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One measure of unemployment suggests Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus plan could do more harm than good, sa.. - Business Insider

The labor market has recovered far faster than in past recessions when measuring unemployment with a broader metric, the strategist said.

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images The US economy is receiving fresh fiscal support after months of plodding negotiations. But one measure of the labor market suggests the massive stimulus is unnecessary and potentially harmful to future growth, according to James Paulsen, chief investment strategist at The Leuthold Group. The country is already reaping the benefits of the $900 billion stimulus package signed by President Donald Trump on December 27. President-elect Joe Biden rolled out a $1.9 trillion relief proposal on Thursday that aims to further boost the economy through 2021. Democrats' soft majority in the Senate drastically raises the odds of Biden's plan becoming law. The relief packages meet calls from economists and investors for additional fiscal support, with many pointing to the still-elevated unemployment rate as a sign of progress to be made. The most commonly cited measure is the U-3 rate, but the government's U-6 rate - which includes Americans working part-time for economic reasons and those marginally involved in the labor force - tells a different story, Paulsen said in a client note on Thursday. The U-3 rate currently sits at 6.7%, and the U-6 gauge dropped to 11.7% last month. Five of the last six recessions since 1980 - including the coronavirus downturn - touted U-6 rates above today's level, Paulsen said. The coronavirus pandemic initially pushed the U-6 rate to a record-high 22.9% in April. Yet easy monetary conditions and the $2.2 trillion CARES Act helped the rate retrace more than half of its climb in a matter of months. It took years for such improvement to take place following the 1982 and 2008 recessions, Paulsen noted. Read more:'Extremes are becoming ever more extreme': A Wall Street strategist who sounded the alarm before last year's 35% crash showcases the evidence that a similar meltdown is looming The Leuthold Group The rapid pace of recovery also comes as the country's policy response to the recession remains extraordinarily strong. Bond yields remain at historic lows, interest rates remain near zero, and money supply growth vastly outpaces that seen in past downturns. Calls for additional stimulus come from a good place, Paulsen said. The CARES Act played an "invaluable" role in driving the country's initial bounce-back. Still, spending on additional aid when history suggests such support is unnecessary and poses "the most significant risk" to growth beyond 2021, the strategist added. Excessive accommodation could fuel a spike in inflation and, in turn, prompt the government and the Fed to swiftly tighten conditions. Low-income Americans and minorities would likely bear the brunt of a prematurely halted recovery, Paulsen said. "It would be sadly ironic if the aggressive actions of overuse and abuse of policies implemented today - aimed primarily to benefit the most vulnerable groups - were to eventually hurt these same groups the most," he added. Read more:GOLDMAN SACHS: Buy these 25 stocks best-positioned to juice profits in 2021 as stimulus and vaccine progress spur economic growth

Christopher Miller wants to install a Trump loyalist in the NSA - Business Insider - Business Insider

The NSA's general counsel position is not a political one but a civil servant role, meaning it would be harder for Biden to remove him.

Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller told the head of the National Security Agency to install a Trump loyalist as the top lawyer at the agency, The Washington Post reported. Miller ordered that Michael Ellis be appointed as general counsel by 6 pm on Saturday, but NSA Director Gen. Paul Nakasone did not follow that order as of the deadline, according to CNN.  The Post reported Ellis was tapped for the job back in November by Pentagon General Counsel Paul C. Ney Jr., but he still hasn't taken the position and has to finish administrative procedures. His selection came a shortly after Biden was projected to win the presidential election. Around the same time, nearly a dozen senior government officials were fired, forced to resign, or resigned in protest, including a political purge at the Defense Department by President Donald Trump. Several sources told The Post that Nakasone was not in favor of Ellis's selection to the role and wanted to delay his placement.  The general counsel position at the NSA is not a political one but a civil servant role, which means it would be harder for the incoming Biden administration to fire him. Sources told The Post that Nakasone and others are worried that the Trump administration is trying to plant political personnel in a civilian role, which could violate a long-standing policy. National security legal experts were critical of the effort to install Ellis into the role just a few days before Trump leaves office. In November, when Ellis's nomination was first announced, Susan Hennessey, a former NSA attorney, said it "appears to be an attempt to improperly politicize an important career position." On Saturday, Hennessy said if Ellis is installed then Biden should remove him on the day he's inaugurated.  "At this point, no one should extend this selection process the benefit of the doubt. By all indications, the Trump admin is violating civil service rules and politicizing an apolitical role. If Ellis is installed tonight, Biden should remove him on Day One," she said in a tweet.

