-Madison Cawthorn, on the orgy-silencing efforts of...Kevin McCarthy
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Hey! What A Day will be off Friday in observance of Cesar Chavez Day, and back in your inbox on Monday, April 4.
In personal news, this will be my last week writing What A Day. Brian Beutler will take the helm for now, and I'll still be writing at Crooked! It's been an honor to ride out the last couple of years with you. Thank you for reading, and see you at the next House GOP coke orgy.
—Sarah
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As the war in Ukraine throws energy markets into chaos, the White House on Thursday unveiled a plan to counter the Putin Price Hike™ while European leaders called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bluff on a threat to cut off natural gas supplies.
- President Biden announced that the U.S. will release roughly one-million barrels of oil per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, in an effort to drive down rising gas prices. The move could free up as much as 180 million barrels over about six months, the largest release of U.S. reserves in history. It won’t entirely make up for the lost supply of Russian oil, and Biden called on U.S. oil producers to pick up the slack: “Enough of lavishing excessive profits on investors and payouts and buybacks. The American people are watching, the world is watching U.S. oil companies.”
- The second part of the plan, happily, is aimed at weaning the country off of foreign oil altogether. Biden will invoke the Defense Production Act to ramp up the domestic production of key minerals used in batteries for electric vehicles and long-term energy storage. That could include lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, and manganese. The plan to transition away from fossil fuels by scaling up mining is a problematic and controversial one, but it may be what’s necessary for the U.S. to meet its emissions goals without relying on tenuous global supply chains and exploited labor.
- Meanwhile, Putin on Thursday issued a demand that “unfriendly countries” pay for natural gas in rubles, threatening to tear up the existing contracts of countries that refused to comply. French and German officials have rejected that ultimatum, probably without risking an actual shutoff: The details of Putin’s decree seem to allow European buyers to continue paying for gas in euros and dollars, suggesting that the order was more of a face-saving move for the Kremlin than anything else.
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In Ukraine, Russian troops have withdrawn from Chernobyl for what may or not be Chernobyl Reasons, and another attempt to evacuate Mariupol is underway.
- Russian forces returned control of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant to its Ukrainian personnel and began leaving the site, authorities said on Thursday. According to Ukraine’s state energy company, Energoatom, Russia’s withdrawal came after soldiers received “significant doses” of radiation from digging trenches in the exclusion zone, “panicked at the first sign of illness,” and almost rioted. That report hasn’t been independently confirmed, and Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said it looked like the troops were simply repositioning.
- Amid continued attacks on Ukrainian cities, a convoy of 45 buses set out for the devastated city of Mariupol on Thursday, in a bid to evacuate residents and deliver humanitarian supplies. The Red Cross team said it hopes to enter the city on Friday, but will first need Russia and Ukraine to agree to the exact terms of where and when civilians can safely leave. Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine are also set to resume on Friday.
There’s no upside to Putin’s shambolic invasion that’s driving a staggering humanitarian crisis, but there’s an opportunity to wield it against him. By seizing on the crisis to accelerate the national shift to clean energy, the Biden administration can not only bring the U.S. closer to its climate goals, but sap Putin of the resources and leverage he currently enjoys.
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Shut Down ICE Detention Sites Now
Since March 2020, COVID-19 has posed an unprecedented threat to people locked up in ICE detention facilities – where they're routinely denied access to timely and adequate medical care and forced to live in crowded housing units. It’s time to shut down ICE detention centers. Are you with us?
With COVID-19 still posing a major threat within ICE detention centers, immigrants detained in these facilities are increasingly afraid for their health and lives. That's why the ACLU recently filed another lawsuit against ICE. Here's what to know:
- Our lawsuit is the second we’ve filed on behalf of medically vulnerable people detained by ICE, who have requested and been denied their COVID-19 vaccine booster shots. These individuals have been diagnosed with medical conditions such as HIV, chronic kidney infections, and PTSD, and are vulnerable to severe illness and death in the event of infection.
- Over four months between November 2021 and Feb. 21, 2022, ICE has provided only a total of 1,436 boosters to people detained in ICE detention facilities, despite holding between 18,800 to 22,000 people on average daily.
- ICE also currently has no policies or procedures in place to ensure that eligible people held in its detention facilities are identified or are provided a booster shot. Failing to provide booster shots is irresponsible, cruel, and a violation of people's rights.
Our government should be releasing people right now, but instead, the number of people held in immigrant detention has increased by over 50% since President Biden took office – the majority in prisons run by private corporations that are profiting from human misery. Take action with the ACLU today. Demand that the ICE detention machine be shut down once and for all.
