In an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that aired Thursday, actor Alec Baldwin said he’s speaking out to clear up what he calls “misconceptions” around the tragic and accidental shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust. He denied that he pulled the trigger, and therefore doesn’t believe he was “responsible” for her death. 

Baldwin was often teary during the interview.

A large group of advocacy organizations has penned an open letter to “Reporters, Editors, Producers, and Anchors” pleading with them to actually try to inform the public about the Build Back Better plan. They are very polite about it, acknowledging that it’s a difficult thing to do.

Facebook is a menace. COVID-19 is a menace. Conservatism is a cesspool. Together, those three ingredients have created a toxic stew of malevolent death and devastation. We can talk about all those things in the abstract, look at the numbers and statistics, and catch the occasional whiff of seditionist right-wing rhetoric.

Manchin wreckEd latest move to reform 150-YEAR-OLD MINING LAW 

Sen. Joe Manchin III has got a lot of reasons for that smile.

In the last year of his first term as president, Ulysses S. Grant signed the 1872 Mining Law that set modest rules for individuals and corporations to stake mineral claims on land never before in private hands. That is, land snatched at gunpoint from Indigenous peoples.

Over the last few days, the COVID-19 news has been dominated by concern over the omicron variant. Scientists are worried by the number of changes to the virus, including changes to the critical spike protein. Health officials around the world are nervous because a majority of the planet is still surfing the delta wave, and the idea of something worse coming along at this moment is genuinely terrifying.

The whole “critical race theory” uproar is really about stripping schools of any teaching about racism or the contributions of Black people and other people of color to U.S. history, rolling back any tenuous progress made at teaching those important subjects in recent years. And, go figure, Black parents are noticing and taking issue with that—but, of course, their voices are getting much less amplification.