President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris began the first anniversary of January 6th on an appropriately solemn note, condemning Donald Trump for his election lies, honoring the Capitol police harmed, and urging the legislative branch to re-establish endangered voting rights protections.
But then something that could be described most kindly as “weird”—and more accurately as a solid r/nottheonion entry—happened.
“May his beautiful words be an inspiration to us,” Pelosi said.
There are caveats here. This was not an official Democratic event but, instead, a discussion hosted by the Librarian of Congress; Pelosi simply introduced this stuff, who knows who actually wanted Hamilton sung quarantine-karaoke style as part of a January 6th remembrance; and some people, like librarians, actually like the musical. But, still…not good!
Are we trying to commemorate an attack that struck at the core of our democracy? Or are we running a Democratic pledge drive? Because it feels like Hamilton belongs at one and not the other.
In the future, when it comes to insurrection remembrance: Please don’t cringe. It’s important.
On the anniversary of the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called on the Senate to pass voting rights reform legislation to ensure “that our country’s destiny is determined by the voice of the people, and not by the violent whims of lies.”
Schumer warned that Donald Trump, and others who have attempted to downplay the severity of last year’s events, pose a threat to the Republic. “Democracy could—God forbid, God forbid, horror of horrors—vanish,” he said from the Senate floor.
The speech was tinged with the personal, too. Schumer recalled a police officer grabbing him by the collar and ushering him into a safe room, but not before he passed within 30 feet of the rioters. “I was told later that one of them reportedly said, ‘There’s the big Jew, let’s get him,'” he said.
.@SenSchumer: "The warnings of history are clear. When democracies are in danger, it often starts with a mob. That's what happened a year ago here in this building, a mob attack." pic.twitter.com/o500UMLw6T
“January 6 was an attempt to reverse, through violent means, the outcome of a free and fair election,” he said. “An insurrection, call it what it is.”
And it’s not something that we can just move past, he said, because its effects are ongoing. He pointed out that a minority of Americans—but a majority of Republican voters—believe Trump won and that the 2020 election was rigged. “What if a majority of this country, because of these pernicious actions, start believing it?” he said. “I can’t predict the details, but I can predict that it will diminish the greatness of this country in small and even large ways.”
The only way to move forward, he said, is to remember what happened that day and pass legislation to ensure that it never happens again. Schumer called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s suggestion of reforming the Electoral Count Act “the bare minimum” and insisted instead that Congress pass the sweeping John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. He didn’t mention, however, that passing those laws would require Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) to throw their weight behind filibuster reform, which seems increasingly unlikely. (Schumer is plenty aware that the filibuster can have political benefits; along with Senate Democrats in the early 2000s, he used it against President George W. Bush’s judicial nominees in a way that, some argue, laid the groundwork for its unhinged use by Republicans now.)
“Let the anniversary of January 6 forever serve as a reminder that the march to perfect our democracy is never over,” he said, “that our democracy is a precious, sometimes fragile gift, purchased by those who struggled before us, and that all of us now must do our part to keep the American vision going in the present and into the future.”
On the eve of the first anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot, Attorney General Merrick Garland urged Congress to safeguard elections by giving the Justice Department new powers to protect voting rights.
“The Department of Justice will continue to do all it can to protect voting rights with the enforcement powers we have,” he said in an address delivered Wednesday afternoon. “It is essential that Congress act to give the department the powers we need to ensure that every eligible voter can cast a vote that counts.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland just pledged to hold all Jan. 6 perpetrators "at any level" accountable under the law: "We follow the facts. Not an agenda or an assumption. The facts tell us where to go next." pic.twitter.com/Ofyx0uRNoM
In his speech, Garland referenced the Supreme Court’s decision in the 2013 case Shelby County v. Holder, which gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act and eliminated the provision barring historically discriminatory jurisdictions from altering voting laws without preclearing those changes with the DOJ. Without new legislation to restore those powers, Garland implied, the department lacks the proper tools to protect the right of every American to vote.
Garland’s remarks were delivered as Democratic politicians prepare to mount a new push to pass voting rights legislation in response to widespread Republican efforts to suppress the votes of Democratic-leaning minorities, gerrymander congressional maps, and lay the groundwork to contest close election results. Parts of his speech echoed the claims of top Democrats like Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), who have attempted to draw comparisons between the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol and the Republican officials who have seized on Trump’s election lies to enact anti-democratic legislation.
