One of the oddities or ironies – I’m not sure quite what it is – of the COVID Pandemic is that the US and UK, which did so poorly managing the disease vs much of Europe, have done so much better vaccinating their populations. This shows up particularly for the UK which is mostly relying on the same AstraZeneca as the the EU. Now comes word that the EU may block exports of the vaccine and its constituent ingredients to the UK until the manufacturer meets its delivery obligations to the European Union. (Needless to say, some of the knock on consequences of Brexit.)

It’s been a fear for pro-choice advocates for some time — one that grew when Trump was elected and only accelerated after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away late last year.

When will reproductive rights be back in front of the Supreme Court?

What’s really going on in Tennessee?

Yesterday Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) announced his support for abolishing or dramatically reforming the Senate filibuster. This comes after comments earlier this week from Joe Manchin in which he said he won’t budge from the Senate’s current 60 vote threshold for advancing legislation. That comes less than two weeks after Manchin expressed support for moving toward a so-called ‘talking filibuster’ and only a few more weeks after Manchin insisted he would support the filibuster no matter what and forever. Put this all together and at least on the surface you have a confusing mix of signals – often entirely contradictory – that makes it very hard to make sense of what is happening with the filibuster and thus whether there is any real chance of more legislation this year while Democrats have the slenderest hold on both the executive and the legislative branches of government.

On this week’s pod, we discuss the President coming out in support of filibuster reform and the former president giving a thumbs up to the COVID-19 vaccine. And yes, I’m wearing a stocking cap because fake spring has come and gone in NYC.

Matt Shuham has all the details here. But the gist is this:

But this time, it’s a bit different.

You’ve probably seen news about the halt in vaccinations across much of Europe in the wake of questions about whether the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is the main one in Europe, might be associated with a rare clotting syndrome as a side effect. Here’s the most detailed account of the situation I’ve read, a piece by two top flight science/epidemiology journalists writing in Science.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) been talking about impeachment since January 21, one day after inauguration.

Now, she’s not alone. Sort of.

I’m second to no one in praising Joe Biden and the Democrats for passing the $1.9 trillion relief bill. But I have  doubts about a few other initiatives coming from Biden, the House Democrats, or both. One of these is HR 1, the For the People Act, passed by the House. I’m all for it, but it won’t pass the Senate, and the Democrats need to pass something that will repudiate Republican attempts at voter suppression.

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