In the news today: Republicans have settled on a message of fear via racist dog whistles, along with Donald Trump’s Big Lie, heading into the 2022 midterms. It’s been six months since the attack on the U.S. Capitol that came about because of that lie, and Republicans are fully embracing it—along with the attack itself. Nikole Hannah-Jones tells UNC to pound sand. Sadly, the Fourth of July weekend was a bloody one.

Farmworkers were among the essential workers honored at the White House’s July 4 celebration this past weekend. United Farm Workers (UFW) said that the two families, from Georgia and Washington, represented the nation’s nearly 2.5 million farmworkers. More than a million lack legal status, and the families used the platform to urge leaders to pass permanent relief for farmworkers everywhere.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem sure has her priorities straight. When it comes to bright, shiny, jingoistic nonsense, she’s got the instincts of Leni Riefenstahl. When it comes to anything that actually matters—like, say, protecting the lives of her constituents—she’s more like Lennie from Of Mice and Men.

Rachel Nichols, a white ESPN host, is in damage control mode after suggesting Maria Taylor, a Black host of the network’s NBA Countdown, got the job because of mounting pressure on ESPN to diversify. “I wish Maria Taylor all the success in the world—she covers football, she covers basketball,” Nichols said during a recording of a more than 20-minute phone call The New York Times obtained.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, normally relatively press-shy and preferring to handle her own image-making (for better or much, much worse), has apparently decided she needs to bolster her reputation as a serious lawmaker. She also wants to make explicit the narrative she’s been anxious to set about herself as the inheritor of John McCain’s legacy. She, or her PR flack, got the Associated Press’ Lisa Mascaro and Nicholas Riccardi to bite.