“Many of those enactments have been justified by unfounded claims of material vote fraud in the 2020 election,” Garland noted. “Those claims, which have corroded people’s faith in the legitimacy of our elections, have been repeatedly refuted.”
Garland also addressed, albeit with his trademark sobriety, the growing chorus of criticism from the left that his department is not acting quickly or aggressively enough to prosecute the insurrectionists and those who instigated them, including ex-Trump officials and even the former president. Garland did not go into detail about what future cases the DOJ plans to bring, but he promised that the feds would seek to hold all January 6 perpetrators “at any level” accountable—“whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy.”
“We understand that there is broad public interest in our investigation,” he said. “We understand there are questions about how long the investigation will take and about what exactly we are doing. Our answer is and will continue to be the same answer we would give with respect to any ongoing investigation: As long as it takes, and whatever it takes for justice to be done, consistent with facts and the law.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James is ramping up her civil investigation into the Trump Organization’s business practices. On Monday, court filings showed New York is subpoenaing two of Donald Trump’s children, Ivanka and Donald Jr.—who have already said they won’t comply. The filing also confirmed James had subpoenaed Trump himself, which was reported a month ago.
NEW YORK (AP) — New York attorney general subpoenas former President Donald Trump, two eldest children in probe of the family's business.
As my colleague Russ Choma wrote in May, James’ investigation has been ongoing since 2019. The probe, he wrote, “included questions of whether Trump had fraudulently inflated or deflated the values of his properties when seeking loans or tax breaks.” Another Trump son, Eric, already sat for a deposition relating to the case in October 2020.
But Ivanka and Donald Jr., who have both been heavily involved in the Trump Organization, aren’t handing over any documents without a fight. The two have filed already filed motions to end the subpoenas, ABC News reports.
Because this is a civil investigation, James could file a lawsuit if she finds sufficient evidence, but she could not press criminal charges. However, James’ office is also involved in a criminal probe, spearheaded by former Manhattan DA Cy Vance, of potential tax fraud by Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg. Vance, who left office last week, is leaving the investigation to his successor, Alvin Bragg.
Back in 2012, a group of 200 fast-food workers in New York City walked off the job to demand a $15 minimum wage and a union. Their protest seeded what has become known as the “Fight for 15” movement, which has spent the last decade working to raise the minimum wage across the country.
Now in its 10th anniversary year, this movement will see record success in 2022 as 25 states and 56 local jurisdictions increase wage floors for workers, according to a report from the National Employment Law Project released at the end of last month.
Twenty-one of those states raised wages on New Years Day, along with 35 cities and counties. The remaining increases will take effect later in the year, and the majority of these wage hikes will reach or exceed $15 per hour for some or all employers.
“Since the first Fight for $15 protest in 2012, the movement has grown tremendously, accelerated by the pandemic’s exposure of stark inequities and hazardous work conditions,” Rebecca Dixon, the executive director of NELP, said in a December statement. “Underpaid workers, especially Black and brown workers, have been mobilizing to demand higher wages, safer workplace conditions, and dignified jobs—and they’re succeeding.”
For many years, some politicians and the business lobby framed the push for a $15 minimum wage as a long-shot and an economy-hurting proposition. By requiring higher wages, the argument went, policy makers would force businesses with slim profit margins to lay off workers, essentially eliminating wages for some in order to raise them for others.
But as the pandemic made a number of frontline low-wage jobs particularly unappealing—from retail to grocery stores to restaurants—many employers in those industries have begun to offer higher wages, suggesting that “despite previous claims about the unaffordability of higher wages, many employers have always been able to pay more but chose not to do so,” note the NELP report’s authors.
Now this change has become permanent in broad swathes of the country. In his 2020 campaign for the presidency, Joe Biden also promised to raise the federal minimum wage to $15—a move that would push pay up in the 20 states that refuse to raise wages above this federal floor, which currently stands at $7.25 per hour. Democrats included the $15 change in early versions of Biden’s stimulus bill last year, but it was removed from that legislation in order to garner enough Senate votes for passage, and the effort is now stalled at the federal level. The administration did, however, increase minimum hourly pay for federal contractors nationwide to $15 with an executive order this past April, and the change went into effect in November.
