|
In a shocking affront to the very idea of unity, Democrats have announced that they won’t simply pretend that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is still in charge, even after he specifically asked them to.
- Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have confirmed that the House will transmit the article of impeachment against Donald Trump to the Senate on Monday, though the trial won’t start until the week of February 8. McConnell had asked for a longer delay to give Trump’s legal team more time to prepare, presumably by paging through the many statements from Capitol rioters citing Trump’s words as their motivation for rioting and mumbling “hoo boy” with increasing hopelessness. No word yet on how long the trial will last, whether the Senate will be able to conduct other business while it’s ongoing, or how McConnell will vote—but it’s looking unlikely that 17 GOP senators are ready to step back from the brink and convict Trump of inciting insurrection.
- President Biden has reaffirmed his commitment to Staying Out of This One, with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki telling reporters, “We'll leave the accountability steps to Congress to determine.” For what it’s worth, the New York Times interviewed a range of Biden voters around the country and found a near-unanimous desire for the Senate, the Justice Department, and state prosecutors to aggressively work towards holding Trump and his enablers accountable. (While Biden’s not sold on leading that charge, the White House did announce new efforts to combat domestic extremism, including asking DNI Avril Haines to oversee a “comprehensive threat assessment.”)
- Schumer also announced on Friday that he will reject McConnell’s demand for unchecked power to veto Biden’s agenda, correctly calling it “unacceptable.” Meanwhile, Senate Democrats continued to recklessly hinder national healing by (checks notes) implementing the agenda that 81 million Americans voted for, drafting legislation that would expand the child tax credit by sending recurring monthly payments (totaling at least $3000 per kid, per year) to tens of millions of families. Unlike the stimulus checks, the Biden administration hopes to make those payments a permanent government program lasting beyond this year.
|
|
|
Demonstrating their much more genuine, long-standing commitment to unity, Republicans have wasted no time in pledging to block more coronavirus relief.
- The three Senate Republicans who were most likely to join Democrats in passing Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief bill—Sens. Mitt Romney (UT), Lisa Murkowski (AK), and Susan Collins (ME)—have all expressed their opposition to a broad package. (Murkowski has also ruled out moving over to the Democratic caucus, in case anyone was under the mistaken impression that her bemoaning of the state of the Republican party meant she planned to, you know, do something about it.)
- In the meantime, Biden took steps to tweak existing aid programs to provide urgent assistance for the millions of Americans going hungry during the pandemic. An executive order he signed on Friday asks the Department of Agriculture to allow states to increase food-stamp benefits, and to provide a 15-percent bump in benefits for low-income families whose kids would normally count on school meal programs. The order would also protect unemployed workers from losing their benefits if they refuse to return to working conditions that could expose them to coronavirus.
It’s a promising sign that Democrats aren’t acquiescing to Republicans’ demands for outrageous concessions, but Republicans have made clear they’re just as happy to hold up their own bad-faith tantrums as evidence that Biden’s unity project has failed. The less time the Biden administration spends holding out for anything different from them, the better off we’ll all be.
|
|
|
New Rubicon just dropped! Join our Editor-in-Chief Brian Beutler as he walks us through the Biden administration’s first 100 days.
The season two launch episode takes a broad look at the ways Republicans might try to hobble President Biden as he ramps up his administration, and how he and Democrats in Congress can team up to stop them. Brian speaks with Faiz Shakir, a Capitol Hill veteran who also managed Bernie Sanders’s 2020 campaign, about the policies, strategies, and messages Democrats should use if they want to govern successfully.
Go check it out and don’t forget to subscribe to Rubicon wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes drop every Friday →
|
|
|
Donald Trump pardoned a number of health-care executives behind major Medicare frauds, many of which harmed or endangered elderly or sick patients while ripping off taxpayers. And here we all thought he’d never release his health-care plan! One pardon recipient, a former doctor and California hospital owner, was involved in an enormous kickback scheme that allegedly led to more than 14,000 dubious spine surgeries. Another scammed more than $1 billion through Medicaid and Medicare through nursing homes and senior-care facilities, one of the largest frauds in U.S. history. The Trump White House argued that these people deserved a second chance based on things like “devotion to prayer” and “plans to do more charity work.” Seems like the right message to send to powerful, connected people who not only committed financial crimes, but did so at the direct expense of vulnerable patients.
|
|
- The Senate has confirmed retired Gen. Lloyd Austin as secretary of defense, making him the first Black Pentagon chief in U.S. history.
- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there’s “some evidence” the U.K. coronavirus strain could be more deadly, in addition to more contagious than the original strain.
- Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other senior DOJ officials impeded an investigation into their role in implementing the family separation policy.
- Vanity Fair reporter Adam Ciralsky embedded with Pentagon leadership during Trump’s final week in office, and while former acting defense secretary Christopher Miller and his aides contradict each other in their accounts of the lead up to the Capitol riot, the story’s full of wild quotes like this one, from former senior Pentagon official and Trump loyalist Ezra Cohen: “The president threw us under the bus. And when I say ‘us,’ I don’t mean only us political appointees or only us Republicans. He threw America under the bus.”
- Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) tried to bring a gun onto the House floor, which was discovered when it set off the metal detectors that Republicans have been bitterly complaining about.
- Thousands of National Guard members were allowed back into the Capitol after Capitol Police officials banished them to a parking garage on Thursday night, for no clear reason. First Lady Jill Biden stopped by with chocolate chip cookies on Friday, so a day of low lows and high highs.
- Garage Night won’t help what seems to already be a superspreading event: Since arriving in Washington, DC, after the attack on the Capitol, hundreds of Guard members have either tested positive for coronavirus or are quarantining in nearby hotels.
- Trump is returning to a shitty financial situation made all the shittier by his decision to incite an insurrection: One of the Trump Organization’s banks and one of its law firms cut ties with the company on Thursday.
- Instacart will lay off all 10 employees who voted to unionize, along with nearly 2000 other grocery store workers.
- Dr. Deborah Birx has retired. Biden has not yet announced who will take over the Lying in Scarves role on the coronavirus team.
- Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) lied a bunch about being in training for the Paralympics, just like he lied about running a successful business and his acceptance to the Naval Academy.
- K-Pop fans have taken their talents to the #ImpeachBidenNow hashtag. Best of luck out there, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
- Hank Aaron, who became one of the greatest baseball players and sports icons of all time while facing down pervasive racism, has died. He was 86.
|
|
|
Hungary’s nationalist policies have created a serious labor shortage, in a glimpse of a future we narrowly escaped. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has discouraged immigrants with barriers along Hungary's borders and harsh limitations on work permits for foreigners, and the hundreds of thousands of young Hungarians who left in search of better-paying jobs have ignored Orban’s calls to come back. The resulting labor shortage is so severe that to address it, the government passed a bill widely referred to as the “slave law,” allowing employers to require 400 hours of overtime annually from workers, while delaying compensation for up to three years. That won’t solve the problem either: Labor unions naturally protested, prompting both multinational corporations and Hungarian companies to oppose the measure. It’s almost like virulent xenophobia isn’t a great economic proposition?
|
|
|
Over the past four years, the Trump administration has gone out of its way to launch attacks on women. It’s imperative that the Biden administration make women’s rights a top priority to ensure everyone has the freedom to live, work, and learn free from discrimination based on sex. Speak up with the ACLU - sign our petition if you agree that women’s rights can’t wait.
Here are just a few critical issues that the ACLU is asking the Biden administration to address:
Assure safe and stable housing for women and families: The COVID-19 pandemic has put as many as 40 million people in this country at risk of eviction. This is both a racial justice and gender justice issue: Black women face eviction at twice the rate of white renters. And, once a family has been evicted, the devastating harms can follow them for years, exacerbating economic inequality and preventing families from securing stable housing anywhere else.
Remove barriers to workplace equality for women: The COVID-19 pandemic has put women at the center of the most unequal recession in modern American history; more than 2 million women have left the workforce since January 2020, with Black women and other women of color hit the hardest. As we plan a path toward recovery, it’s more critical than ever to ensure women have equal access to opportunities on the job.
Eliminate sexual harassment and assault in our nation’s schools: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos dramatically reduced schools’ obligations to respond to sexual harassment and assault. The Education Department must not only rescind the DeVos double standard, but replace it with strong protections against sexual harassment and fair processes for all students.
Add your name to the ACLU’s petition demanding that the Biden administration make these issues a priority.
|
|
|
Joe Biden has promised to reinstate more than 100 rules and regulations for environmental protection that Trump rolled back (it just may take a while).
Biden has also implemented a key change recommended by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, making funding for non-congregate homeless shelters 100 percent reimbursable.
Eli Lilly announced that its monoclonal antibody prevented coronavirus infections in nursing home residents and staff in a clinical trial.
Bernie memes, but make it charity.
|
|
|
|
|
