suspects. Hilariously, but predictably, some of the loudest voices already calling for such a thing are emanating from ostensibly "left of center" actors. It's always amusing to see what brings the inner cop out in certain people.
Anyway, rest assured, your government is not overthrown. It remains in full possession of its power and glory fully poised to once again meet the moment of crisis by punching down and left.
Not clear exactly what yet but if you were listening to the press conference on Monday, there were some interesting quotes.
Cantrell said the move ending the furloughs was the “first step on the city’s road to recovery.” She also indicated that it was also the first step in a larger plan to restructure the city’s workforce.
“We are making this move as a part of a much broader effort to restructure how we use our public servants, our public employees, in the city of New Orleans,” she said. “Everyone needs to have that shared sacrifice and do what it takes to move this city forward. … In the weeks ahead, we will come before you with specifics as it relates to emergency response, business response, community response and organizational changes as it relates to the City of New Orleans.”
They have some idea of how they want to "restructure" and it appears they may be using the emergency response and selective decisions about furloughs to get that implemented. Kind of an ad-hoc budgeting process depending on how "optimistic" they get from month to month.
Cantrell said the city was ending some furloughs with additional funds the city is projecting in a more optimistic outlook. If those funds don’t materialize, however, the move could cause layoffs later in the year, she said.
The additional funds optimistically projected there refer to a possible new round of federal stimulus (which, yes, is exactly what we need but don't hold your breath) also stepped up sales tax collection if we get enough people vaccinated in time for that to help, and property tax collection which... it turns out... is now delayed by... wait for it... to much "optimism."
Waiting on your property tax bill in New Orleans? So is the rest of the city. Blame paperwork problems and overly optimistic city officials for holding up the annual notices telling property owners how much they need to pay.
Tax bills typically go out during the last weeks of December. But because of problems that prevented the certification of the tax rolls, the earliest they could now be sent is this week. None of the issues will change the taxes owed by residents. But City Hall said it will adjust the deadline for payments once the bills are sent out.
According to this, at least part of the problem comes from the way the bills were itemized. Apparently they were prepared in the expectation that the December millage reconfiguration would pass. It did not and so now things need to be revised. Of course the overall revenue doesn't change. So one would think there isn't much optimism/pessimism that comes into play. Unless you were optimistically hoping to restructure your "emergency response, business response, community response and organizational changes as it relates to the City of New Orleans," and now you have to find an alternative means of accomplishing that.... perhaps through emergency measures.
But we'll just have to wait and see as far as that goes. There is one other matter in the story about the tax bills, though, and I'm not sure I understand it exactly.
One potentially more substantive issue also is holding up the process: a disagreement between the assessor’s office and the Tax Commission about the value of “public service” property in the city, a category that largely encompasses property owned by utilities.
Under state law, those property values are set by the Tax Commission and passed along to local assessors, commission Chairman Lawrence Chehardy said. But in the final version of the tax rolls, the assessed value that the commission put on the total value of those properties is about $65,300 higher than what the assessor’s office estimated, Chehardy said. A meeting is set Wednesday to discuss the discrepancy and try to correct the problem, he said.
One way to read that is the city proposed to charge "public service" property... perhaps belonging to Entergy or maybe Cox or some such... less money than the state Tax Commission expected they should. I don't know if I'm reading that correctly but if I am then, given the assessor's recent tendency to give out tax breaks to large corporations, it's something to watch.
Republicans are not "doing a coup" today. They are just setting the premise for the next four years of obstructionist behavior. The ceremonial hooting, hollering, marching, and LARP counter-programming going on in D.C. while Congress receives the electoral votes from the states, is the opening bit in the opposition party strategy. Even as they technically cede office, they are saying that they don't actually have to recognize the legitimacy of the incoming government. Materially, that is as bad for you and me as if they were in fact doing a
coup which of course is why they don't have to do one. They don't have to do anything at all, really, besides be rude and raise money for two years before they take the Congress back. This morning, Democrats are already celebrating their victories in Georgia by talking about the things they aren't even going to try to do in the meantime. In other words, the strategy works. Nothing will fundamentally change.
It's also important to say that this is the exact same strategy Republicans always employ whenever it is their team's turn to be out of power for a while. To believe any of it is new one would have to have no memory of the conspiracy stuff Rush Limbaugh's listeners regularly
wallowed in during the Clinton years. And, supposing, some are too young and precious for that, surely they can reference the rolling boil of birtherism and "secret Muslim" theory and whatever the hell was on Glenn Beck's dry erase board throughout the Obama years, right? Right? Like that just happened. Does anyone remember any single thing that ever happens?