Rep. Liz Cheney, the top Republican on the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot, said on Sunday that the findings of her committee have led her to believe that Donald Trump is “unfit for future office” and that if he were to win a future presidential election, it could destroy American democracy.
“We entrust the survival of our republic into the hands of the chief executive,” Cheney told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on This Week. “And when a president refuses to tell the mob to stop, when he refuses to defend any of the coordinate branches of government, he cannot be trusted.”
On CBS’s Face the Nation, Cheney delivered a similar message about Trump. “This is a man who is simply too dangerous ever to play a role again in our democracy,” she said.
Cheney’s conclusions, she said, stemmed in part from the findings of her committee about Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021. She explained that her committee had testimony showing that while armed rioters invaded the US Capitol building, threatening violence in service of the conspiracy theory that the election was stolen, Trump sat in the dining room next to the Oval Office watching the riot on television. According to Cheney’s summary of testimony given to the January 6 committee, he initially ignored pleas from his staff, his daughter Ivanka, and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy that he issue a message to the insurrectionists asking them to stop.
Rep. Liz Cheney, the top Republican on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, says former Pres. Trump is "clearly unfit for future office, clearly can never be anywhere near the Oval Office ever again." https://t.co/zo7wSq6hc1pic.twitter.com/Q8v97iEqcY
“The president could have, at any moment, walked those very few steps into the briefing room, gone on live television, and told his supporters who were assaulting the Capitol to stop,” Cheney said on This Week. “He could have told them to stand down. He could have told them to go home—and he failed to do so. It’s hard to imagine a more significant and more serious dereliction of duty than that.”
It wasn’t until 4:17 pm that day—two hours after the rioters first entered the Capitol building—that Trump tweeted a video calling on the mob to “go home,” while also falsely claiming that the election was “fraudulent.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the first-term member of Congress from Georgia, styles herself as a warrior for free speech. In recent years, she has issued hate-filled tweets, encouraged violence on social media, and promoted QAnon conspiracies. In response, lawmakers quickly stripped Greene of her House committee assignments, and Twitter temporarily suspended her account several times.
But on Sunday, Twitter finally suspended her personal account, @mtgreenee, for good, following what the company said were “repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy.” In a statement to the New York Times, Twitter added: “We’ve been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations.”
Twitter’s action came after Greene published a 19-tweet thread on New Years day lamenting the status of unvaccinated people as a “subclass” and falsely claiming that “extremely high” numbers of Covid vaccine deaths are being ignored. She concluded the since-deleted thread with a call to arms: “Before Covid, We were free. After Covid, We are no longer free. The question is will the people break free from covid psychosis before it’s too late.”
Earlier this year, Greene claimed on Twitter that her Crossfit exercise routine would protect her from Covid. She also argued that schools and businesses should not shut down to prevent Covid spread, since cancer kills a comparable number of people. (This is a logically flawed argument for a host of reasons, not the least of which being that unlike Covid, cancer is not spread through human contact.)
Twitter’s decision does not extend to Greene’s congressional Twitter account, @RepMTG, which is still active.
Greene responded to Twitter’s suspension on GETTR, a conservative social media platform run by a former adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns.
“Twitter is an enemy to America and can’t handle the truth,” she wrote. “That’s fine, I’ll show America we don’t need them and it’s time to defeat our enemies.”
Yesterday, crews who were working to remove the base of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, made an exciting discovery beneath the monument: a copper box from 1887 believed to contain dozens of pieces of historic memorabilia.
As I write this, conservation experts in the state’s capital are opening and examining the time capsule’s contents, which turn out to be slightly waterlogged but in surprisingly good condition. The artifacts uncovered thus far include a small Bible, Confederate money, a book entitled Minutae of Soldier Life, a Civil War bullet called a Minié ball, and a printed image from an 1865 issue of Harper’s Weekly depicting someone grieving over Abraham Lincoln’s grave.
This isn’t the first time this month that the same team of conservators has opened a container beneath the Lee monument, which departing Gov. Ralph Northam had ordered taken down in September. Last week, they pried open a lead box found in the pedestal, but the box did not match historical descriptions of the formal time capsule. It contained few artifacts and was likely placed by the people who erected the monument.
