Holy Moses: what a day we had yesterday!
Now why in the heck would the RNC censure two of their own and call the Jan 6th insurrection “legitimate political discourse”? I mean that wasn’t the tune they were singing the day after it. Then they called it “senseless acts of violence.”
Sure it is hugely distressing to hear them talk like that. But lets face it, we already knew they were awful, terrible, rudderless halfwits.
So my main question is: why now? Where did yesterday come from?
I have to think that it came from fear. This pivot came because the Jan 6th House Commission is working hard and getting real information on just how awful 1/6 was AND just how many Rs played a role in it.
The first step in trying to get away with a crime is denying that you were a part of it. Standing up and talking about how awful the crime was and, gosh darn it, how you are disgusted by it! They did plenty of that in the days after 1/6.
Once that is no longer possible, you have to pretend like it wasn’t really much of a crime at all.
And that is exactly what they are doing.
First, just a few days ago Trump admitted to trying to overturn the election. Now, the RNC is claiming that 1/6 was totally normal and good.
As gross as it is, it brought me joy, because it is such a pathetic attempt to save their party from the ruin the truth will bring.
Of course not all of them are on board. Guess who isn’t on board? Those who are not in trouble for 1/6. They are reacting to the coming shitstorm of truth by trying to distance themselves even further from it.
Romney tweeted this:
Adam Kinzinger tweeted this:
Michael Steel tweeted this:
Liz Cheney tweeted this:
And Pence said
"President (Donald) Trump is wrong" in claiming that Pence had the right to overturn the 2020 election…. and he said that "the time has come to focus on the future."
"Look, I understand the disappointment many feel about the last election. I was on the ballot," Pence said. "But whatever the future holds, I know we did our duty that day."
Pence added quickly that “frankly, there is no idea more un-American” than the one Trump pushed.
But Pence went further still Friday, saying not only that what Trump did was wrong and that his idea was “un-American” but that it was corrosive to democracy and that it’s something Republicans should abhor.
“If we lose faith in the Constitution, we won’t just lose elections — we’ll lose our country,” Pence said.
Pence said those things. Mike Pence. You remember him. The white haired fellow who spent four years sucking up to trump and playing his lap dog. The fellow who is too afraid to eat with a woman without his wife there (whom he calls mother).
Y’all, Pence has no backbone. Not an inch of it. So for him to come out and say anything means that he sees that sides are being taken in this and that he is safer on the side of the people who didn’t try to overturn the government. I am sure of very few things in this world, but here is one thing I am sure of: Mike Pence has less backbone than any human in the history of humans. Less than Ted Cruz! Really. Do you remember the Trump years (don’t go back and think about them if you don’t have to). Pence rolled over for the biggest dummy this country has ever elected DAILY. His job was to have no backbone. If Mike Pence is talking like this, the writing is on the wall. And I am here for it.
Look, I can’t pretend that I know all that the 1/6 commission will tell us or all that the justice department will find or do. But I can tell you this: the Republican party is sure acting like some really bad stuff is coming out really soon and they are fighting really hard to make the best of it to save their own butts.
If you need me, I’ll be right here:
Meanwhile:
Biden and the Democrats are doing Great Things
Biden begins crackdown on power plant pollution
Biden administration officials are kicking off a crackdown on power plant pollution, aiming to shift the nation’s electricity supply to cleaner energy in the face of congressional resistance and a Supreme Court that could limit the federal government’s ability to tighten public health standards.
On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency affirmed its authority to curb mercury from smokestacks, reversing a 2020 Trump administration policy. The move signals a broader effort by the administration to cut greenhouse gases and other pollutants from U.S. power plants, which rank as the nation’s second-biggest contributor to global warming.
Biden took out a major ISIS threat
Biden administration to give states $1.15 billion to plug orphaned wells, which leak planet-warming methane
The White House on Monday announced new steps to help curb emissions of methane, saying it will send $1.15 billion to states to clean up thousands of orphaned oil and gas wells that leak the powerful planet-warming gas.
The 1/6 Commission is working hard:
Jan. 6 Panel Examining Trump’s Role in Proposals to Seize Voting Machines
The House Jan. 6 committee is scrutinizing former President Donald J. Trump’s involvement in proposals to seize voting machines after the 2020 election, including efforts to create a legal basis for directing national security agencies to take such an extreme action, according to three people with knowledge of the committee’s activities.
call it what it is THE BIDEN BOOM!!
Strong Jobs Report Shows Resilient Economy Despite Covid Wave
Employers added 467,000 jobs in January, seasonally adjusted, the Labor Department said on Friday. The report smashed the projections of economists, who had been expecting the wave of coronavirus cases associated with the Omicron variant to lead to anemic gains, if not an outright decline in jobs. Instead, employers kept on hiring.
Stocks climb as investors weigh a surprising jobs report and Amazon earnings.
