Crooked Media - What A Day: Olden wage of Sinema

The Senate is poised to pass the American Rescue Plan as soon as Saturday, provided Republicans stop making up fake delays, Democrats stop getting mired in substantive delays, and Kyrsten Sinema doesn’t accidentally spark a revolution with cheeky gifs. 
 

• Senators finally began debating the coronavirus-relief bill on Friday, after Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) forced a handful of innocent clerks to read the full text out loud to him all night as a stalling tactic. Democrats immediately made up for the lost time by shortening the debate from 20 hours to three hours when no Republicans were there to object, but hopefully Ron had a nice time at his tyrannical, coronavirus-themed slumber party!
   
• Besides, who needs ham-fisted GOP tactics when you’ve got Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV)? In a bid to lock down support from moderates, Democrats had planned to abandon their effort to raise weekly federal unemployment benefits from $300 to $400, and instead extend those payments for an additional month, through October 4. That compromise would also waive taxes on the first $10,200 in unemployment benefits that Americans received in 2020, helping laid-off workers avoid surprise tax bills. But Manchin resisted the proposal on Friday afternoon, bringing the vote-a-rama to a standstill. 
   
• One thing we know for sure: The relief bill will not include a minimum-wage increase. Eight members of the Democratic caucus joined the populist heroes of the GOP in voting against an amendment to restore a $15 minimum wage provision to the bill. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) went the extra mile by doing an adorable little curtsy while voting to deny 27 million Americans a much-needed raise, for some reason. Incidentally, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who’ll be up for re-election in the very same purple state next year, voted in favor of the amendment.

While lawmakers were finalizing the next round of stimulus, the Labor Department released job numbers from President Biden’s first full month in office.
 

• The cool news: They’re better than expected! The U.S. economy added 379,000 jobs in February, and the overall unemployment rate dropped from 6.3 percent to 6.2 percent, with major gains in the hospitality industry. That said, there are still roughly 9.5 million fewer jobs than before the pandemic hit, Black unemployment rose from January to February, and the actual share of people in the labor force (now at 61.4 percent) has barely budged over the last nine months. 
   
• So, you know, still some hefty recovering to do. During an economic briefing with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday, Biden pointed out that at the current rate of growth, it would take two years to get the country back to where it was in February 2020: “We need to beat the virus, provide a sense of relief, and build an inclusive recovery. People need the help now.” Could be a cool thing to say very loudly at Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema?

Senate Democrats are expected to haul this relief bill over the finish line within the next day or so, but between shameless Republican time-wasting, Democratic defections on the minimum wage, and Joe Manchin’s unilateral sway over when Americans will get $1.9 trillion in aid, we’ve gotten a solid preview of the big fights ahead. 

With Friends Like These just kicked off a new season on forgiveness and reconciliation (the real kind, not the Senate kind). On today's episode, Maurice Chammah, author of the NYT Editor’s Pick Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty, joins to talk about how enforcing the death penalty poisons everyone who is a part of it. Listen & subscribe wherever you get your podcasts →

The White House announced that President Biden plans to work with Congress to repeal and replace the decades-old war authorizations currently on the books, with the goal of ending the forever wars. Presidents since before George W. Bush have relied on two open-ended legal authorizations to carry out military operations throughout the Middle East and beyond; by replacing them with a more narrow authorization, Biden would be returning more war authority to Congress. The announcement came just two days after a bipartisan group of senators led by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Todd Young (R-IN) introduced a bill to repeal the AUMFs (AsUMF?) passed in 1991 and 2002, amid anger over Biden’s airstrikes in Syria. Reaching an agreement on a new authorization could be difficult—former President Barack Obama also proposed replacing the current authorizations, but couldn’t get a bipartisan consensus on the exact parameters. It’s good to see a president agree to relinquish power he shouldn't have, but it's never been clear that Congress actually wants to reclaim the responsibility for war-making, and all of the political headaches that come with it.

Top aides to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) rewrote a report from state health officials on coronavirus nursing-home deaths to hide the higher toll, just as Cuomo was starting to write his book about triumphing over the pandemic. At that point in June, the New York State Health Department’s data (which wasn’t public) put the nursing home death toll at 9,250—roughly 50 percent higher than the figure the Cuomo administration had been citing. Several of Cuomo’s most senior aides (none of them health experts) intervened to take out that number. Cuomo has said he withheld the full nursing home data out of concern that the Trump administration would pursue a politically-motivated investigation, but his administration altered that June report months before federal authorities started requesting data.

Voters of color continue to be targeted by discriminatory election practices intended to diminish their voting power. In 2020, we witnessed even more attempts to disenfranchise Black and Brown voters through attacks on vote by mail, cuts to early voting periods, and unnecessary identification requirements. And, in the wake of record levels of turnout last year, we are now seeing proposals in many states seeking to cut back on voter access. Voting rights can’t wait. Add your name if you agree.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would begin to root out voting barriers that discriminate against voters of color. Our democracy works best when all eligible voters can cast their ballot freely and fairly.

The ACLU is demanding that Congress pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act to protect our fundamental right to vote and defend us against discrimination. Are you with us? Sign our petition today and demand that Congress pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act now.

The Biden administration has instructed federal agencies to ignore Donald Trump’s orders that undermined federal labor unions.

LeBron James and More Than a Vote have launched a new ad campaign on the fight to protect Black voting rights. 

Wisconsin has created a toll-free hotline for people to get help scheduling a vaccine appointment and find answers to related medical questions. 

Please do yourself a favor and check out Chinatown Pretty, a photo project by photographer Andria Lo and writer Valerie Luu that celebrates Asian-American seniors and their street style.