As lead conservator Kate Ridgway prepared to slice open the side of the copper box to free its waterlogged contents today, she had some advice for anyone considering creating one. “Next time capsule,” she said, “maybe not so much stuff in it.”
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo
It’s official. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said this morning on Fox News that he won’t support the Build Back Better bill, effectively killing the Democratic Party’s $2 trillion sweeping domestic policy proposal. “I tried everything humanly possible. I can’t do it,” he said. “This is a no on this legislation. I have tried everything I know to do.”
Manchin has been hinting for months that he wouldn’t support the centerpiece of President Joe Biden’s agenda, raising opposition to its overall price tag as well as measures that would have extended a poverty-busting child tax credit and paid family leave, imposed a methane fee on emissions from fossil fuel producers, and expanded Medicare to cover hearing aids for the elderly.
Democrats responded on Sunday with outrage and despair. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told CNN’s Jake Tapper that Manchin “will have a lot of explaining to do to the people of West Virginia, to tell him why he doesn’t have the guts to take on the drug companies, to lower the cost of prescription drugs, why he is not prepared to expand home healthcare.” Sanders suggested that Democrats bring the bill to the Senate floor for a vote to force Manchin to put his “no” vote on the record. “Let Mr. Manchin explain to the people of West Virginia why he doesn’t have the guts to stand up to powerful special interests,” he told Tapper. “If he doesn’t have the courage to do the right thing for the working families of West Virginia and America, let him vote no in front of the whole world.”
"If he doesn't have the courage to do the right thing for the working families of West Virginia and America, let him vote no in front of the whole world." Sen. Bernie Sanders reacts to Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin saying "no" to Biden's Build Back Better Act. #CNNSOTUpic.twitter.com/oEQaD19tAd
The bill is loaded with extremely popular provisions designed to shore up the “care economy” to support families from birth to death, with expanded child care assistance, universal preschool and help for people caring for aging family members. The bill set aside money for pandemic prevention and would also devote $550 billion to combatting climate change. Most of it would be paid for with higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy. Read here to see just five of the good things you probably didn’t know were in the bill and which are now probably never going to happen, not because of Joe Manchin but because this is America, a failed democracy, where not a single Republican senator will support any legislation that would actually make people’s lives a little better.
Activists took the abortion pill in front of the Supreme Court while justices heard arguments for the Mississippi abortion case. Chip Somodevilla/ Getty
The Food and Drug Administration announced on Thursday that it will loosen restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone, allowing people to receive the pill via mail or pharmacy instead of having to appear in person at a clinic or hospital.
The decision comes while the Supreme Court deliberates over a Mississippi ban on abortion after 15 weeks. The court is widely expected to use the case to roll back nearly a half century of abortion rights. The court ruled last week that an abortion restriction in Texas could remain in effect.
For almost 30 years, the FDA restricted the use of mifepristone through its drug safety program, even though the drug has long been known to be safe and effective. The new change “will allow many patients to access care earlier with fewer burdens and costs,” ACLU attorney Julia Kaye told the Washington Post.
Misoprostol, the second pill needed in medication abortion, has long been accessible at a pharmacy with a prescription. Earlier this year, the Biden Administration temporarily lifted the restriction on mifepristone to ensure abortion access continued despite the challenges of the pandemic.
According to the FDA, the restriction was modified in order to “reduce burden on patient access and the health care delivery system and to ensure the benefits of the product outweigh the risks.”
Yet the change won’t mean a whole lot in much of the country. Nineteen states, including Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama (which recently introduced a “heartbeat bill” similar to Texas’) restrict the use of telemedicine for abortion. People across the South and the Midwest will have to travel to sanctuary states like California or New York for telemedicine appointments and to receive the medication.
In North Carolina’s largest newspapers today, the News & Observer, an editorial ran calling Mark Meadows—who rode a wave of “extreme gerrymandering” to Congress; said he wanted to “send Obama home to Kenya“; co-founded the Freedom Caucus; helped shut down the government in 2013; groveled to become Trump’s chief of staff; convinced Trump to not institute a mask mandate; cast aside COVID-19 protocols himself; helped abet Trump’s attempt to retain power; pushed the Department of Justice to challenge the election’s integrity; drove us toward the insurrection; texted with Fox News hosts on Jan. 6, who were freaking out when they realized it had gone too far; lied about his role in all of that in his book; and was held in contempt last night by the House—an “embarrassment” and a “disgrace.”