Sarah Ferguson gave 'Bridgerton' the royal stamp of approval: 'I'm obsessed with it' - Insider - INSIDER

While speaking with Us Weekly, the Duchess of York revealed that she's watched the Netflix series twice already since its debut in December.

It seems like everyone with a Netflix account has been praising "Bridgerton," the Regency-era drama based on the Julia Quinn book series of the same name. And now, the show has the official royal stamp of approval from Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York and ex-wife of Prince Andrew. While speaking with Us Weekly about her latest novel, "Her Heart for a Compass," Ferguson shared that she's just as enamored with "Bridgerton" as the rest of us. "I adored 'Bridgerton' so much that I watched it twice, deliberately. I'm obsessed with it," she said. "I think Daphne is a terrific character, as we see her learning about life. I love the way she learns to use her strong voice. It chimed with me because now is the time for women to speak up." Read more: 15 things you probably didn't know about 'Bridgerton' While not everyone agreed with Daphne's arc in the show, Ferguson had words of praise for some less controversial aspects of the show as well. "The costumes and set designs were incredible too," Ferguson said. "The way Betsy Beers and Shonda Rhimes have created 'Bridgerton' is fabulous and I was really impressed," she continued. Daphne Bridgerton and Simon Basset on "Bridgerton." LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX Like the rest of us, Ferguson is impatiently awaiting news for a second season. According to her, the Shondaland series might be filming at her former home. "I hear they might be making future series at Sunninghill Park for the next five years, which is my old home," she told Us Weekly. Read more: Netflix hasn't renewed 'Bridgerton' yet, but here's what we know about the potential second season so far As the series portrays a more fantastical version of British high society than say, "The Crown," it's not shocking that a member of the royal family would own up to enjoying the show — even though Ferguson said that she enjoyed "The Crown" as well. "I thought it was filmed beautifully. The cinematography was excellent," she said. "I loved the way they put my wedding in as well.

What we know about laptop stolen from Nancy Pelosi's aide - Business Insider - Business Insider

The laptop was stolen when violent pro-Trump rioters breached the US Capitol on January 6. Misinformation about the device is already spreading.

When US Capitol staff returned to work following the violent insurrection by pro-Trump extremists, they found broken windows and their offices pillaged. A laptop that belonged to an aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was one of the items reported stolen. Drew Hammill, Pelosi's deputy chief of staff, announced last week that the aide's laptop, which he said was "only used for presentations," was taken from a conference room in the Capitol. While far-right activists have already started spreading misinformation about the device — with some claiming it was taken by US Special Forces because it contained evidence of election fraud — there is no evidence that's the case. The disinformation has stemmed from comments made by Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney. McInerney has falsely claimed that Antifa is responsible for the riots and that panic over the laptop, which he claims is full of damning information, is why Democrats sought to impeach President Donald Trump. Read more:The right-wing conspiracy theories that fueled the Capitol siege are going to instigate more violence Ken McGraw, a public affairs officer for US Special Operations Command, told USA TODAY on Wednesday the agency had nothing to do with the missing laptop. "We have not received any reports or information that anyone in Special Forces or any other Special Operations Forces units entered the US Capitol on 6 January and stole Speaker Pelosi or any other congressional members' laptops during the riot," he told USA Today. Another false viral claim about the laptop alleged that Trump was at Cheyenne Mountain military base in Colorado Springs, Colorado, looking at "evidence" taken from the laptop. According to Snopes, this claim seemed to stem from a post on the right-wing social media platform Parler, which has since gone offline after Amazon stopped hosting the website due to violent content. The post also falsely claimed Pelosi was "stopped at the border" and would be brought to an "undisclosed location" as a result of the "evidence." However, according to Trump's public schedule, he has not visited Cheyenne Mountain. Save for a trip to Alamo, Texas on January 12 to visit the border wall, the president seems to have not left DC since the Capitol siege. There's also no evidence Pelosi took a trip to the border. Snopes reported the Parler post was shared on January 6, however Pelosi was in Congress late January 6 and into the early morning hours of January 7, finishing the certification of the electoral votes. The laptop isn't the only device that was taken during the insurrection. CNN reported that House Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina reported an iPad stolen. Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon tweeted a video that showed rioters stealing a laptop, USA Today reported. There have also been false claims about papers being stolen from offices in the Capitol. Brendan Keefe, an investigative reporter at Atlanta's WXIA-TV station, debunked a letter that people online claimed was stolen from Pelosi's desk. The fake letter, which Keefe edited to show it was photoshopped, appeared to show Pelosi giving the mayor of Portland advice about how to blame Trump for civil unrest. Loading Something is loading.

