Category: National Issues

‘Strom Thurmond disagrees’: Historians refute McConnell claim that filibuster has ‘no racial history’

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Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday made the sweeping claim that the legislative filibuster has “no racial history at all” and further insisted that historians don’t dispute his view—an assertion that historians immediately disputed.

“Strom Thurmond disagrees,” tweeted historian Patrick Wyman, referring to the late Republican senator from South Carolina whose 24-hour filibuster against the Civil Rights Act of 1957 remains the longest in U.S. history.

During a press briefing Tuesday, McConnell offered a full-throated defense of the filibuster amid growing calls by Senate Democrats to significantly weaken or abolish the 60-vote rule, which in its current form gives the minority party enormous power to block legislation. Progressive advocacy groups and some Democratic lawmakers have taken to describing the filibuster as a “Jim Crow relic” to denote its past use as a weapon against civil rights legislation. Continue reading.

‘Ridiculous theater’: Sen. Cruz’s pushback on gun restrictions epitomizes high hurdles

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Virtually every time there is a mass shooting in the United States, the debate quickly turns to whether this might be the one — or, in the case of the last week, the two — that will ultimately force major action on gun restrictions.

In many ways, it seems lawmakers have given up even pretending that might be the case.

The tragedies in Atlanta last week and Boulder, Colo., this week have spurred the expected and logical debate about what more can be done about making sure guns don’t find their ways into the hands of the kinds of people who committed these atrocities. And there is an attempt to have that debate. Continue reading.

They Had Mild Covid. Then Their Serious Symptoms Kicked In.

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A new study illuminates the complex array of neurological issues experienced by people months after their coronavirus infections.

In the fall, after Samar Khan came down with a mild case of Covid-19, she expected to recover and return to her previous energetic life in Chicago. After all, she was just 25, and healthy.

But weeks later, she said, “this weird constellation of symptoms began to set in.”

She had blurred vision encircled with strange halos. She had ringing in her ears, and everything began to smell like cigarettes or Lysol. One leg started to tingle, and her hands would tremble while putting on eyeliner. Continue reading.

WA Sheriff Under Fire For Calling 911 On Black Newspaper Delivery Driver

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Activists called on Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer to resign after he told police the driver “threatened” him. He later recanted his account to police.

Activists in Washington state are urging a local sheriff to resign after he called 911 on a Black newspaper delivery driver and claimed the driver “threatened” to kill him. The sheriff later recanted those details while speaking to police.

Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer, who is white, has denied racially profiling the driver, 24-year-old Sedrick Altheimer. But community members say Troyer’s actions could have gotten Altheimer killed and pose a threat to public safety.

Altheimer told The Seattle Times that he had been working his regular delivery route in Tacoma on Jan. 27 when he noticed a large white SUV following him.  Continue reading.

Tucker Carlson Attacks Obama: He’s a ‘Racial Arsonist’ Who ‘Sows Hate’

The Fox News star took offense at the former president calling for stricter gun laws in the wake of yet another senseless mass shooting, accusing Obama of creating extremism.

After completely ignoring the deadly Colorado mass shooting on his show Monday evening, Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s first coverage of the massacre on Tuesday night included an attack on the nation’s first Black president as a “racial arsonist” who “sows hate” and is “creating real extremism.”

Carlson, who somehow made no mention of the Boulder shooting while he was on the air the previous night, kicked off his primetime program on Tuesday by mocking media outlets and prominent figures who initially believed the suspected shooter was a white male. (Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa was born in Syria and raised in Colorado. His family describes him as “very anti-social” and says they believe he’s mentally ill.)

After completely ignoring the deadly Colorado mass shooting on his show Monday evening, Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s first coverage of the massacre on Tuesday night included an attack on the nation’s first Black president as a “racial arsonist” who “sows hate” and is “creating real extremism.”

Carlson, who somehow made no mention of the Boulder shooting while he was on the air the previous night, kicked off his primetime program on Tuesday by mocking media outlets and prominent figures who initially believed the suspected shooter was a white male. (Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa was born in Syria and raised in Colorado. His family describes him as “very anti-social” and says they believe he’s mentally ill.) Continue reading.

Republicans siding with Putin over Biden are showing their ‘adoration’ for a ‘murderous autocrat’: journalist

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During his four years as president, Donald Trump made it abundantly clear that he did not consider Russian President Vladimir Putin an adversary of the United States. But President Joe Biden, during his two months in the White House, has been much tougher on Putin — and journalist Steven Beschloss, in a scathing March 22 article for his America, America blog, calls out Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Rep. Matt Gaetz and other Republicans he believes have become Putin’s useful idiots during the Biden era. 

Gaetz, during a recent appearance on Hannity’s show, told the Fox News host, “Putin and Biden, it would not end like ‘Rocky IV.’ I don’t think the American would prevail.” And Hannity joked that Putin would have the upper hand in a debate with the U.S. president.

