The Return Of Romneybot

Mitt Romney has a plan to raise the minimum wag to...some...number above $7.25 an hour, but he'll be damned if anyone actually knows what the number would be.

As Democrats try to plot a way forward to raise the minimum wage to $15-an-hour, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, announced Tuesday that he's working on a separate bill to increase the long stagnant minimum wage while “ensuring businesses cannot hire illegal immigrants.”

Romney said he's working on the bill with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and it also includes a provision for the minimum wage to "increase automatically with inflation."

Increasing the minimum wage is a priority for the Biden administration, but Democrats have been split on the best path forward.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the head of the Senate Budget Committee and a longtime proponent of raising the minimum wage, is pushing for the measure to be included in the Covid-19 relief bill and passed through budget reconciliation, which would allow them to avoid the filibuster and pass the measure without any Republican support. Some Democrats are concerned the Senate rules might not allow the minimum wage hike to be used in reconciliation.

Romney said his bill would raise the minimum wage "gradually" but did not say to what amount or over what period of time.

"Congress hasn’t raised the minimum wage in more than a decade, leaving many Americans behind. Our proposal gradually raises the minimum wage without costing jobs, setting it to increase automatically with inflation, and requires employers to verify the legal status of workers," Romney wrote in a pair of tweets about the proposed legislation.

The Democratic-controlled House Education and Labor Committee earlier this month approved a Covid-19 relief bill that includes a wage hike from $7.25 an hour to $15 over four years.

 

I love how Millionaire Mitt's plan is such a pittance that he can't even be bothered to reveal what he'd raise the minimum wage to, let alone give it a timeframe.  It's the Trump Health Care Plan™ all over again. Republicans never have details on their plans, only that they "will work better" than the ones out there, and then they spend years not actually implementing them.

Tom Cotton getting involved too lets me know this isn't a serious proposal at all, but it'll sure make the news. Mitt Romney may have voted to convict Trump, but he's still Mitt Romney, Republican jackass.

Last Call For Getting Schooled By Biden

Republicans are under the impression that now Biden and the Dems are in charge, that voters will blame the President and his party for failing to instantly fix COVID-19 school issues, when it was the Republican failure of the Trump regime that created the issue in the first place by refusing to take the pandemic seriously.

Distraught and exhausted parents are emerging as a new class of voters that could torment President Joe Biden — and the White House is moving quickly to head off the pain.

Nearing a year into the pandemic, Biden’s advisers and allies recognize that they need to respond to the spiraling angst felt by families or risk driving them into the arms of waiting Republicans.

It is a crucial test for Biden and Democrats as they try to consolidate their gains from the 2020 election. The pandemic has disrupted lives and exacerbated inequities and a raft of public and private surveys show clear political potholes and opportunities because of it. The coronavirus is spawning sweeping policy prescriptions from Democrats and Republicans alike, from billions in school reopening funds to the creation of a federal child allowance. And it’s prompting pollsters to loosely coin emerging voter demos like “women in chaos” and “families in crisis.”

Within the GOP, there is a belief that the pandemic and resulting turmoil make Biden and Democratic incumbents especially vulnerable among those demographics. Republicans see room to capitalize on the grim public health and economic situation the White House inherited from Donald Trump by trying to put Democrats on the defensive for being too removed from the pain or too slow-moving to address it.

GOP lawmakers, while offering no commitment to meaningfully engage on policy proposals, have responded to continued school closures by striking hard at Biden and Democrats, with more Republicans each week accusing the administration of scaling back their ambitious goals on everything from testing to school reopenings.

“The science says that the schools should open, but instead of listening to the science, the Biden administration is caving in to Democrat special interest groups,” RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel told POLITICO. “As a result, the education of our children is suffering and hundreds of thousands of working moms are being forced out of the workforce.”

Republicans believe they’ve been aided in their attacks by mixed messaging from the administration on how and when schools should open. GOP officials have circulated several rounds of talking points on schools, with Senate, House and party leaders blasting out criticism on the issue in emails to constituents and the media on a near-daily basis.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday released long-awaited guidance on the matter, which offered step-by-step advice to reopen classrooms that health officials said was “grounded in science and the best available evidence.”

Republicans have attacked Biden’s school reopening goals as underwhelming, given that the White House has already dialed back expectations for the first 100 days. They are preparing to “hammer away” at the schools issue, including charging that Democrats have dragged their feet on reopenings to appease powerful school unions, according to an RNC official.

Even as more schools resume robust in-person schedules, the stress imposed on families by months of distance learning won’t soon fade.