NASA's attempt to burrow into Mars met 2 insurmountable obstacles: cement-like soil and an unexpected energy shortage - Yahoo News

InSight lander's "mole" was unable to hammer through the Martian soil, and unusually dusty solar panels meant the robot was generating less power.

NASA sent its InSight lander to Mars with an ambitious mission: to study the planet's deep internal structure. A crucial piece of that effort — the "mole" — has failed despite two years of attempts to salvage it. The mole is a revolutionary heat probe designed to burrow 16 feet into the Martian soil and take the planet's temperature. Its measurements would have revealed clues about how the planet formed and has changed over the last 4.6 billion years — a history that would help scientists track down Martian water, and possibly life. But the mole has made little progress in the unexpectedly thick soil. Now the InSight team must ration the lander's solar power. NASA announced Thursday that the mole won't be able to dig its hole. The mole, halfway popped out of its hole, on October 26, 2019. NASA/JPL-Caltech "It's a bit of a personal tragedy," Sue Smrekar, a lead scientist on the InSight team who has spent 10 years working on the mole, told Insider. "Everyone tried as hard as they could make it work. So I can't ask for anything more than that." No other Mars mission in NASA's foreseeable can take the internal temperature measurements for which the mole was designed. "This has been our best attempt to get that data," Smrekar added. "From my personal standpoint, it's super disappointing, and scientifically it's also a very significant loss. So it feels really like a huge letdown." An unexpected energy crisis An artist's concept shows NASA's InSight lander with its instruments deployed on the Martian surface. The seismometer is the round device to the left of the lander. NASA/JPL-Caltech The InSight team spent two years maneuvering the lander's robotic arm to see if it could help the mole burrow further. The probe, a 16-inch-long pile driver, is designed to leverage the loose dirt that other Mars missions have encountered. The soil would flow around the mole's outer hull and provide friction to keep hammering deeper. But in February 2019, the mole found itself bouncing in place on a foundation of firm soil called "duracrust." The next two years were spent troubleshooting, beaming new software to InSight to teach its robotic arm new maneuvers to assist the mole, and anxiously waiting for photos that might show progress. "It's just been a huge effort across the board, and one that we never anticipated," Smrekar said. "We thought that we were going to punch the hole down." The InSight team first instructed the robotic arm to push on the mole, but that just caused it to pop out of the hole. Once they got the probe back in the ground, a year later, they instructed the arm to pile dirt on top of it, hoping that would provide enough friction for the probe to dig deeper. But the mole made no progress with 500 hammer strokes last Saturday. The top of it was just 2 or 3 centimeters below the surface. By then, InSight's problems were compounding. Unlike other sites where NASA has sent rovers and landers, the open plain where InSight sits wasn't having powerful gusts of wind. Smrekar calls such gusts "cleaning events," since they blow the planet's pervasive red dust off any robots in the area. Without them, InSight's solar panels have accumulated a significant layer of dust. The InSight lander's camera took this photo on July 18, 2020, showing one of its solar-panel arrays covered in dust. NASA/JPL-Caltech At the same time, the seasons were changing and InSight's home on a flat plain near Mars' equator was getting colder. In the chill, InSight will require more energy just to stay functional, even while its solar panels are absorbing less sunlight than they should. "Power is decreasing and so we're coming up on a time period where, for probably two or three months, we're probably going to have to stand down from doing instrument operations for awhile and just kind of go into survival mode until it gets warmer on Mars," Smrekar said. The plain where InSight landed has presented challenges that other Mars missions didn't face. NASA With this new time constraint, Saturday's hammering attempt was the mole's last chance to burrow. Over the next two years, InSight will still listen for quakes on Mars and collect data on the planet's rumblings with its seismometer. This can provide some insight about the planet's interior. Already, Mars quakes have revealed that the Martian crust is drier and more broken up than scientists had thought ⁠— more like the moon than like Earth. A planet's internal temperature reveals its history If the mole had hammered down to 16 feet below, it would have measured temperatures all the way down its hole. That would allow scientists to calculate how much heat is leaving Mars — a metric called "heat flow." "It's a single number, the heat flow, but it has ramifications for all kinds of aspects of understanding Mars," Smrekar said. Heat leaving a planet is, in part, warmth left over from its formation, but it also comes from decaying radioactive elements. Measuring the heat flow would tell scientists how much radioactive material is inside the Martian crust — the outer layer of the planet — versus the mantle beneath. An artist's rendition of the inner structure of Mars: the topmost layer (crust), mantle, and solid inner core. NASA/JPL-Caltech That would reveal not only how material was distributed when the planet formed (and whether it's made of the same stuff as Earth), but also how the planet's internal structure has changed over time. "That goes back to understanding the early evolution of Mars, that time period when there was a lot of liquid water on the surface," Smrekar said. A higher concentration of radioactive material in the mantle would make that layer more active. More radioactive material in the crust could keep the planet's upper layers warm. Heat flow could also indicate how deep you'd have to drill into Mars to reach liquid water today. Underground water on the planet could still host microbial life. Future humans traveling to Mars will likely need to harvest water there. Now there is no possibility of measuring the planet's heat flow in the foreseeable future. "I was hoping to get the data and be able to understand what that means for Mars," Smrekar said.

