“Even with your adversaries, I do think that you have to have the capacity to put yourself in their shoes,” Barack Obama told The New York Times in 2015 in explaining his overture to Iran. The Biden administration needs to do this in its negotiations over Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Continue reading “Behind The US-Russian Conflict Over Ukraine”Pence Avoids Committing To Cooperating With Jan. 6 Committee
Former Vice President Mike Pence signaled on Wednesday that it’s not a given that he’ll cooperate with the House Jan. 6 select committee.
Continue reading “Pence Avoids Committing To Cooperating With Jan. 6 Committee”Tucker Carlson Declares That Getting COVID Makes You Girly
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.
Side Effect You Never Heard Of
Fox host Tucker Carlson claimed during a Fox Nation interview with former Brexit leader Nigel Farage yesterday that he knew of someone who became “emasculated” and “weakened as a man” by contracting COVID-19.
- The coronavirus “does tend to take away the life force” from people, Carlson argued very scientifically, and therefore “it does feminize people. No one ever says that but it’s true.”
- Literally what is he talking about?
- Also, try to imagine Carlson telling Trump to his face that he lost his manhood when he got hospitalized for the virus last year.
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California Moves Toward Becoming Abortion ‘Sanctuary’
California lawmakers and abortion providers unveiled a plan yesterday to make the state a “sanctuary” if the Supreme Court strikes down Roe. Under the plan, which has Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) support, state funding would cover out-of-state patients’ travel expenses, including gas, lodging and transportation. Additionally, abortion providers would be reimbursed for the procedure if the patient couldn’t afford to pay.
Texas GOP’s Critical Race Theory Hysteria Goes As Planned
A Texas school district in San Antonio has yanked more than 400 books from its libraries that were included in a state Republican’s list of books covering race, gender identity and sexual orientation that he wants investigated.
- The books are being reviewed “out of an abundance of caution,” the school district’s communication’s director said, adding that “most” of the books are appropriate and will stay on the library shelves.
- The Republican lawmaker, who happens to be running for Texas attorney general, is also demanding that school districts root out books that make students feel “guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex or convey that a student, by virtue of their race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”
Two Dems Help GOP Senators Try To Repeal Biden’s Vaccine Mandate
Senate Republicans passed a resolution attempting to withdraw the President’s COVID-19 vaccine or testing mandate yesterday by a simple majority of 52-48, with Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Jon Tester (D-MT) joining their GOP colleagues.
- Tester said he’s “not crazy about mandates” and described the vaccine requirements as “burdensome regulations.”
- The resolution obviously won’t go anywhere. The House won’t pass it, and it goes without saying that Biden won’t sign it if it does miraculously end up on his desk.
Roger Stone Becomes Next Trump Goon To Plead The Fifth
Convicted Trump associate and GOP operative Roger Stone told the House Jan. 6 select committee that he’ll be invoking the Fifth Amendment instead of complying with their subpoenas in their investigation into the Capitol attack.
- Stone was scheduled for a deposition on Dec. 17.
- Two other Trump allies have already announced they intend to plead the Fifth: Ex-Trump legal adviser John Eastman and former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark.
Stone Stages Fake Confrontation With ‘Reporter’
The Trump ally posted this really authentic moment in which he gets to tell a man pretending to be a Daily Beast reporter, “Fuck you. I only talk to legitimate news organizations.”
Conservative Radio Host Begs Trump Not To Endorse Greitens
Radio host Hugh Hewitt really, really, really doesn’t want the ex-president to endorse disgraced ex-Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, who’s been accused of sexual assault and campaign finance law violations, in the Missouri Senate race.
- “That’s a nightmare, Mr. President. We’ll lose that seat,” Hewitt said.
- Trump didn’t seem super persuaded by the radio host’s pleas though, saying only that it was an “interesting opinion” while also noting that Greitens is “right now leading by quite a bit.”
- To which Hewitt repeated several times, “He will lose the seat. We will lose the seat.”