Beschloss explains, “After four years of never a negative word about Putin from Trump — not after the interference in our election, not after the killings of Russian journalists and political opponents in Russia and on foreign soil, not after it was revealed the Russians put bounties on American soldiers — this cute interplay may have sounded like no big deal. Just more fun and games from among the same bunch who’ve perpetrated the Big Lie of election fraud and are determined to gloss over and move on from the deadly insurrection…. But make no mistake: The continuing adoration of Putin represents the embrace of autocracy over democracy — indeed, the dark desire to learn from the anti-democratic tactics of a murderous autocrat.” Continue reading.

The Justice Department Is Investigating Officials Who Talked To The Press About The Capitol Riot Investigation

Michael Sherwin, the former acting US Attorney in DC, had told media “the facts” support charging some Capitol rioters with sedition.

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has launched internal probes into a recent spate of apparently unauthorized comments to the media about the status of the Capitol insurrection investigation, a supervisor in the US Attorney’s office in Washington told a judge on Tuesday.

US District Judge Amit Mehta scheduled an emergency hearing to question the government about a March 21 broadcast of 60 Minutes featuring an interview with Michael Sherwin, the former acting US Attorney in Washington, DC, as well as a New York Times article published Monday that quoted anonymous law enforcement sources. Both reports addressed the government’s conspiracy case against 10 people associated with the Oath Keepers militia collective who are charged with participating in the insurrection; Mehta is presiding over that case.

John Crabb, the head of the Criminal Division in the DC US Attorney’s office, told Mehta it appeared that Sherwin had failed to comply with the department’s rules and policies that govern contacts with the press. Crabb said Sherwin had been referred to the Office of Professional Responsibility, which investigates misconduct allegations against DOJ lawyers and officials. Continue reading.

Republicans have a scheme for increasing their Electoral College advantage: report

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Although some liberals and progressives have proposed abolishing the Electoral College and electing presidents via the popular vote — which is how other democratic republics do it — various Democratic strategists have argued that in the long run, Democrats will have an Electoral College advantage because of changing demographics. Republicans, meanwhile, are still fuming over the fact that President Joe Biden won 306 electoral votes in 2020 despite all of former President Donald Trump’s underhanded tricks. And according to an article by The Atlantic’s Russell Berman, some Republicans are pushing different ideas for making the Electoral College more difficult for Democrats.

“A few months after losing the White House,” Berman explains, “Republicans across the country have had a revelation: the Electoral College could use some improvements. The problem is that they have contradictory proposals for how to fix it — and contradictory arguments for why those proposals would help Americans pick their president. In Wisconsin, Michigan and New Hampshire, GOP lawmakers want to award Electoral College votes by congressional district, just like Nebraska and Maine currently do. But in Nebraska, Republicans want to do the opposite, and return to the same winner-takes-all method used by, well, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Hampshire, and almost every other state.” 

In Wisconsin, Berman notes, State Rep. Gary Tauchen, a Republican, has proposed splitting Wisconsin’s electoral votes by congressional district. Similarly, New Hampshire State Sen. Bill Gannon wants that type of split in his state. Continue reading.

New shootings plunge Biden, Congress into gun control debate

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President Biden on Tuesday urged Congress to enact meaningful gun reforms after the second mass shooting in under a week, plunging Washington back into a familiar debate where lawmakers have stalemated in recent years.

Eight people in the Atlanta area and 10 people in Boulder, Colo., were killed in the most recent shootings, but there was little sign it would move the needle in Congress — even as political leaders who back gun reforms noted the United States is the only country in the world that continually suffers from mass shooting events.

There had been no mass shooting in a year as much of the country stayed home from work and school during the pandemic, a fact noted ruefully by former President Obama. Continue reading.

Johnson & Johnson under pressure to deliver promised vaccine doses to states

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Delays could undercut vaccinations in areas lacking access to deep freezers needed for one of the other authorized COVID-19 vaccines

Johnson & Johnson is under pressure to deliver its promised 20 million vaccine doses by next week, as several state public health officials indicate they are receiving few or no shots this week and have no idea how much they’ll get later.

The uncertainty comes at a time when the demand for vaccines continues to overwhelm supply, a weary country braces for the spread of viral variants and hundreds of people die from COVID-19 each day. It raises questions about how successful the company was in meeting a central goal of the massive U.S. investment in vaccine development: to manufacture sufficient supplies of shots before they were proven effective in order to hit the ground running. 

The delays could undercut vaccinations in rural and low-income areas without access to deep freezers needed for one of the two other authorized vaccines. Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose shot is helpful in those places since it’s durable for three months in the refrigerator. Continue reading.