Banning Trump from Twitter sets a 'dangerous' precedent, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey says - Business Insider - Business Insider

Twitter banned President Trump from its platform after the attempted coup on January 6. CEO Jack Dorsey believes that sets a "dangerous" precedent.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey worries that taking action to permanently suspend President Donald Trump from the platform "sets a precedent I feel is dangerous: the power an individual or corporation has over a part of the global public conversation."  Dorsey called the ban "a failure of ours" in a series of tweets Wednesday night. "Having to take these actions fragment the public conversation. They divide us," he said.  His comments came exactly a week after mob of pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol building and broke in on Wednesday, January 6. Five people died during the attempted insurrection, including a US Capitol police officer, and dozens more were injured. Dorsey explained the decision to ban Trump as a forced action due to the offline effect of Trump's words. "Offline harm as a result of online speech is demonstrably real, and what drives our policy and enforcement above all," he said. "I believe this was the right decision for Twitter." Prior to January 6, Trump repeatedly used his massive footprint on Twitter to promote the "Save America" protest event. "Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!" Trump tweeted in late December. Read more:Oracle employees say Safra Catz and Larry Ellison don't talk about their Trump ties internally. After the US Capitol siege, some want action: There's 'blood on their hands' On the day of the event, Trump spoke to his supporters in person. "We're going to walk down to the Capitol, and we're going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women," he said. "We're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong." As the attack was happening, the president took to Twitter to address his supporters: "These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long," he said in a tweet that was later removed. Trump's Twitter account was permanently suspended by Friday evening. When Trump attempted to use other accounts associated with his office and political campaign, such as @POTUS and @TeamTrump, those messages were removed by Twitter. Twitter's policing of the sitting US President's Twitter account is unprecedented, and marks a major shift in moderation from Trump's favorite social media company.  Twitter was among several major tech platforms to suspend or ban Trump's use following the attack on the US Capitol by pro-Trump rioters. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, and Instagram all enacted some form of ban on Trump, and tech platforms that were used in part to organize the attack — such as Parler and Gab — are also facing bans. Got a tip? Contact Business Insider senior correspondent Ben Gilbert via email ([email protected]), or Twitter DM (@realbengilbert). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by email only, please.

National Guard asks people to please stop trying to give it donations - Business Insider - Business Insider

One person started a GoFundMe after seeing pictures of National Guard members sleeping on the floor of the US Capitol.

Members of the US National Guard were seen Wednesday sleeping on the floors of the US Capitol, but that does not mean they lack proper sleeping quarters or otherwise help from members of the public. "While we appreciate the many offers and people who care about our soldiers and airmen, we are not logistically able to accept donations of any kind," the National Guard said in a statement. Thousands of National Guard members are currently in Washington, DC, to prevent a repeat of the January 6 insurrection and any outbreaks of violence during President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration. In response to news stories about soldiers laying on the floor of the Capitol, some were moved to act, thinking a cold, hard floor was to be their only respite. —Brian Bartlett (@BrianBartlett) January 13, 2021 Brian Bartlett, a Republican communications strategist, raised more than $3,000 on GoFundMe to buy sleeping pads "so they can get a decent rest as they protect our democracy!" But the National Guard soon clarified: "please know our National Guardsmen have appropriate lodging for when they are off-duty; the photos circulating are of them on-duty, in a designated rest area between shifts." In an update, Bartlett told supporters he would be returning the sleeping pads he purchased "and asking GoFundMe to refund all donations." Have a news tip? Email this reporter: [email protected] Loading Something is loading.