Stocks on Wall Street rose on Friday, as an unexpectedly strong jobs report scrambled investors’ expectations for coming interest rate increases and as the latest round of earnings reports offset some fears about declining corporate profits.
The S&P 500 climbed half a percent, a day after its steepest one-day drop in nearly a year. The index ended the week with a gain of 1.6 percent. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.6 percent on Friday.
With Hard Work, We Can Win in November
North Carolina Court Says G.O.P. Political Maps Are Unconstitutional
The North Carolina Supreme Court on Friday upended Republican efforts to lock in political dominance in the state, saying that congressional and state legislative maps were partisan gerrymanders that violated the State Constitution.
The ruling requires the Republican-dominated legislature not only to submit new maps to the court, but to offer a range of statistical analyses to show “a significant likelihood that the districting plan will give the voters of all political parties substantially equal opportunity to translate votes into seats” in elections
The decision not only sets a precedent for judging the legality of future maps in the state, but could play an important role in the struggle for control of the House of Representatives in elections this November. The Republican-drawn maps had effectively allotted the party control of at least 10 of the 14 House seats the state will have in the next Congress, even though voters statewide are roughly equally divided between the two parties.
Crisis and Opportunity Could Lead to a Biden Bounce Very Soon
Joe Biden’s poll numbers can only go up from here, and there’s good reason to believe they will.
he retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer presents the president with a unique opportunity to re-energize his base, as he fulfills his campaign promise to appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court.
There’s also the underrated 6 percent growth in GDP, an accomplishment for which most presidents would be basking in praise after one year in office. And though it feels strange to say so, last week’s bridge collapse in Pittsburgh underscores America’s desperate need for infrastructure upgrades. Good thing Biden already delivered on getting a bipartisan infrastructure deal passed—an accomplishment for which he’s received little credit, thus far.
New Jersey Supreme Court dismisses Republican challenge to congressional map
A Republican challenge to the new congressional district map has failed.
The New Jersey Supreme Court on Thursday voted 5-0 to side with Democrats and dismiss a GOP lawsuit that asked the court to remand the map to the redistricting commission for further consideration and require the tie-breaker commissioner, former Supreme Court Justice John Wallace, to recuse himself.
Stacey Abrams raises $9.2M after entering gov race in December
Stacey Abrams has raised more than $9.2 million since entering the race for governor in December, setting a blistering fundraising pace that eclipsed Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
The Democrat will report about $7.2 million in cash on hand at the end of the financial quarter after collecting contributions from more than 100,000 donors in just two months, a campaign aide said Wednesday.
Abrams outpaced Kemp, who raised $7.4 million over the final six months of the year. He ended the year with about $12.7 million in the bank.
Trump-backed candidates confront cash wave
Some of Donald Trump's handpicked candidates are hitting an obstacle in their efforts to purge the Republican Party of Trump skeptics: money. Lots of it.
Driving the news: Key Trump-backed Republican challengers were heavily outraised by their Republican primary opponents late last year, newly filed financial reports show.
Other Good News
Two underdog but game changing vaccines: NVX-CoV2373 (Novavax) and CORBEVAX
One way (maybe the only way) we’re going to get out of this pandemic is to vaccinate a large portion of the global population. To the WHO, this means reaching 70% of the population by mid-2022, which is ~3 billion unvaccinated people with 6-9 billion doses before another variant of concern.
A diverse portfolio of vaccines that utilizes a number of different biotechnologies is of critical importance. While mRNA vaccines are innovative and effective, they pose logistical storage challenges to reach remote communities. The mRNA pharmaceutical companies are also not sharing their vaccine patent, which doesn’t allow others to manufacture. In addition, a diverse portfolio of vaccines frees up supply bottlenecks, provides options for those allergic to vaccines ingredients, and, among vaccines that use more traditional biotechnologies, will reduce vaccine hesitancy.
Two new vaccines have been added to our global repertoire: NVX-CoV2373 and CORBEVAX. These will be nothing short of game changers for the pandemic.
The underdogs are pulling through! And we should all be cheering as these add diversity to our vaccine portfolio, which will get us one step (or more like leaps) closer to ending the pandemic.
Judge temporarily halts Youngkin order making masks optional in Va. schools after lawsuit from school boards
An Arlington judge on Friday barred enforcement of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s mask-optional order for schools — a major victory for the seven school boards that sued to stop it, and a sharp rebuke for the new governor.
‘Maus’ Sales Surge After Tennessee School District Bans The Holocaust Graphic Novel
Titles from Maus – a Pulitzer Prize-winning series about the Holocaust – made up nearly half of Amazon’s 10 best-selling comics and graphic novels Friday after one of the books was controversially banned by a Tennessee school district.
On the Lighter Side
What can you do?
Most important: DON'T LOSE HOPE. This is a giant and important fight for us but, win or lose, we keep fighting and voting and organizing and spreading truth and light. We never give up.
I am lucky and proud to be in this with you ✊🏾✊🏻💙💚💛💜🧡✊🏽✊🏻
