Author: Data and Research Manager

Trump got rejected by Parler after he demanded a ban of his critics: report

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In yet another excerpt from Michael Wolff’s third book on Donald Trump’s administration, Business Insider is reporting that the former president’s negotiations to become a contributor to the Parler social media platform broke down over censorship.

Specifically, a demand that Trump’s critics be banned.

According to Wolff, representatives for the former president — who has been banned from Twitter and Facebook — made a pitch for him to join Parler in return for a significant portion of the site’s revenue. However, the insistence that critics of Trump be banned led to the deal falling apart. Continue reading.

Pelosi names Liz Cheney to serve on Jan. 6 select committee

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has named Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to serve on the select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol by a mob of pro-Trump supporters.

The House voted to form the panel on Wednesday despite GOP opposition. Cheney voted in favor of forming it.

Cheney was recently dumped by GOP leadership over her criticisms of former President Trump. 

Reproductive rights debated during Missouri Senate ‘hearing that resembled a remedial sex education course’: report

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If Roe v. Wade is overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, Missouri is one of the Republican-controlled states in which abortion will likely be outlawed. But far-right social conservatives, as many feminists have noted, are not only going after abortion, they are opposed to contraception and sex education as well. And reproductive freedom, journalist Jonathan Shorman reports in the Kansas City Star, was a prominent topic last week during a “heated hearing that resembled a remedial sex education course.”

Shorman reports that a committee in the Missouri State Senate “debated the merits of restricting Medicaid coverage of birth control and limiting payments to Planned Parenthood as part of a must-pass renewal of a hospital tax that generates $4 billion a year to fund Medicaid, which provides health coverage to low-income residents.”

“A group of conservative senators are demanding limits on birth control coverageand Planned Parenthood payments be included to win their support, though Medicaid is already prohibited from paying for abortions,” Shorman explains. “The tax, called the Federal Reimbursement Allowance or FRA, expires September 30. But Gov. Mike Parson plans to impose draconian spending cuts if an extension isn’t approved by July 1, when the new budget year begins.” Continue reading.

The land was worth millions. A Big Ag corporation sold it to Sonny Perdue’s company for $250,000.

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It was a curious time for Sonny Perdue to close a real estate deal.

In February 2017, weeks after President Donald Trump selected him to be agriculture secretary, Perdue’s company bought a small grain plant in South Carolina from one of the biggest agricultural corporations in America.

Had anyone noticed, it would have prompted questions ahead of his confirmation, a period when most nominees lie low and avoid potential controversy. The former governor of Georgia did not disclose the deal — there was no legal requirement to do so. Continue reading.

Supreme Court strikes down disclosure rules for political donors

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The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a California law that required nonprofits to hand over a list of their biggest donors.

Why it matters: Some campaign-finance advocates have feared the court will begin chipping away at disclosure rules more broadly, making it harder and harder to figure out who’s funding major political causes.

The big picture: In a 6-3 ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court said California had subjected donors to the threat of public harassment and intimidation, undermining their First Amendment right to free association. Continue reading.

‘A whole bunch of hooey’: Barack Obama calls out Trump for ‘de-legitimizing our democracy’ with election lies

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When it comes to former President Donald Trump, Barack Obama is an outspoken critic. And when Obama spoke out during a Democratic online fundraiser on Monday, June 28, he slammed Trump for refusing to respect the United States’ peaceful transition of presidential power and continuing to push lies about the 2020 election.

The Guardian reports that Barack Obama said Trump violated a “core tenet” of democracy when he refused to accept the results of the 2020 election and acknowledge now-President Joe Biden as the winner.

Obama said, “What we saw was my successor, the former president, violate that core tenet that you count the votes and then declare a winner — and fabricate and make up a whole bunch of hooey.” Continue reading.

Supreme Court upholds GOP voting restrictions in Arizona

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The Supreme Court today upheld a pair of voting restrictions in Arizona, likely paving the way for new limitations across the country.

Why it matters: It’s the court’s biggest voting rights decision in several years. Conservatives’ victory in the 6-3 ruling, authored by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, is a sign of what’s to come. 

Details: The case concerned two voting restrictions in Arizona. The state invalidates ballots that are cast in the wrong precinct, and it also bans the practice known as “ballot harvesting,” in which third parties collect and return other people’s ballots.

The Memo: Trump faces legal and political peril

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Former President Trump’s attempts to remain politically powerful and position himself as a viable 2024 candidate could hit a big hurdle.