Astronomers spotted a galaxy dying after a major collision. It's bleeding out 10,000 suns' worth of gas each year. - Yahoo News

Galaxies need cold gas to form new stars, and this one is bleeding 10,000 suns worth of the stuff each year. Astronomers blame a cosmic crash.

For the first time, astronomers can clearly see a galaxy beginning to die. Nine billion light-years away, galaxy ID2299 is losing critical cold gas that helps create new stars. Every year, it's bleeding out enough gas to make 10,000 suns. Already, it has lost nearly half of its cold gas. The rest is being used up to form new stars, at a pace hundreds of times faster than in the Milky Way. At this rate, the galaxy will soon run out of spare gas and be unable to make new stars. For a galaxy, that's death. The team of researchers that discovered ID2299 and its impending demise published their findings on Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy. They think ID2299 formed after two galaxies crashed together and merged, creating a new galaxy. This resulting galaxy has a telltale "tidal tail," from which streams of stars and interstellar material are trailing out into space. Tidal tails often form when galaxies' outer layers get stripped away as they merge. Such tails in distant galaxies are usually too dim for astronomers on Earth to see, though they have been detected on hundreds of galaxies. The researchers spotted this one just as it started to extend into space. That's where all the gas is escaping. Hubble Space Telescope captured a galaxy collision known as "The Mice" because of the long tails of stars and gas emanating from each galaxy. NASA, H. Fort (JHU), G. Illingworth (USCS/LO), M. Clampin (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), the ACS Science Team, and ESA The finding suggests that major collisions can leave galaxies leaking vital gases into space, a process that eventually starves them and halts star formation, thereby killing them. "This is the first time we have observed a typical massive star-forming galaxy in the distant universe about to 'die' because of a massive cold-gas ejection," Annagrazia Puglisi, the study's lead author and a researcher at Durham University in England, said in a press release. As stars form, they produce winds. Scientists think there's a black hole at the center of every massive galaxy, which also produces wind as it devours material that falls into its gravitational pull. Astronomers think that these winds from stars and black holes carry star-forming material into distant space, eventually causing galaxies to die. But the discovery of ID2299's gas-leaking tail reveals a new path to galactic death. "Our study suggests that gas ejections can be produced by mergers, and that winds and tidal tails can appear very similar," Emanuele Daddi, a co-author of the study and an astrophysicist at the Saclay Nuclear Research Center in France, said in the release. "This might lead us to revise our understanding of how galaxies 'die.'" The finding could also offer hints about where our own galaxy is headed. The Milky Way is shooting puffs of its own cold gas into the void, and it's also on track to collide with the Andromeda Galaxy in about 4 billion years. "Witnessing such a massive disruption event adds an important piece to the complex puzzle of galaxy evolution," Chiara Circosta, a co-author of the study and researcher at the University College London, said in the release. The researchers stumbled upon this doomed galaxy while studying cold gas in 100 faraway galaxies, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the Chilean desert. "I was eager to learn more about this weird object because I was convinced that there was some important lesson to be learned about how distant galaxies evolve," Puglisi said.

Trump refused to talk to Pence after siege, said he had no courage - Business Insider - Business Insider

"Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country" Trump tweeted while his supporters stormed the Capitol Building.

