And another day of a stalled Senate, delayed impeachments, eroding prospects, the 14th Amendment, GOP plan for minority rule, federal aid, ousting the AG, deceits, racists, anti-abortion measures, and ‘Bigfoot’ hunting season comes to a close:
“The hysteria on the right over my comment that politicians should assert the truth before they share other ideas tells you everything you need to know about the panic on the right over media coverage/scrutiny of their dependence on liars and disinformation.” -- Nicole Wallace
Deaths
US: 424,177 (+3892)
World: 2,116,319 (+15,931)
Cases
US: 25,390,042 (+193,956)
World: 98,742,710 (+653,979)
The Senate is stalled as Schumer and McConnell work out power sharing. Put simply, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is making a play to exert as much power over the Senate in his new role as possible and Schumer is going to have to make some impossible choices about how to go forward. — And again, one man, Mitch McConnell, has more power than one person should have.
Senate impeachment trial arguments to start February 9.
The prospects of convicting Donald Trump are eroding as the GOP grows vocal against Senate impeachment proceedings.
Democrats float 14th Amendment to bar Trump from ever holding office again. The discussions are in the early stages — and top members of the Senate caucus aren’t yet convinced it’s a viable remedy — but senators are exploring their options as they plot a strategy after Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol.
The Insurrection Was Put Down. The GOP Plan for Minority Rule Marches On. This isn’t about which party wins elections, but whether democracy itself survives. Some anti-democratic measures were deliberately built into a system that was designed to benefit rich white men: The Senate was created to boost small conservative states and serve as a check on the more democratic House of Representatives, while the Electoral College prevented the direct election of the president and enhanced the power of slave states through the three-fifths clause. But these features have metastasized to a degree the Founding Fathers could have never anticipated, and in ways that threaten the very notion of representative government. In the past decade, the GOP has dropped any pretense of trying to appeal to a majority of Americans. Instead, recognizing that the structure of America’s political institutions diminishes the influence of urban areas, young Americans, and voters of color, it caters to a conservative white minority that is drastically overrepresented in the Electoral College, the Senate, and gerrymandered legislative districts.
Biden signs orders to get checks and food aid to low-income Americans -- plus a federal pay raise.
3 reasons Americans need more federal aid.
Planning a trip? Federal officials say wear a mask. Pete Buttigieg, President Biden's pick for transportation secretary, vowed to enforce the president's executive action on mask-wearing for interstate travel, saying he would work with his counterparts in other areas of government to do so.
France tells its citizens: Fabric masks not enough to protect from COVID.
In a sweeping immigration reform bill, President Biden proposes removing the term "alien" from U.S. immigration laws and replacing it with the word "noncitizen."
Senate confirms Lloyd Austin to be first Black defense secretary.
Trump allies dismissed at VOA as Biden administration names new leadership. Trump appointees had pushed to fire employees even after Biden was sworn in as president. In its first full day in office, the Biden administration dismissed the director of Voice of America, Robert Reilly, and his deputy, Elizabeth Robbins, and replaced them with experienced journalists with long careers at VOA and other government-funded networks.
Trump planned to oust acting AG to overturn Georgia election results: report. Trump reportedly planned to replace then-acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen with Jeffrey Clark, a lawyer at the Justice Department, in an effort to apply pressure to Georgia politicians to overturn the results of the race there. Rosen had refused to back Trump’s disputed claims that voter fraud had cost him the election, drawing the president’s ire. -- And many in the GOP want to vote for allowing this man to run for the presidency again. They’re all traitors.
With Trump gone, the craziness must now be taken up by others – step forward, Great Britain. And at this point, I can’t help but feel a tiny bit cynical, and want to say: “Hang on. Trump might have been a rancid evil sociopath, but before Trump you did manage to napalm Vietnam. You did find a way to drop a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, and invade Iraq and somehow manage to make the place worse than it was under Saddam. And arrange a coup in Chile that murdered the president and established a military dictatorship, and back dictators and
shahs and generals in around 20 million countries, especially if they had some oil going spare.” To be fair, if Jennifer Lopez had read that out, I can see it might have spoilt the mood.
Texas AG sues Biden administration over deportation freeze.
The Ignominious Deceits of Congressman Cawthorn. Representative Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) has misled the public about training for the Paralympics, just as he misrepresented his education and business history.
President Biden signed an executive action to roll back a Trump administration plan that would make it easier to fire career civil servants in the federal government.
A viral video forced a wealthy Texas suburb to confront racism. A 'silent majority' fought back. -- Fucking racists.
Texas Supreme Court rejects Alex Jones request to toss defamation lawsuits from Sandy Hook parents.
Kansas advances anti-abortion measure on Roe anniversary. The measure would add language to the state constitution declaring that it grants no right to abortion and that the Legislature can regulate abortion in line with U.S. Supreme Court decisions. The measure is not a state abortion ban, but it could allow one if a more conservative U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision protecting abortion rights.
Twitter bans "fake" account linked to Iran supreme leader after post seems to threaten Trump.
A home security technician admitted Thursday that he secretly accessed the cameras of more than 200 customers, particularly attractive women, to spy on while they undressed, slept, or had sex, federal prosecutors said. Telesforo Aviles, a 35-year-old former employee for the security company ADT, admitted he secretly accessed the customers' accounts more than 9,600 times over more than four years, according to a guilty plea submitted in court.
'I'm never wearing makeup' for work again: When the pandemic ends, will women look different? Kate Mason, a gender studies professor at Wheaton College, said what is evident is that the pandemic has changed the way many women present their bodies to others.
Tom Brokaw announces retirement after 55 years at NBC News. Brokaw, 80, will hang up his mic as the only anchor to have ever led all three of NBC's primary news shows: "Nightly News," "TODAY" and "Meet the Press."
Oklahoma lawmaker proposes ‘Bigfoot’ hunting season.
RIP Hank Aaron. He was 86.
Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.
Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.
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