Well, hard to argue with that. I agree.
So, congratulations, Mark Meadows. You’ve long embarrassed me personally as a fellow North Carolinian. But I’m glad to see so many others finally see how you’re up there with former North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms—the harbinger of all the “racist, divisive, pro-government (when it favors the wealthy), and anti-democratic” lawmakers to come—as the worst of the worst.
Months after Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison for the murder of George Floyd, the former police officer on Monday pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights violation, likely extending the time he’ll spend behind bars by two and a half years.
Chauvin admitted that he had violated Floyd’s constitutional rights to be free from unreasonable seizures. Federal prosecutors will ask a judge to sentence Chauvin to 25 years in federal prison, to be served concurrently with his murder sentence. That means that even if Chauvin were to successfully appeal his murder conviction, he would still be on the hook for civil rights violations.
Chauvin also pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights violation for an unrelated 2017 case in which he hit a then-14-year-old boy in the head with a flashlight and knelt on his neck. Chauvin had pleaded not guilty to that case in September.
Chauvin may serve the remainder of his sentence in federal rather than state prison, which is typically safer. Legal experts, according to the New York Times, said the federal case could have resulted in a life sentence.
Floyd’s brother Philonise and the victim in the 2017 incident were both in the courtroom today. After the hearing, Philonese reportedly said, “It’s a good day for justice.”
Due to his refusal to cooperate with the congressional committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot, Mark Meadows, a former representative for North Carolina and Donald Trump’s final chief of staff, was held in contempt late Tuesday night by the legislative body in which he once served.
Meadows initially seemed to cooperate with the January 6 committee, supplying it with thousands of documents and signaling that he would sit for a deposition. At the time, Meadows’ relatively conciliatory approach cut a sharp contrast with the pugnacious attitude of Trump guru Steve Bannon, who chose to rebuff the committee at every turn. But Meadows has now joined Bannon as the second Trump associate referred to the Department of Justice for possible criminal contempt charges for refusing to comply with the committee’s investigation. Last month, the DOJ obtained an indictment against Bannon.
Meadows’ tenuous relationship with the committee collapsed when he cited a legally dubious argument that executive privilege allowed him to withhold select documents. Due to the disagreement, Meadows ceased cooperating and failed to show up for a deposition, although he told the committee that he would answer select questions in writing. In a letter to Meadows’ lawyer, committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) asserted that Meadows had failed to state which specific areas of inquiry he considered to be covered under executive privilege and announced that the panel would vote to recommend that the House charge him with contempt. The House echoed the committee’s recommendation Tuesday evening in a 222–208 vote, with every Democrat and two Republicans—Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.)—voting in favor.
Some of the documents Meadows did agree to hand over have already shed new light on Trump’s frantic and unprecedented efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In its referral to the House, the January 6 committee unveiled new information that it had gleaned from Meadows’ emails and personal text messages, including a chilling PowerPoint reportedly created by conspiracy theorist Phil Waldron that urged Trump to declare a national security emergency, proclaim all electronic voting invalid, and ask Congress to decide on a path forward. In addition, the document recommended that Vice President Mike Pence reject electors from “states where fraud occurred” or replace them with Republicans. Meadows’ lawyer told the New York Times that the former chief of staff had received the PowerPoint but had done nothing with it.
The material Meadows turned over to the committee also included a message in which Meadows informed someone that the National Guard would stand by to “protect pro Trump people”; a message in which an organizer of the January 6 rally asked Meadows for “some direction” because the situation had gotten out of hand; and an email discussing a ploy to appoint alternate slates of electors to keep Trump in power.
In a dramatic twist on Tuesday night, Rep. Cheney revealed to the committee a string of text messages sent to Meadows by Republicans, Fox News hosts, and even the former president’s own son, Don Jr., imploring the White House to take stronger action to quell the mob.
The Department of Justice will now have to decide whether to enforce Congress’ vote and seek an indictment of Meadows for contempt of Congress. If convicted on such a charge, he could face up to one year in prison.
