In the news today: The FDA is widely expected to approve COVID-19 vaccination for children in coming weeks; in preparation for that moves, California is becoming the first state to require COVID-19 vaccination for all public school children who become eligible. Facebook, in the meantime, continues to allow deadly pandemic hoaxes to circulate on their platform.
In the news today: A federal shutdown was avoided as Congress agreed to keep the government funded until December, but the debt ceiling fight still looms. Meanwhile, it’s Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema versus Democrats (and global weather patterns), yet again. The House Select Committee on the January 6 insurrection blasted out nearly a dozen new subpoenas focused on how Trump’s mob of violent deplorables assembled.
In the news today: Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema continue to imperil infrastructure and climate change legislation and continue to offer no specifics about how to gain their support. After months of this game, it’s safe to say the rest of the Democratic caucus is fed up with the performance. New information on the January 6 insurrection shows the Trump-era Department of Homeland Security was downplaying the violence even as it unfolded on television screens.
In the news today: Republicans are continuing to block all efforts to keep the federal government open while insisting that Democrats somehow keep it open anyway. Yes, they’ve given up on even pretending to govern. The press continues to treat the revelation that Trump’s team had a specific—if bizarre—plan for nullifying the U.S. presidential election with yawns, and it’s not clear why.
In the news today: Senate Republicans aren’t budging from their vow to shut down the federal government—again—rather than voting with Democrats to keep it open. With the fall of Roe v. Wade in Texas, women in that state are now facing hours-long drives to out-of-state clinics.
In the news today: Donald Trump was back on the rally trail this weekend, delivering a steady stream of absurd and dangerous lies to an adoring (and gullible) Georgia crowd. He also really hates Republican Gov. Brian Kemp for not overthrowing democracy in the state last November to declare Trump the winner.
Elsewhere, former police officer Derek Chauvin has filed an expected appeal asking that his murder conviction be overturned.
In the news today: The U.S. special envoy to Haiti has resigned, citing the administration’s “inhumane” deportations of Haitian refugees. Rep. Lauren Boebert does another crime, not that anybody will do anything about it. But the real story of the day may be the one not making headlines: Mainstream conservatism is rapidly shedding old norms to restructure itself into a more violent, more explicitly white nationalist, and more insistently fascist party.
In the news today: Senate Republicans remain unified in their promise to cause another government shutdown while daring Democrats to do something about it. An internal Trump campaign document shows that top Trump “lawyers” knew full well that their election claims were lies; those claims would soon lead to a violent attempted insurrection inside the U.S. Capitol.
In the news today: A memo describing the “plan” Trump and Republican allies drafted to overturn Trump’s election loss has been uncovered. What was the plan? For Mike Pence to unilaterally declare that the votes of seven American states—all won by Biden—didn’t count, declare Trump was, therefore, the winner, and … that’s it. That was the plan.
In the news today: Images of mounted Border Patrol agents attacking Haitian immigrants with whips are being met with revulsion in the non-deplorable parts of the nation; the White House has promised to investigate. The Supreme Court has set a date for arguments in the case that could well mean the end of legal abortion in many (Republican-held) states.
In the news today: Mississippi’s Republican government has managed a milestone with a pandemic death rate that ranks it among the world’s very worst; in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Gov. Tate Reeves gave the world a good long look at the sort of governor who could pull off such a feat. Saturday’s pro-insurrection protest at the U.S. Capitol turned out to be a bust, but that doesn’t mean fascism’s supporters were quiet this weekend.
In the news today: A new pro-insurrectionist rally is planned for this Saturday, but it’s likely to be a bust. That doesn’t mean that the danger of domestic terrorism is diminishing, however. Meanwhile, Trump’s allies are launching new attacks on a top military official after a new book disclosed steps the military took to help ensure Trump couldn’t launch a rogue nuclear attack or start a new world war as he spiraled into post-election delusion.
In the news today: The nation slides towards another self-inflicted crisis as Republicans once again vow to block a debt ceiling boost. The reason? So their party can campaign against Democrats for keeping America’s bills paid. Yet another book of the Trump era explores the depth of the Trump team’s depravity, including the effort Mike Pence went to to try to meet Trump’s demand that the United States presidential election be nullified so that Trump could maintain power.
In the news today: Movement on multiple fronts in the House and Senate as Democrats push forward on voting rights, a $3.5 trillion budget, and a pathway to citizenship for longtime U.S. residents. President Biden continues the push to end the pandemic through widespread vaccinations.
In the news today: A California neo-Nazi who declared himself “on patrol” was arrested by the Capitol Police today near the Democratic National Committee headquarters after being found in possession of a machete and a bayonet. A majority of Republican voters now say that believing Trump’s provably false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him is now an “important” part of being a Republican.