Perdue Works Hard For That Trump Endorsement
Former Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) told Axios he wouldn’t have certified the 2020 election results if he were governor: “Not with the information that was available at the time and not with the information that has come out now” (the information that was available at the time was that Trump lost the election, and the information that has come out now is that Trump lost the election).
- Perdue is challenging incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp (R) for the GOP nomination.
- Perdue isn’t the only gubernatorial Trump endorsee to declare they’d steal the election for the ex-president. Kari Lake, a former local news anchor who’s running for Arizona governor, has said the same thing. In fact, Lake has demanded that the Arizona 2020 election results be decertified somehow.
Clinton Unveils Her 2016 Victory Speech
Hillary Clinton shared part of the speech she would’ve given had she defeated Trump in 2016:
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Where Things Stand: Progressives Issue Emotional Plea For Dems To Do Something About Boebert
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) introduced a resolution today, asking the House to kick Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) off her committee assignments for repeatedly and brazenly attacking Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) with racist and hateful anti-Muslim remarks.
It’s the culmination of weeks of frustration for Omar and fellow progressives, as congressional leadership does next to nothing to discipline the far-right Boebert for making racist jokes about Omar, who is a Muslim, and insinuating that the Minnesota Democrat’s religion somehow makes her a terrorist.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Progressives Issue Emotional Plea For Dems To Do Something About Boebert”Perdue Now Says He Wouldn’t Have Certified Georgia’s Election If He Were Governor
Former Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) would like everyone to know that unlike his rival Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), he would’ve taken things into his own hands following President Trump’s bogus claims of a “stolen” 2020 presidential election were he governor at the time.
Continue reading “Perdue Now Says He Wouldn’t Have Certified Georgia’s Election If He Were Governor”READ: Meadows Sues Jan. 6 Committee, Members
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows sued the Jan. 6 Committee, its members, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Wednesday.
Continue reading “READ: Meadows Sues Jan. 6 Committee, Members”Is Omicron More Mild? (Probably Not)
You’ve probably heard reports that Omicron COVID in South Africa has generally been causing milder forms of the disease. The caution on these reports is that they are early, anecdotal, haven’t given enough time to generate severe outcomes and have been disproportionately among the young. Each of these points remains true. But over the last couple days the data has become sufficiently detailed that it does seem like people presenting with Omicron COVID are relatively less sick than those who presented with Delta at the same point in earlier waves. So, definitely still too early to say for sure but probably too far along to dismiss it as merely anecdotal or just an artifact of distorted early data.
So doesn’t that suggest that Omicron is a milder version of COVID? Here’s why it doesn’t.
Continue reading “Is Omicron More Mild? (Probably Not)”Rogue ‘Canvassers’ Are Still Going Door-To-Door In Search Of 2020 Fodder
As state legislators across the country continue to push for so-called “audits” and other investigations into the 2020 election, some independent groups are taking it upon themselves to hit the pavement — going door-to-door and asking people about their vote in the last presidential election.
Continue reading “Rogue ‘Canvassers’ Are Still Going Door-To-Door In Search Of 2020 Fodder”As America’s ‘Backsliding’ Democracy Takes Center Stage, Biden Must Call On Senate To End Filibuster
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
When President Joe Biden hosts the Summit for Democracy on Thursday, he will not do so as the leader of a beacon of democracy to which the rest of the world aspires. Instead, he’ll be fighting an uphill battle to reassert America’s democratic credentials before skeptical allies. After four years of Donald Trump undermining democratic norms, which culminated in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol—and roughly a decade of Republican efforts to strip voting rights away from poor, elderly, and minority voters—the United States is in no position to tell other countries to follow in our footsteps.
Continue reading “As America’s ‘Backsliding’ Democracy Takes Center Stage, Biden Must Call On Senate To End Filibuster”Biden Rolls Out Plan For Govt To Reach Net-Zero Emissions By 2050
President Joe Biden is slated to sign an executive order on Wednesday to set into motion a new goal to bring the federal government to net-zero emissions by 2050.
Continue reading “Biden Rolls Out Plan For Govt To Reach Net-Zero Emissions By 2050”