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.

For a brief period, Michael Flynn was the actual national security adviser to an actual U.S. presidential administration. He left in disgrace (i.e., was fired) after lying to Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak. Ultimately, he was fired by Donald Trump. For being a liar.

Let that sink in for a moment. Trump fired a guy for telling one lie.

The nation has its eyes on teachers, staff, and parents of school-aged children as many classrooms reopen to in-person learning amid the pandemic. We know teachers have had a world of stress to deal with, ranging from parents infuriated over mask requirements to worry about becoming ill (or, conversely, bringing the virus to school) themselves. National media has covered a disturbing trend about teachers losing their jobs in recent months, and it has nothing to do with the virus.

Desperate to both get through a Republican primary and not talk about his disastrous COVID-19 response, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott claimed earlier this past summer that he would finish the previous president’s stupid border wall. This week, he claimed he built it … or something he’d like to call a wall. Abbott on Tuesday touted a “steel wall” consisting of state-owned cars lined up along the Rio Grande.

From early on in the pandemic, there have been two sites that have competed to offer a view of the future, offering predictions of where COVID-19 cases and deaths go over coming months. One of these, the IHME projection from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.