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Texas Democrats spared no parliamentary effort in defeating a sweeping GOP anti-voting bill, before turning around and asking the Senate filibuster-defenders why they’re too gutless to do the same.
- On Sunday night, a group of Democrats staged a coordinated walkout from the Texas House just before the end of the legislative session, depriving Republicans of a quorum to pass one of the most extreme voter-suppression bills in the country. In addition to its provisions targeting voters of color and declaring “yeehaw” to voter intimidation, S.B. 7 included a last-minute addition that would allow Texas judges to void elections without any actual evidence of voter fraud.
- The walkout marked the most aggressive action by state lawmakers to protect voting rights yet, but it may not be a permanent victory. Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) said he would have Republicans finish up their dirty work in a special legislative session later this year, and, in his infinite wisdom, also threatened to withhold legislators’ salaries in retaliation. Lawmakers’ salaries are protected by the state constitution, so by defunding the legislature, Abbott would just wind up hurting maintenance workers and the (mostly Republican) legislative staff.
- Texas Democrats used their revolt to refocus pressure on Senate Democrats to enact nationwide reforms by whatever means necessary. As Texas state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer put it, “Breaking quorum is about the equivalent of crawling on our knees begging the president and the United States Congress to give us the For the People Act and give us the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.” They’re not alone: On Tuesday, more than 100 scholars of democracy issued a statement outlining why our whole democracy is in peril, and urging Democrats to hurry up and ditch the filibuster to save it. President Biden announced that Vice President Kamala Harris will lead the administration’s push for voting protections, calling the GOP voter-suppression bills an “unprecedented assault on our democracy.”
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Days after Republicans filibustered the creation of a January 6 commission, removing the rule from their arsenal shouldn’t be a difficult sell.
- Particularly when you take into account that Trump allies spent the holiday weekend angling for an insurrection re-do. At a singularly unhinged QAnon conference in Dallas, former national security advisor Michael Flynn advocated for a Myanmar-style coup in the United States. Flynn later vehemently denied doing so, in spite of video footage from the event and also all of the other documented times Flynn has called for the military to overturn Donald Trump’s defeat.
- Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), the lone member of Congress to speak at the same event, continued to insist that the January 6 attack on the Capitol was a) no big deal and b) perpetrated by MAGA flag-waving leftists: “It wasn’t just right-wing extremists.” Trump himself has reportedly started telling people that he expects to be reinstated in office by August, which would be easier to dismiss as the wishful ramblings of a madman under federal investigation if Republicans around the country weren’t setting the stage for the continued undermining of election results and attendant violence.
Democrats in the Texas legislature have become the first lawmakers to act on a basic principle that nearly all Senate Democrats now seem to understand: No procedural norm should stand in the way of urgent action to protect democracy. More or less everything depends upon convincing Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) to reach the same conclusion.
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It’s a family affair on the latest episode of Takeline. First, Jason Concepcion and Renee Montgomery are joined by WNBA champion and Renee’s former teammate, Devereaux Peters to talk about her efforts to raise awareness around gun violence in America. Then, Jason’s mother stops by to explain the ongoing beef between golf pros Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau!
New episodes of Takeline every Tuesday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts →
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President Biden unveiled a set of policies aimed at narrowing the racial wealth gap during a Tuesday speech in Tulsa, OK, as he commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre. Those policies include directing federal contracts towards minority-owned businesses, setting aside $10 billion in infrastructure funds to rebuild disadvantaged neighborhoods, and initiatives to shore up the Fair Housing Act. Biden’s plans conspicuously did not include a pledge to cancel student debt, drawing criticism from the NAACP: “You cannot begin to address the racial wealth gap without addressing the student loan debt crisis.” Biden met with survivors of the massacre ahead of his speech, and called on Americans to reckon with the country’s uglier history. ICYMI last week, this is a pretty astonishing 3-D model of the community that the 1921 massacre destroyed.
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- New Mexico held a House special election to replace Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Tuesday, with Democrats counting on Melanie Stansbury defending the seat against GOP candidate Mark Moores, who’s been running a one-note campaign around rising crime.
- The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that tribal police officers can stop and search non-Native suspected criminals on tribal lands, since the alternative would limit tribes’ capacities to protect their members.
- Authorities are still searching for the three gunmen who opened fire outside a South Florida banquet hall on Sunday, killing two people and injuring 21 others.
- The Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc First Nation announced that it had found the remains of 215 children on the grounds of what was once Canada’s largest Indigenous boarding school, prompting calls for more searches at former residential schools across the country.
- Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed an anti-tran sports ban on the first day of Pride Month, making this a particularly meaningful day to support Nikki Fried’s newly-announced bid for Florida governor.
- House Democrats are still trying to get their hands on Trump’s tax returns, but the Biden Justice Department has given no indication that it intends to turn them over.
- China has reported the first human case of the H10N3 bird flu but said that the risk of a serious outbreak was “very low.” Anyway, hope everyone had a fun long weekend before it was too late! (In a drunken yet troop-respecting way, of course.)
- A cyberattack on JBS, the world’s largest meat producer, has shut down slaughterhouses around the world. The Joe Biden Veganism Offensive has entered Phase II.
- China announced it will allow couples to have three children in a bid to boost its population, but it’ll now have to convince parents to have more kids in spite of an inadequate social safety net and workplace discrimination against pregnant women.
- Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open a day after she was fined $15,000 for skipping her mandatory press conferences, citing her entirely reasonable need to protect her mental well-being.
- Scientists have found a rare mineral in the extremely hard teeth of mollusks known as the “wandering meatloaf.” Joe Biden Veganism Offensive, Phase III.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political future is back in jeopardy, after right-wing leader (and Netanyahu protégé) Naftali Bennett announced on Sunday that he would seek to form a coalition government with Netanyahu’s rivals. If successful, that deal would install Bennett as Israel’s next prime minister, maintaining the far-right’s chokehold on Israeli politics but finally ending the country’s electoral deadlock. Bennett and centrist Yair Lapid have until midnight on Wednesday to agree on a coalition, and Netanyahu has taken the development in stride. Hahaha, no, he immediately gave a rebuttal speech urging lawmakers not to support a “dangerous, leftist government,” and as his allies ramp up violent threats against his opponents, Netanyahu has declined to condemn them.
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In 2021, mental health is finally a thing, especially as people are not feeling like their normal selves. Let’s support one another and talk openly. Whether or not therapy is your thing, knowing it’s available and affordable is important, for you or perhaps a loved one.
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It’s always a good time to invest in yourself, because you are your greatest asset. See if online therapy is for you by heading to BetterHelp.com/crooked for 10% off your first month.
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The U.K. reported zero daily coronavirus deaths for the first time since the pandemic began.
The Biden administration has suspended oil drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Wilberforce University, a private HBCU in Ohio, surprised the classes of 2020 and 2021 by clearing their student debt.
Minnesota will become the first state to stop separating incarcerated mothers from their newborns.
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