On Monday, the House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol released text messages sent to Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, on January 6. These messages contained a deluge of concern from every stripe of Republican that the riot had—to quote a text that Donald Trump Jr. sent to Meadows—“gotten out of hand.”
Interesting.
Since then, we have not heard much of that from Republicans. In fact, we’ve been told it was not that bad, a “normal tourist visit.” And even if it was a semi-coup… maybe it was antifa? The FBI? And wait, sorry, it also was not really that bad—it was maybe even good.
Yet, on the day, the texts painted a different picture. They show three hosts from Fox News—Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Brian Kilmeade—asking for Trump to do something to stop the attack. They show Trump administration officials freaking out.
And they show Meadows—who has been on a media tour to promote his new book, even as Congress moves to hold him in contempt—agreeing he needs to get Trump to do something (“I’m pushing it hard,” he messaged) about the harsh reality that the lie the administration spread about a stolen election had sparked a violent attempt to overthrow the government.
All of this was put forward by Republican Liz Cheney as part of her statement in front of the committee. You can read all the messages, and her comments, here.
Ingraham text 2 Meadows on 1/6 (per Cheney):
“[Trump] needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy."
Ingraham that night: -Leads w/ antifa -Suggests provocateurs -Suggests it was just 3 dozen ppl (McCarthy corrects her) pic.twitter.com/144lUoFdB7
It makes something clear. For a moment, the reality pierced through to Fox News, Republicans, and Trump administration officials that they had been trying to wreck democracy—and would even have to live with those consequences.
Everyone was in Meadows’ messages. They were sort of atoning and trying to fix it. Because it got too real.
Kilmeade requested Trump “get… on tv” to stop the insurrection. In the almost year since, Kilmeade has been on TV himself. In fact, he was on Fox & Friends this morning, but he didn’t bother to mention the texts today.
The same goes for Sean Hannity, who on January 6 asked Meadows if Trump could “make a statement” and “ask people to leave the Capitol.” Since then, Hannity has made a practice of soft-pedaling the insurrection to such a degree that compatriot Geraldo Riveria has said he is “gaslighting” viewers about it.
Laura Ingraham—who texted Meadows that day to say that Trump “needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home”—spent a good deal of time making clear that what happened on January 6 was not good. It was wrong, she repeatedly said. But then, in her explanation, she made sure to mention antifa could be involved. She added that maybe the election was rigged.
And, in that vein, for the past year or so, Republicans, and Fox News, have downplayed the seriousness of what happened on January 6.
But let’s remember the energy.
America watched as people rushed the Capitol in an attempt to overthrow an election to keep in power an unelected official—or, in his parlance: a loser!
Since then, they’ve tried to rewrite January 6 in whataboutisms. Any mention of the horror has to be sprinkled with a mention that antifa could’ve been involved and that the security should have been better. It can be a full out denial (Tucker Carlson) or an attempt to mention a few caveats (Ingraham), but in each case acknowledging January 6 was evil requires distancing themselves from what happened.
Because to fully explain it—without lying—would require all of them to acknowledge they fueled an attempt to topple democracy.
Emergency workers search what is left of the Mayfield Consumer Products Candle Factory after it was destroyed by a tornado in Mayfield, Kentucky, on December 11, 2021.John Amis/Getty
A deadly and rare December tornado outbreak killed dozens and left a trail of devastation across the Southeast and Midwest Friday night, with one twister suspected of ripping through four states and flinging debris over 30,000 feet in the air, the height flown by commercial airplanes. Between 70 and 100 people are estimated to have died in Kentucky alone, according to Gov. Andy Beshear, who said the storm was “the most devastating tornado event in our state’s history.”
In Mayfield, Kentucky, much of the town was leveled and a candlemaking factory was ripped apart, trapping some of the building’s 110 occupants:
In Edwardsville, Illinois, an Amazon warehouse partially collapsed, sending a wall the size of a football field and a section of roof tumbling. At least two people were killed there and others were trapped, with some still unaccounted for as of early Saturday morning.
While there were several tornadoes in the cluster, the National Weather Service is investigating whether a single twister—which is being called the “quad-state tornado”—traveled more than 230 miles as part of the storm, through Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky. If confirmed, it would set a record for the longest continuous tornado in US history, according to NBC News.
