The Week in News
It's been another week of seditious news in the nation's capital.
Another busy news week, with some not-so-good news yesterday, when Senate Republicans, with the help of Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, killed the January 6th Insurrection Commision.
The Sedition Commission
The Senate finally held a vote yesterday, Friday, on the establishment of an independent commission to investigate the Republican effort to violently overthrow our government on January 6th, 2021. Only six Republicans voted with Democrats to break the GOP filibuster of the legislation: Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Rob Portman of Ohio, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Ben Sasse of Nebraska. That makes the 54-to-35 vote bipartisan, but 54 still falls short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.
A number of Senators didn’t even bother showing up to vote, including Sinema.
The results aren’t a surprise. GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell implored Republicans to vote against the commission, calling the vote a personal favor to him. McConnell is worried that any investigation of the Insurrection could harm his chances at taking back control of the Senate in the 2022 midterm elections.
After the vote, Manchin expressed his disappointment, Susan-Collins-style. There’s still a chance that Manchin is laying the groundwork to eventually support paring back the filibuster. But every day we wait is another day closer to Democrats losing the Senate majority, either via an election or through attrition (if just one Senator dies in the wrong state, their replacement could be a Republican, thus handing Senate control back to McConnell). If Manchin ever gets there, will it already be too late?
CNN’s home page, following the vote, was disturbing:
Yet another poll shows just how corrupted by lies the GOP has become:
A majority of Republicans, 56%, say they believe that the 2020 election was the result of illegal voting or election rigging, per an Ipsos/Reuters poll released last week, with about 6 in 10 agreeing with the statement that "the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump." Republicans also say, 54% to 30%, that they agree with the myth that the January 6 riot at the US Capitol "was led by violent left-wing protestors trying to make Trump look bad."
Half of Republicans think the Insurrection was led by left-wing protesters. Just let that sink in.
We are losing our democracy. This is not hyperbole. Republicans are now changing voting laws in order to permit them to change election results in the states, and they’ve successfully rehabilitated the Insurrection, blaming it on left-wing agitators AND claiming that the domestic terrorists who stormed the US Capitol building were the real heroes of the day (so was it left-wing agitators or right-wing heroes?). Far-right Republican House member Paul Gosar of Arizona is now claiming that the woman who was rightfully shot and killed during the Insurrection, while trying to breach a secure area where scores of House members were hiding, is actually a hero!
Having said all of that, John Avlon over at CNN has a few ideas on how we can move forward with the investigation of the Insurrection. I like his third idea of appointing a special counsel. It’s worth a watch:
New Secretary of the Army is a woman!
Some good news this week.
GOP Congressman Matt Gaetz appears to call for armed attack on social media companies
Dem leaders Biden, Pelosi and Schumer are way more popular than Republican leaders McConnell and McCarthy
Congress usually isn’t popular anyway, but it’s interesting to see Democratic congressional leaders twice as popular as Republican ones. Also, the polls show that Biden is way more popular than Trump, which makes me think that McConnell’s and McCarthy’s low numbers aren’t just reflecting dissatisfied Trump voters giving them the thumbs down.
Have I mentioned that I hate cicadas
33 y.o. Denver cop dies of Covid one month after mocking vaccines
Biden-voter vs. Trump-voter vaccination rates
Vaccines matter
Vaccines are helping bring infections rates down, but only in states where people are getting vaccinated:
This woman is disgusting
And so is this woman
Honoring a gay hero
What a week. I don’t enjoy being all Debbie Downer, but America is in a bad state right now. We are witnessing first-hand how bad things happen in good countries: With the assent of one major political party, and half the voters. We must be prepared for what’s to come, because it’s not going to be pretty. We have no choice but stand up to these people.
And on that happy note! Hope everyone is enjoying a nice long holiday weekend (at least here in America). And to leave on a high note, here’s a guy who nursed a baby hummingbird back to health:
All the best, JOHN
I'm glad to see the CNN website headline. It's not alarmist; it's accurate. By the way, Republican right-winger (is that redundant?) Paul Gosar obnoxiously echoes a line from a U2 song paying tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In "Pride (In The Name Of Love)" they sing "Free at last, they took your life/They could not take your pride." So not only is Gosar calling her a hero, he's comparing her to the assassinated MLK!