Prosecutors in New York look to be on the brink of leveling criminal charges against the Trump Organization, according to recent reports from The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Much remains unclear — and it is still technically possible that no charges will be brought, even though Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. (D) empaneled a new grand jury in May. But if charges are leveled, they will deal a heavy blow to the former president regardless of whether he is himself accused. Continue reading.

Minnesota House of Representatives adjourns 2021 special session

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SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA — Today, the Minnesota House of Representatives finished approving a new two-year state budget and adjourned sine die. The Minnesota House, controlled by Democrats, and the Minnesota Senate, controlled by Republicans, convened for a special session on June 14th to finalize a bipartisan budget agreement for the next two years.

“Despite divided government, we found compromise and made significant investments to help those who sacrificed the most during a challenging year,” said House Speaker Melissa Hortman. “While this agreement does not contain everything we would have liked, we worked together and achieved a compromise that is in the best interests of Minnesotans. House DFLers will continue working to build a Minnesota that works better for everyone.” 

“Workers and families are climbing out of an extremely challenging year, and they need their state government to help them emerge stronger with more opportunities to get ahead,” said Majority Leader Ryan Winkler. “The decisions made by the Legislature have real consequences. We can choose to build a state where all Minnesotans have economic security and can live with dignity, or we can choose to rig the system to benefit corporations, the rich, and well-connected.” 

House Democrats are proud to have secured many investments in families, workers, students, and small businesses who’ve been hit hardest by the pandemic, including:

  • A historic increase in funding for public schools and preservation of all day pre-K for 4,000 preschoolers
  • Financial support for frontline workers who sacrificed their health to keep all of us safe during the pandemic  
  • Investments in access to affordable child care for families and increased funding for providers
  • Rental assistance for tenants and landlords and expanded access to affordable housing
  • Tax cuts for workers and small businesses impacted by the pandemic
  • Investments to improve public health and reduce racial disparities in health care
  • State aid for small businesses damaged during last year’s civil unrest
  • Investments in transit, roads, bridges, and rail
  • Substantial reforms to sexual assault laws to bring justice to survivors
  • Measures to reform policing and increase accountability
  • Investments in families who are at risk of or are experiencing homelessness
  • Delivering an overdue pay raise for personal care attendants and additional support for home and community-based services to help people live independently
  • Substantial investments to reduce racial disparities and improve equity
  • Funding for the Market Bucks program to provide healthy and affordable farmers’ market produce to SNAP/EBT users

As a result of a bipartisan deal to end Governor Walz’s emergency powers on July 1, the Legislature will not convene for a July special session or continue meeting monthly as it has done since the pandemic began. 

I’m a scholar of critical race theory — here’s the reality about it behind the conservative moral panic

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Critical race theory (CRT) is the current conservative media boogeyman spreading moral panic about poor white people being confronted with the history of racism in the United States. Claims about critical race theory range from plausible but incorrect (it’s about white privilege and white people’s racism) to outlandish and bizarre (it supports a white genocide and confiscating all white people’s property). The truth of critical race theory is that it’s a socio-legal framework for analyzing the disparate impact of policies on marginalized communities, most often Black people.

OK, but what does that mean? Since CRT was an academic methodology taught in law schools and advanced college courses until recently, those who truly understand CRT often speak in academic language that can be difficult to understand. However, unlike a lot of academic methodologies, CRT has clear and practical real-world applications. Due to its name and origin, people often believe it’s an overly theoretical study without concrete evidence. In reality, the scholarship in CRT is often based on the study of statistics, laws and legal cases (about as concrete as you can get).

Berkeley Law Professor Khiara Bridges, a scholar of intersectionality and reproductive rights, provided a list of key tenets of critical race theory in her book Critical Race Theory: A Primer. Professor Bridges argues that critical race theory is concerned with Justice (with a capital J) and is not a thought experiment or academic exercise. Her tenets are that CRT acknowledges that race is a social construction, not a biological reality, that racism is a normal embedded feature of American society (not an aberration), a rejection of traditional liberalism’s understandings of racism, and a connection between scholarship and people’s real lives. While Professor Bridge’s list of core tenets restate a lot of earlier CRT scholarship, it is relevant that her book was published in 2018 and continues to agree with the originators of CRT, such as Derrick Bell and Kimberle Crenshaw. Often, critics of CRT claim the origins are reasonable but the current state is what is problematic. As a newly minted CRT PhD, my scholarship remains loyal to the origins and agrees with Professor Bridge’s core tenets. Continue reading.