In solidarity,
The ACLU Team
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The Justice Department has reportedly expanded its January 6 criminal investigation from the neckbearded Capitol rioters themselves to a range of Trump allies who may have been involved in the larger effort to disrupt the certification of the election. Your “u up?” tweets at Merrick Garland were not in vain, maybe! Over the past two months, a federal grand jury has issued subpoenas to those involved in the planning and financing of the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol. The grand jury has also reportedly sought information about the scheme to submit fake slates of electors to the National Archives. It’s too soon to know whether the Justice Department will move to prosecute Trump or anyone in his inner circle (or even start giving the House January 6 committee the subpoena enforcement it needs), but it’s a promising sign that the probe has broadened beyond the January 6 foot soldiers to the officials who arranged for them to be there.
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- Two days after disgraced President Donald Trump asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to release some dirt on the Bidens, Russia’s Ministry of Defense held a briefing that looped Hunter Biden into a conspiracy theory about Ukrainian biolabs creating pathogens to be spread by birds. "More like Hunter Bird-en," we would say, if Tucker Carlson wasn't about to say it every day for months.
- Trump reportedly used an official White House phone number to place at least one call during the insurrection, but it wasn’t recorded in the presidential call log, raising the prospect that Trump officials criminally tampered with the records.
- A Wisconsin judge found GOP Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos in contempt of court after he failed to turn over records from Republicans’ bogus investigation into the 2020 election.
- CIA Director William Burns tested positive for COVID on Thursday, a day after meeting with President Biden while wearing an N95 mask. Burns is vaxxed, boosted, and experiencing mild symptoms.
- Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) immediately objected to Biden’s proposed minimum tax on billionaires, dooming yet another plan aimed at addressing income inequality from the comfort of his yacht.
- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) announced he’ll vote no on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court nomination, despite voting to confirm her to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit last year.
- Gov. Doug Ducey (R-AZ) has signed legislation re-establishing proof of citizenship voting requirements, inviting the Supreme Court to take another look at a voter-suppression measure that it ruled unconstitutional in 2013, before it had a far-right supermajority.
- Fox News has hired Caitlyn Jenner as a contributor, what with Mick Mulvaney having already been snatched up by CBS and all.
- Facebook’s News Feed mistakenly amplified harmful content over the last six months, due to what’s known in the tech industry as a “whoopsy-daisy.” A few more negative stories about TikTok ought to clear that right up!
- Donald Trump has cheated his White House photographer out of the profits from her own book, so here's hoping she has a file somewhere called Revenge.jpeg.
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The end of the pandemic could be a huge pain in the ass for the American health-care system, an undeniable sign of a flawless system that rocks in every way. An estimated 15 million people will lose Medicaid coverage when the COVID public-health emergency comes to an end. That extra funding and flexibility is currently set to end on April 16, though the Biden administration is expected to extend it through mid-July. Virtually everyone poised to lose Medicaid will be eligible for another form of coverage, but many may not realize they can sign up for an ACA plan, and ACA coverage will become less affordable unless Congress is able to pass an extension of the financial assistance in President Biden’s agenda. Congress would also have to pass a new rule to ensure that Medicare recipients continue to have access to telehealth, or most will lose coverage for it. Beyond the fact that Democrats would (unfairly) shoulder the blame for those headaches in the midterms, it would be a huge bummer if the “return to normal” amounted to “letting improved systems drift back to how they were before.”
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We all know media outlets have bias. And while we adopted the name Crooked Media ironically, it does reflect just how polarizing the news has become. Wouldn’t it be helpful to understand how these biases play out in real time?
Ground News is an app and website that scours all sides of the internet to gather related news articles in one place. Every story is accompanied by a bias bar that shows how the issue is being covered across the political spectrum. And each bias rating is derived from independent news monitoring organizations.
Unlike other news aggregators, Ground doesn’t use your browsing history to show you the same content from the same sources. In fact, they go out of their way to show you stories you might be missing. Their Blindspot feed highlights issues that are underreported by both the left and the right, helping you avoid echo chambers.
Created by former NASA engineer Harleen Kaur, Ground News is a data-driven tool for curious people. It’s supported by subscribers who are passionate about this issue and believe in a future of positive coexistence, where civil debate is the norm, media is accountable and critical thought is the baseline of our information consumption.
Download the Ground New app today at ground.news/whataday.
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New Mexico has approved a plan to make college tuition-free for all state residents.
A federal judge has blocked Florida from enforcing most of its new voter-suppression law, a very good ruling even if it’s likely to be overturned by right-wing courts on appeal.
The State Department will offer an “X” gender marker for U.S. passports starting in April.
Ariana Grande has launched a fundraiser for organizations that support and protect trans youth, pledging to match all donations up to $1.5 million.
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