In the news today: Newly released census data results in some reapportionment surprises an Arizona Republican “audit” of the state’s vote totals is shaping up to be every bit the fiasco it was predicted to be. The Biden administration makes another move to boost childhood nutrition during the pandemic crisis.
In the news today: While the rest of America struggled during COVID-19 lockdowns, the big banks once again made big bucks bleeding their most vulnerable customers. Police accountability is popular. And a tribute to jazz composer Geri Allen.
In the news today: The House passes a bill to grant statehood to Washington, D.C.; Biden attempts to repair international relationships at climate summit; and an internal Facebook report again confirms the company’s central role in spreading election disinformation, far-right hoaxes, and violence long before the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Here’s some of what you may have missed:
• House passes bill on statehood for Washington, D.C.
In today’s news: Another historic Biden nominee receives Senate confirmation. Far-right extremists and Tucker Carlson (but I repeat myself) are outraged by a jury’s conviction of George Floyd’s killer. Facebook continues to get people killed, this time through the promotion of con artists, vaccine hoax-crafters, and conspiracy theorists using the social network to disparage pandemic safety for self-promotion and to sell their own (fake) products.
In the news today: Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, on trial for the murder of George Floyd, was found guilty on all counts. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage—as do new climate dangers for Texas’ power grid. And the proposed independent probe of the events surrounding the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection continue to be blocked by the same Republican lawmakers whose disinformation and conspiracy theories led to the violence in the first place.
In the news today: Employees of conspiracy network OAN dish to The New York Times. The primary calendar fights continue. And Texas Republicans get an earful.
If you are a lawyer representing, say, a voting machine manufacturer suing the Trump-centric propagandist conspiracy network known as OAN, you probably already have today’s New York Times story on the network printed out, all the interesting bits highlighted. In an examination of OAN’s continued misinformation, disinformation, and genuine frontier gibberish, Times reporter Rachel Abrams drops a few intriguing little tidbits from inside Fort Alwaystrump.
Today in the news: After promoting false conspiracy theories in an attempt to overturn an American election, Republicans continue to whine that Joe Biden is being mean to them by proposing policies the American public strongly supports. Chicago officials release the video of police killing an unarmed 13-year-old child. And the federal government makes a new key conclusion about collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian intelligence.
There remain no good answers in Afghanistan. President Joe Biden’s announcement that U.S. military forces would be leaving that country by next Sept. 11, the two-decade anniversary of the original al Qaeda-plotted terrorist attacks against the United States that resulted in a U.S. military invasion to hunt down al Qaeda members and rout the theocratic Taliban government from power, was a decision that multiple U.S. presidents from then to now could never quite stomach.
In the news today: A new watchdog report finds that officials knew in advance that Congress itself was the “target” of Jan. 6 insurrectionists. The Republican Party continues to ponder retaliation against corporate critics. It’s a day that ends in “y”, and that means newly uncovered details about Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, drugs, and sex trafficking.
In today’s news: Appointments for receiving the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine were canceled throughout the country today after the Biden administration recommended a pause amid concerns over an extremely rare possible reaction to the “one-and-done” injection. Those vaccinations seem likely to resume after federal officials distribute new medical guidance on how to recognize and treat the blood clots.
In today’s news: More police violence. The Biden administration’s budget reverses the Trump course at the southern border. And it doesn’t look like corporations intend to heed Sen. Mitch McConnell’s warning to leave the cash on the desk and keep their opinions out of it.
If you are unsure about what is happening along the Ukraine-Russia border, congratulations: You have something in common with countless foreign policy experts watching what’s happening along the Ukraine-Russia border. Russian tanks and troops are massing on the border in numbers not seen since the 2014 Russian seizure and occupation of Crimea, but the true intent of the buildup is not clear.
In today’s news: Matt Gaetz, still. Americans who have served prison time are getting their voting rights back. Biden demonstrates it’s possible to criticize the Chinese government without being a festering boil of bigotries, an approach that still baffles Captain Golf Dude and Republican candidates alike.
In the news today: More trouble for Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, a planned Biden executive order on “ghost guns,” and a Georgia Republican acknowledges that the Georgia Republican drive to make voting harder was indeed based on Trump’s false “misinformation.