On Wednesday, as a mob of Trump supporters staged a violent insurrection at the Capitol, President Donald Trump was tweeting — not in support of the hundreds of members of Congress trapped within the building, but against Vice President Mike Pence.  While hundreds of his followers violently made their way inside the Capitol, Trump took a few moments during the siege to attack the vice president, who had for the past month made it clear he didn't support the president's baseless claims of election fraud and would not challenge the certification of the election.  "Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!" President Trump wrote at 2:24 p.m., as the pro-Trump mob was breaching the building.  Earlier in the day, he had discussed the vice president during a rally with supporters at the Ellipse, putting the success or failure of his plan to dispute the election on Pence's shoulders. "Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us," Trump told the crowd. "And if it doesn't, that will be a sad day for our country." Trump's words had the effect of turning Pence into the enemy. Several insurrectionists shared online that they hoped to kill or wound the vice president, and chants of "hang Mike Pence" could be heard throughout the Capitol building. Pence was safely ferreted off the Senate floor by Secret Service and was hidden in a secure location for the duration of the attack, which left five people, including one police officer, dead. "During the moment of the evacuation, he was adamant about staying in the building and not being taken away," Pence chief of staff Marc Short told Insider on Friday. "He didn't want to feel like we would allow that to happen in our country."  The president and vice president had enjoyed a relatively good relationship up until recently — what Tim Phillips, the president of the libertarian group Americans for Prosperity, described to The Washington Post as "a durable, close relationship," despite their clear stylistic differences and beliefs.  But as Trump slipped further and further into the baseless belief that there was widespread election fraud, the rift between Pence and Trump grew. Trump erroneously believed Pence had the ability to change the election, while Pence demurred in an 11-page letter sent to the president just before Wednesday's rally and riot.  "It is my considered judgment that my oath to support and defend the Constitution constrains me from claiming unilateral authority to determine which electoral votes should be counted and which should not," Pence wrote.  In the days following the siege, Trump, likely still fuming from what he perceived as Pence's disloyalty, made no attempt to contact the vice president or check up on him, according to Reuters.  This did not sit well with aides, one of whom told the Wall Street Journal that avoiding the vice president was "unconscionable, even for the president." But while Trump gave Pence the silent treatment (in part, perhaps, because his Twitter account had been permanently suspended), House Democrats made overtures toward the VP and urged him to invoke the 25th Amendment. Those close to Pence played off the move as a non-starter, telling Business Insider that Pence was doing all he could to avoid a further rupture within the Republican party.  Joe Grogan, the former head of the Domestic Policy Council under Trump, told The Journal he believes Pence should get credit for shutting down the president's election fraud claims.  Read more: We analyzed 23 memos from CEOs responding to the US Capitol riot. The most effective messages get personal. "If he had been replaced by someone as nuts as the people who have been surrounding the president as the primary advice givers for the last few months, we could have had even more of a bloodbath," Grogan said. "Imagine what would have happened if Pence was devious and vile and didn't stand up for the Constitution." On Monday, five days after the Capitol siege, Trump and Pence finally met face to face. Despite Trump not reaching out in the days following the Capitol Building riots, Pence appeared to have taken up the mantle of loyal vice president once more. The pair had what was described as a "good conversation" by observers, who said the vice president and president looked back on their accomplishments over the course of their term.  As Trump stares down a second possible impeachment trial, he may realize how important it will be to have Pence on his side.  Loading Something is loading.

Parler sues Amazon, claiming it violated antitrust laws - Business Insider - Business Insider

Parler is suing Amazon after it was booted off of the company's servers for failing to moderate threats of violence following the US Capitol siege.

Parler, the far-right social media service, is suing Amazon over antitrust violations, according to a court filing submitted on Monday. The move comes after Amazon knocked Parler off its cloud-hosting service after it said Parler failed to moderate threats of violence following last week's deadly siege on the US Capitol.  Parler alleges that Amazon's decision was politically motivated and breaches a contract between the two companies that entails Amazon's cloud-hosting service supporting posts published on Parler. According to the lawsuit, AWS is required to provide Parler with a 30-day notice before terminating service. It also alleges that Amazon's action is anti-competitive since it didn't take similar action against Twitter, Parler's rival that also uses AWS. The filing alleges that "AWS's decision to effectively terminate Parler's account is apparently motivated by political animus. It is also apparently designed to reduce competition in the microblogging services market to the benefit of Twitter."  The suit is seeking a temporary restraining order against AWS to prevent the service from shutting Parler's account down at the end of the day. Amazon did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. After pro-Trump rioters stormed the federal building while lawmakers worked to certify the 2020 presidential election results, Congress confirmed President-elect Joe Biden's win. Trump posted tweets during and after the siege in which he continued to spread more election misinformation, prompting Twitter and Facebook to make the unprecedented decisions to permanently suspend Trump from their platforms. Those on the right have long accused the likes of Twitter of discriminating against conservatives by adding warning labels to their posts, and that belief has been stoked with the events that have unfolded since last week.  Since Trump was been booted, smaller far-right social networks like Parler and Gab have shot up in popularity — Parler jumped to the No. 1. spot on Apple's app store, and Gab said it is gaining 10,000 new users every hour. Apple and Google have since banned these sites over hate speech violations, and Parler is offline for possibly up to a week following AWS's shut-down.