In the news today: The Republican effort to recall California’s Democratic governor because reasons is upon us, with in-person voting on Tuesday. It began as a clown show and seems determined to end as one. Elsewhere, the now-fascist Rudy Giuliani took time away from pushing new anti-democratic conspiracy theories to polish his own tarnished legacy with a 9/11 themed(?) speech that he may or may not have given while completely sloshed.
In the news today: In an uncharacteristically blunt speech, President Joe Biden let loose on those still prolonging the pandemic by refusing vaccinations and other safety measures while announcing a broad program of mandatory vaccinations for government workers and large employers. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the Department of Justice would indeed be filing suit to block Texas Republicans’ new near-total abortion ban.
In the news today: In scenes reminiscent of the pandemic’s first, once-worst months, overflowing Idaho hospitals are now triggering the rationing of emergency care. The extent of U.S. tax-dodging by the rich continues to be astonishing—and that tax dodging is directly damaging our schools, our health care, and other national priorities.
In the news today: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott defended the state’s new Republican-pushed anti-abortion law in a truly bizarre appearance that had to be seen to be believed. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is a liar, again and still, and House Republican ex-officer Liz Cheney is among those calling him out on his hackish claims. Meanwhile, calls on Democratic senators to put voting rights and other existential priorities over the faux comity of the filibuster continue. Still.
Welcome back to a not-at-all political look at some television shows that somebody thought was a good idea but would live on as low-key means to scar a generation staying home sick from school. It’s not at all political, because we’re all very sick of politics and don’t want to talk about it anymore.
In the news today: It may be a mostly-quiet holiday weekend, but there’s no respite from the times in which we live. As schools grapple with our children’s safety and essential workers grapple with their own safety, during a pandemic(!), there are no shortage of Americans to threaten violence against them and anyone else who might take a emergent deadly disease more seriously than the conspiracy-minded would prefer they do.
In the news today: As the Northeast reels from new flooding, most other news today focuses on the Supreme Court decision allowing a plainly Roe-violating Texas anti-abortion law to take effect—sneeringly, according to the court’s majority, because the Texas plan of using civilian bounty hunters to enforce the law is such a thorny procedural question that the hard-right court has no choice but to let abortions be effectively banned in the state while the court ponders the issue.
In the news today: The Supreme Court allowed a Texas law banning abortion after 6 weeks from last menstruation to take effect, effectively gutting protections put in place by Roe v. Wade and blocking nearly all abortions performed within the state. No court explanation was offered.
In the news today: President Joe Biden gives a powerful defense of the decision to withdraw from the nation’s “forever war” in Afghanistan. Another fascist House Republican hints violence may be necessary to combat election “fraud” that his party made up—entirely—as an excuse for Trump’s well-deserved loss.
In the news today: It’s August 31st in Afghanistan, and the United States military has officially “withdrawn” from the country, ending two decades of war. Mainstream political reports simply refuse to stop fluffing Florida’s pandemic-spreading Ron DeSantis even after the state becomes the epicenter of an outbreak now spreading throughout the South. Hurricane Ida slammed into Louisiana and Mississippi yesterday, causing widespread damage.
On Sunday, President Joe Biden traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to witness the return ceremony for the bodies of 13 U.S. service members killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, last week. It may not be the last such memorial; there is no good way for the United States to extricate itself from a war it has lost. Each remaining ceremony will be given the sort of attention the last decade’s worth of U.S.
In the news today: Hurricane Ida struck coastal areas near New Orleans, Louisiana as a powerful Category 4 storm. The extent of damage in the hardest struck towns has het to be assessed, but pre-staged federal emergency crews are already said to be “in transit.” As Afghanistan evacuations continue, the U.S. has retaliated with drone strikes against ISIS-K-affiliated targets.
Leading the news today: A suicide bombing at a checkpoint outside the Kabul airport has killed at least 60 people, including 13 American military members. Military evacuation efforts will continue. There’s new movement in the push to learn the full extent of the Trump White House’s involvement in a seditious attempt to nullify an American election, and a new lawsuit against Trump from some of the Capitol Police officers who defended lawmakers that day.
In the news today: The new Supreme Court finally broke its pattern of “shadow docket” decisions declaring that the Trump administration could do whatever it wanted. What broke it? A new president not wanting to do what Trump wanted. Two congressmen aren’t getting the rave reviews they expected after they snuck into Afghanistan to film the evacuation for themselves—a move that could have endangered themselves and others. And Florida’s Gov.
In the news today: The House advanced an ambitious Democratic infrastructure bill today after negotiations with holdout Democrats, but the path ahead won’t be an easy one. U.S. forces have now evacuated nearly 71,000 people from the Kabul airport; whether the August 31st target for full military withdrawal is kept or extended remains dependent on the pace of progress.