In today’s news: Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz may be denying allegations of sex trafficking (and a whole bunch else), but that didn’t stop him from pressing for a last-minute Trump pardon. Tucker Carlson continues to wave the flag of violent white nationalism. The filibuster fight takes a religious turn, as faith leaders press the Senate to stop hiding behind process to dodge issues of civil rights.
While Republicans continue to fume and promise consequences for corporations that are objecting to the party’s newest voter suppression laws, the Democratic Senate got some very good procedural news that will allow new infrastructure programs to move forward despite Republican vows to block them.
In today’s policy and politics news, a Democratic president has proposed a thing and Republicans are vowing to oppose that thing. Georgia Republicans are still reeling over the corporate backlash to their newest voter suppression law. A new poll shows that over half of Republican voters believe Republican false claims that the election was “stolen” from Trump, and almost that many falsely believe the attempted insurrection at the U.S.
It’s been a month and change since massive Texas blackouts caused by cold weather caused chaos, widespread property damage, and deaths, which has been enough time for Texas Republicans to move on from incoherent claims about it all being caused by windmills to incoherent legislative proposals aimed at deflecting attention from the state’s own screw-ups while once again sticking it to any energy company not chained to the state’s all-powerful fossil fuel industry.
It’s been a quiet Easter Sunday, but news still happens. Here’s some of what you may have missed.
• ‘I’ve decided to ‘identify’ as Chinese’: Mike Huckabee tweets disgusting ignorance
• Boehner let the vitriol fly during ‘wine-soaked’ recording of audiobook. One target was Ted Cruz
• We’re still fighting 53 years after Martin Luther King Jr.
It’s Infrastructure Week, at long last: After four years of Republican stonewalling and inaction, the Biden administration took less than three months to introduce $3 trillion plan to upgrade American roads, mass transit, water pipes, and other neglected public works. Georgia Republicans are under attack from the state’s corporate giants. Meanwhile, investigations of January 6 insurrectionists continue.
The Biden administration released a roughly $2 trillion infrastructure plan today, part of a larger planned package to address infrastructure decay, mitigate climate change, and upgrade the nation’s water lines, broadband access, and other services. Biden also made history with the first presidential proclamation recognizing the Transgender Day of Visibility.
In today’s news, The New York Times revealed that Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz has for months been under federal investigation for possible sex trafficking involving a 17-year-old.
Here’s what else you may have missed:
• Rep.
It’s bombshell after bombshell in the Trump Republican era, but this one is a stunner. The New York Times reports that Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, a vitriolic Trump loyalist, is “being investigated by the Justice Department” over a possible sexual relationship with a 17-year-old that may have included paying “for her to travel with him.
In today’s news: Biden makes a move to protect the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the Centers for Disease Control extended the federal moratorium on evictions during the pandemic, and still more evidence shows organizers of the Jan. 6 insurrection did indeed intend to overthrow the government. Here’s what you may have missed. Oh, and that boat? Not stuck anymore.
It’s Sunday, which means that Sen. Lindsey Graham was on television again to express unconvincing outrage about a Thing. County maps of COVID-19 vaccination efforts continue to show big disparities. Oh, and a Capitol insurrectionist seems quite sure that her white skin will spring her from any jail cell the feds try to toss her in.
Here’s some of what you may have missed:
• ‘We’re tired of it’: Sen.
In today’s not-quite news, a much-awaited White House press conference once again proved an exercise in media narcissism over substance. In the day’s actual news, however, there was quite a bit going on.
In today’s news: Georgia Republicans are making yet another attempt to legalize the partisan election stealing that Donald Trump demanded after his loss. It’s Equal Pay Day, the day American women working full-time catch up, on average, to what American men made in pay during 2020. (That’s right: nearly three extra months of work.) And Democrats are pushing forward with a new American infrastructure plan after four years of Republican efforts falling flat.
In the immediate aftermath of yet another mass shooting, lawmakers allied with the (now-bankrupt but still grifting) National Rifle Association wasted no time in repeating old defenses for why Americans must tolerate regular mass murders and nothing, absolutely nothing, ought to be done about it.
In today’s news, the House hears arguments for Washington, D.C., statehood, a House Republican announced he would no longer run for reelection after accusations of sexual assault, and some corporate promises to distance themselves from politicians who voted to overturn election results are turning out to have some big, big loopholes.