The looming eviction crisis is so bad that even Donald Trump’s advisors have recognized that if it hits before the election, he’s screwed.
They'll use the CDC to issue a temp eviction moratorium on those making < $99k/year, but it comes with some pretty strict qualifications.
Sure enough, the moratorium only lasts until December 31.
It also requires people to self-identify, basically making an official claim that they can’t pay rent but they’re trying to, and that they meet the required income bracket.
And, crucially, it doesn’t convert that rent debt into consumer debt, meaning that you could get evicted right after the moratorium expires in January 2021.
In other words, it’s a stopgap measure aimed at preserving some of Trump’s flagging support. #LEFTISBEST
Don’t get us wrong, it will still be a major lifeline to families living on the edge, giving them a few more crucial months to figure out a better situation, and it’s a far stronger provision than the original moratorium in the CARES act..
But that doesn’t mean it’s the end of the crisis -- similar to the payroll tax deferrals we talked about earlier in the week, it basically postpones some of the pain of this recession, rather than alleviating it entirely. #AMQuickie
Amazon had a huge day yesterday, and by huge day we mean got exposed for doing a whole bunch of evil stuff.
The company is hiring two quote “intelligence analysts” for its security division to track a whole host of threats including protests, crises, and geopolitical conflicts that could affect the company’s operations.
So a corporate spy, essentially.
But one bit of the job description stands out: according to @motherboard, the job listing mentions “labor organizing” three times.
tldr; @amazon is hiring private spooks to spy on labor organizers.
Which brings us to item two, another scoop by @motherboard: an internal report shows that Amazon is quietly surveilling its Flex drivers and other employees in dozens of private Facebook groups.
Flex drivers have private facebook groups where they chat about the job and blow off steam, but now it’s on the record that Amazon has plants in pretty much all of those groups making sure working people don't get any ideas about organizing, protesting, or calling a strike.
We’ll have to wait and see how @BarackObama's old press secretary @JayCarney, who’s now an Amazon spokesman, wriggles out of this jam!
After a blitzkreig confirmation process and a hasty swearing-in ceremony, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump successfully installed Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court on Monday night.
The Senate voted 52-48. Every Democrat, Independent, + Susan Collins voted against Barrett, but it did nothing to McConnell’s ironclad majority.
After the vote, Trump put together a slapdash swearing-in ceremony on the South Lawn to get Barrett on the bench as fast as possible.
It’s hard to fully grasp what this news means.
Some of the first cases Barrett sees will be related to elections in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and she could also be part of a ruling if election results next week get challenged.
A new report shows that Donald Trump used Facebook for a massive voter deterrence operation in 2016, targeting up to 3.5 million black voters in swing states with negative ads about Hillary Clinton in an attempt to suppress votes and “cultivate hopelessness" » »
The report by UK's Channel 4 is based on a massive data leak of Trump campaign advertising data that shows the campaign compiled files on 198 million US voters and then used an algorithm to sort them into categories based on their economic and domestic statuses and other data »
One of these categories was called “deterrence,” which effectively meant voters who could be persuaded to stay at home if hit with the right ads. 3.5 million of those voters were black, and many of them lived in swing states like Florida »
A major investigation finds it’s not just bad for the environment – it’s produced in conditions tantamount to slavery »»
A new @AP investigation offers the most comprehensive look yet at labor abuses in the palm oil industry.
The AP interviewed more than 130 workers from palm companies who labored on plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Those two countries produce most of the world’s palm oil
Workers spoke of child labor, outright slavery and rape. Fishermen who escaped years of slavery on boats described coming ashore in search of help, but instead being trafficked onto plantations -- sometimes with police involvement » »
Protests that have been ongoing in Louisville picked up again after yesterday’s announcement that no officers would be charged directly with killing Taylor, despite a preemptive declaration of emergency by the mayor.
Online video showed white men carrying guns and wearing military-style uniforms patrolling the streets.
The vigilantes moved apparently unimpeded by police.
Many businesses and government offices were boarded up and a twenty-five block perimeter of the city was closed to traffic.
Before night fell, police deployed a chemical agent into a crowd of protesters and made several arrests.
Two former intelligence officials have made some pretty stunning allegations: that Federal agents sent to quell protests in Portland Oregon also engaged in a classified cell phone cloning operation that aimed to lift information off of protesters phones.
According to @thenation, the DHS has not come clean about this.
Details of the operation are still classified, but @kenklippenstein reports that it included interceptions of protesters phone calls by either the DHS or other federal agencies involved, like the DOJ.
While this would be a shocking weaponization of unwarranted surveillance against citizens exercising first amendment rights, it’s not exactly hard to believe.