Maybe it doesn't matter. All that matters is what can hold attention right now. And we can make that whatever we like as long as there is money to be made from pushing it out there. Cable news is going to wring the "coup" story line for all it is worth. It's great sensational #content. It keeps the folks watching and worrying and arguing about nonsense. Nothing makes advertisers happier than that; perfectly alienated and insecure consumers at full attention. But it distorts the reality of what is happening in unhelpful ways. And that sucks because, again, what is happening is actually very bad.
We're not getting anything out of this deal. What we want. What we need the Democrats to do for us during this fleeting moment when they hold a little bit of power is, at the very least, address the emergency seriously. We need them to distribute the vaccine with some competence. We need them to pass a new stimulus that bails out the bankrupt municipal and state governments before everything collapses. We need them to cancel rent. We need them to pay people to stay home and be safe until the pandemic is over.
But we aren't getting any of that. Instead we are getting... "a new era of bipartisanship"
Of course he did:
— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) January 6, 2021
Sen. JOE MANCHIN (https://t.co/cGSSO03KHm.) called for the results to usher in a “new era of bipartisanship.”
You can get mad at John Bel for appointing his nephew to the UL Board of Supervisors or not. It's up to you. It's not technically an ethics violation of any sort.
The UL System governs nine colleges and universities, including Southeastern Louisiana University, the University of New Orleans and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Stevens, the son of the governor's sister Alice, is a graduate of SLU.
The governor's selection would not run afoul of the state code of government ethics against nepotism -- preference for relatives in hiring.
The ban generally applies to members of a government official's immediate family, including children, the spouses of the children, brothers and sisters, the spouses of the officials' brothers and sisters, his or her parents and his or her spouse.
Anyway, it could have been worse. A year ago John Bel tried to appoint Jim Bernhard to the LSU Board. Bernhard declined. Which seemed to make some sense at the time simply because we could assume it was a case of overkill. After all Edwards had already awarded Bernhard's new company a lucrative contract to privatize energy systems at state buildings. Seems like more than enough repayment the Governor could offer Bernhard for the gentlemanly favor of deciding not run against him in 2019.
Bernhard Energy Solutions partnered with the HVAC company Johnson Controls at the request of the Edwards administration after both firms submitted proposals to the state. Bernhard Energy Solutions is one of several companies controlled by Bernhard Capital Partners, a private equity firm run by former Shaw Group chief executive and Democratic Party official Jim Bernhard, who was floated as a potential candidate for governor before ruling it out last year.
But it turns out Bernhard didn't turn the LSU board position down out of contentedness. He was actually angling to grab another deal for his company.
Since then, the competition over the massive contract — which several board members described as having a value of $855 million over decades — has grown increasingly fierce. Five Board of Supervisors members told The Times-Picayune and The Advocate that LSU staffers have tried to steer them toward the Canadian company, Enwave, which offered a less expensive deal but may also lack a necessary license to do the work.
Bernhard, however, wields immense political power and ties to LSU and its football program, and board members said that’s made him a controversial choice for the contract. He seems to want the deal badly: In fact, he turned down an invitation from Gov. John Bel Edwards to serve on the Board of Supervisors that would have prevented him from getting the energy contract. Meanwhile, Bernhard Energy Solutions has partnered with Johnson Controls Inc. for similar projects, creating a new entity called LA Energy Partners. And they also formed a subsidiary called Tiger Energy Partners specifically to vie for the LSU contract.
So which is it worse for John Bel to appoint his law partner/nephew to a higher ed board position? Or is it worse that he and LSU continue doing business with this guy?
Even without serving on the board, Bernhard has cast a long shadow over LSU. As LSU police investigated allegations two years ago that LSU football wide receiver Drake Davis had abused his girlfriend, several witnesses in the case told police that they feared coming forward because they feared retribution from Davis’ powerful adoptive father — Bernhard. Bernhard has said he did not threaten any retaliation in the case.
Bernhard also touted in a 2015 news release that a cogeneration plant his companies built on LSU’s campus “continues to help reduce LSU’s energy expenses by millions of dollars annually.” But LSU attorneys said the opposite in 2006, when the university and Bernhard Mechanical sued one another over the plant.
LSU claimed the cogeneration system meant to save money actually increased the university’s utility bill by more than $2 million a year. LSU attorneys said then that Bernhard had promised energy savings totaling between $7 million and $44 million over 20 years.
“Since the cogeneration system began operation in late December 2004, the cost of operating the system has exceeded by more than $2 million what the same energy would have cost LSU had the new system not been built,” LSU’s attorneys alleged.
Who knows? The Ethics Board doesn't offer much guidance either way.