Tornado frequency is increasing in the Mississippi Valley, and research indicates that may be due to climate change, as “Tornado Alley”—the belt across the central US belt where these storms have traditionally been most common—shifts eastward. The storm formed as a cold front slammed into unusually warm weather in the region, a meteorologist explained to the New York Times. While tornadoes in December are not unheard of, a storm system this powerful normally occurs in April or May. “These are the ingredients for big storms in the spring, but not in mid-December,” Dan Pydynowski, a senior meteorologist for Accuweather, told the Times.
Around 250,000 homes in the region were without power as of Saturday morning.
In a stinging rebuke of today’s Supreme Court decision to allow Texas’ extreme anti-abortion law to remain in effect while local abortion providers sue state officials, Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a stark warning of long-lasting consequences. “I doubt the Court, let alone the country, is prepared for them,” she wrote in a published dissentthat highlights the “catastrophic consequences” pregnant people have already endured under the law, and draws startling comparisons between the majority’s decision and Civil War–era defenses of slavery.
Joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer in her dissent, Sotomayor slammed the Texas law as “an unconstitutional scheme” enacted in “open defiance” of women’s rights—a “madness” that the Supreme Court should have put to an end to months ago.By allowing the law to continue, she argued, the court “betrays not only the citizens of Texas, but also our constitutional system of government.” (The court effectively allowed the Texas law to take effect back on September 1.)
Sotomayor, who expressed similar alarm during oral arguments in another unrelated abortion case this month, described the Texas law as a “calamitous” because it empowers bounty hunters to prey upon an extraordinary range of potential victims: “a medical provider, a receptionist, a friend who books an appointment, or a ride-share driver who takes a woman to a clinic.” Beyond that, she wrote the architects of the law went to extraordinary lengths to target people involved in offering abortion care with “uniquely punitive” measures, a catalogue of norm-breaking departures from state law that amounts to “a weapon.”
In an especially gripping section of the 13-page opinion, Sotomayor wrote that Texas’ brazen challenge to federal law “echoes the philosophy of John C. Calhoun, a virulent defender of the slaveholding South who insisted that States had the right to ‘veto’ or ‘nullif[y]’ any federal law with which they disagreed.”
“The Nation fought a Civil War over that proposition,” she argued. “But Calhoun’s theories were not extinguished.”
"Handmaids" rally as the Supreme Court hears arguments over a Texas law that bans abortion after six weeks.Jeff Malet/Newscom/Zuma
Today, in what could at best be considered a mixed ruling for abortion rights, the Supreme Court decided that abortion providers may sue some state officials in federal court over an extreme Texas abortion law. But in a huge blow, the court will also allow the law to remain in effect while the case moves forward.
2) Although the decision is technically a win for abortion providers (and pregnant people) in Texas, it's a very narrow one, and potentially not enough to support effective relief on remand.
SB 8 bans abortion after six weeks’ gestation and also allows any private citizen to sue both abortion providers and anyone who “aids and abets” patients trying to obtain an abortion. As Becca Andrews wrote recently, since the law took effect this fall, it has been “causing very real harm to pregnant Texans”:
I have spent the past couple months reporting out of reproductive health clinics for a book project I’m working on, and I’ve seen Texans seeking care in Alabama, Kansas, and Tennessee. The one that sticks with me was a young woman who came to Huntsville, Alabama, after traveling to Jackson, Mississippi, where she was told she was barely over that clinic’s gestational limit. She had been traveling for almost a week and was exhausted. She told me it was only the second time in her life that she had ever left Texas.
For now, that draconian abortion law will remain in effect, but the legal fight will continue in federal courts, even though the law was designed with the intent to escape just that.
To translate, the litigation can continue against some defendants but the practical effect is abortion is still mostly banned in Texas and the public health crisis and havoc continues. #liberateabortion#BansOffOurBodies#abortionisessential
In its decision on Friday, the court ruled in two distinct but related cases, neither of which directly considered the constitutionality of the law: Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson, brought by abortion providers that challenged the standing of the law and providers’ ability to sue in federal court, which the law was designed to evade; and United States v. Texas, in which the US Justice Department sued the state of Texas. While the court allows the providers in Whole Woman’s Health to move their case forward, it dismissed United States v. Texas, throwing into question its jurisdiction to intervene when individual states pass laws that affect the constitutional rights of citizens.
Later this year, the court will rule on a separate abortion rights case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which considers the constitutionality of a 2018 law that banned abortion in Mississippi after 15 weeks. (The law never went into effect—its enforcement was blocked in a federal appellate court.) This case has the power to overturn Roe, a fate that Becca wrote seems increasingly likely following oral arguments earlier this month.
Liz Cheney, Vice Chair, of the January 6 Committee, speaks to Rep. Jamie Raskin after a meeting. Rod Lamkey/CNP/ZUMA
On Thursday, a federal appeals court ruled against former President Donald Trump, demanding he turn over White House records to the congressional committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot.
Over the 2021 summer, the Jan. 6 committee filed a request for a range of documents related to the riot from the period between December 1, 2020 and January 20, 2021. For the last few months, Trump and his lawyers have been waging a frantic legal battle to prevent their release.
Trump previously lost the first round before U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who rejected his lawyers’ argument that the documents were protected by executive privilege and ordered that he turn them over to the committee. Current president Joe Biden declined to back Trump’s claims, which would’ve thrown more weight behind his argument, and waived privilege over the documents.
Trump quickly appealed the decision to the DC Circuit, and asked Chutkan to issue a stay on her own decision. She declined, forcing Trump’s legal team to file an emergency motion with the Appeals Court, which issued a temporary injunctionhalting the documents’ release.
But the injunction was short lived, and the three-judge Appeals Court panel composed of two Obama appointees and one Biden appointee, ruled 3-0 that Trump was obliged to turn over the documents.
“On the record before us, former President Trump has provided no basis for this court to override President Biden’s judgment and the agreement and accommodations worked out between the Political Branches over these documents,” read the opinion.
This is almost certainly not the end of the legal battle. Trump now has 14 days to petition the Supreme Court to take up the case.
In a watershed moment for the recent wave of pandemic-inspired labor organizing, workers at a Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, voted today to form the coffee chain’s first union in the United States.
Despite months of opposition from company leadership, 19 workers at the Elmwood location in Buffalo voted in favor of unionizing in the election, conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. Only eight opposed.
Workers at a second Buffalo location, however, voted 8–12 against unionizing. At a third local store, workers voted 15–9 to unionize, but the outcome remains unclear pending seven challenged ballots.
Among the unionizing staffers’ major demands are steady pay increases for longtime employees and better training and staffing. The employees will join the Workers United union.
Watch workers at the Elmwood location the moment they realized they’d won:
BREAKING: Starbucks location on Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo has voted to become Starbucks’ first unionized store in the U.S., by vote of 19-8.
David Perdue getting the MAGA rally treatment during his reelection campaignRobin Rayne/Zuma
Remember that cult of personality who selfishly had his supporters commit an almost-coup about a year ago because he couldn’t accept that he lost? Well, it seems he’s still the de facto leader of the Republican party.
As Georgia heads for a gubernatorial election, a new poll of likely Republican voters suggests that former President Trump’s endorsement could sway the primary.
An initial survey of 500 Georgians found that 41 percent would vote for incumbent Brian Kemp, while 22 percent favored former Sen. David Perdue, who lost reelection to Senator Jon Ossoff earlier this year.
Then, respondents were then informed that Trump had endorsed Perdue—after that, many potential voters changed their tune. The knowledge of Trump’s endorsement tied Kemp and Perdue at 34 percent.
GA GOP Gov primary poll (Fox5/InsiderAdvantage)
Brian Kemp 41% David Perdue 22% Vernon Jones 11% Kandiss Taylor 4%
Respondents were *then* told Perdue has Trump's support and were asked their preference again:
The survey is far from definitive, but it does suggest that many Republican voters remain beholden to Trump and his opinions.
As I pointed out last week, Kemp is a staunch conservative who enacted laws suppressing voting rights and banning abortions as early as six weeks (though the latter legislation hasn’t gone into effect, pending a federal appeals court decision). But Kemp’s loyalty to Trump faltered when he refused to overturn the results of the presidential election in Georgia, and Trump has retaliated by promoting a senator whose failed campaign was roiled by controversy.
The slow death of democracy is dumber than I thought it’d be: A series of Trump press releases denouncing anyone who didn’t agree he won in 2020.
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