“Their proposal buys into the myth from Big Labor that schools should stay shut a lot longer,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week of Biden’s “rescue” package.

White House aides and close allies acknowledge that getting kids back into classrooms is a thorny political challenge thanks to its visceral toll on families. But they insist they’re following the advice of scientists and health experts to keep children safe. They have framed their approach as part of a comprehensive, emergency effort to address several interrelated problems with necessary funding.

In interviews, they made the case that the president’s $1.9 trillion rescue package — which includes direct payments, funds for pandemic relief and money to safely reopen schools and fund local government — will be welcomed by voters because it will work.

“President Biden isn’t going to rest until students are back in school five days a week, and if Republicans agree, they should match their words with action and support the president’s Rescue Plan, which will get schools the resources they desperately need to reopen safely,” said Michael Gwin, a White House spokesperson.

 

The problem for the GOP is fourfold: they helped create the problem with schools in the first place, they haven't had a solution for a year, they are 100% against Biden's solution, and nobody believes they give a damn about moms out of work or kids in general. 

I have a very hard time believing that the party that says the economy is doing "too well" right now and that we can't afford stimulus checks to American families is going to pick up millions of voters between now and November 2022.

Well, unless Democrats manage to not pass COVID-19 relief.  Then that's a real possibility.

The Day Hell Froze Over In Texas

Decades of Republican misrule, refusal to spend on infrastructure, and a once-in-a-century winter storm exposed Texas's power grid for the unsustainable sham that it is, the only power grid not under federal jurisdiction, by the way, and as a direct result, as many as four million were left without power in the freezing cold on Monday into Tuesday.

Millions of Texans were without heat and electricity Monday as snow, ice and frigid temperatures caused a catastrophic failure of the state’s power grid.

The Texas power grid, powered largely by wind and natural gas, is relatively well equipped to handle the state’s hot and humid summers when demand for power soars. But unlike blistering summers, the severe winter weather delivered a crippling blow to power production, cutting supplies as the falling temperatures increased demand.

Natural gas shortages and frozen wind turbines were already curtailing power output when the Arctic blast began knocking generators offline early Monday morning.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, which is responsible for scheduling power and ensuring the reliability of the electrical network, declared a statewide power generation shortfall emergency and asked electricity delivery companies to reduce load through controlled outages.

More than 4 million customers were without power in Texas, including 1.4 million in the Houston area, the worst power crisis in the state in a decade. The forced outages are expected to last at least through part of Tuesday, the state grid manager said.

CenterPoint Energy, the regulated utility that delivers electricity to Houston-area homes and provides natural gas service, started rolling blackouts in the Houston region at the order of state power regulators. It said customers experiencing outages should be prepared to be without power at least through Monday.

“How long is it going to be? I don’t know the answer,” said Kenny Mercado, executive vice president at the Houston utility. “The generators are doing everything they can to get back on. But their work takes time and I don’t know how long it will take. But for us to move forward, we have got to get generation back onto the grid. That is our primary need.”

Dan Woodfin, ERCOT’s senior director of system operations, said the rolling blackouts are taking more power offline for longer periods than ever before. An estimated 34,000 megawatts of power generation — more than a third of the system’s total generating capacity — had been knocked offline by the extreme winter weather amid soaring demand as residents crank up heating systems.

The U.S. Energy Department, in response to an ERCOT request, issued an order late Monday authorizing power plants throughout the state to run at maximum output levels, even if it results in exceeding pollution limits.

Ed Hirs, an energy fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of Houston, blamed the failures on the state’s deregulated power system, which doesn’t provide power generators with the returns needed to invest in maintaining and improving power plants.

“The ERCOT grid has collapsed in exactly the same manner as the old Soviet Union,” said Hirs. “It limped along on underinvestment and neglect until it finally broke under predictable circumstances.

 

Texas's power grid broke in the same fashion in 2011 during a February blizzard, and the state did nothing to prepare for the next time.  Well, the next time came this week, and it was a catatrophic power grid failure as a result.

 

Like most red states, Texas cut corporate taxes to attract businesses, but didn't have the money to fix basic infrastructure. Part of that tax scheme was ERCOT, the Texas power authority, that did everything it could to make the problem worse.

But the major issue was the state relying on natural gas for both heat and power in the winter, so much so that the demand so badly outstripped supply that it shut the state's power grid down completely. And let's not forget as climate change causes more weather extremes at both ends like record-breaking heat and cold, power demand will only increase.

 

Republicans are blaming "failed green energy" but the fact of the matter is it's gas, coal, and nuclear that failed in Texas. 

Main story continues to be the failure of thermal power plants -- natural gas, coal, and nuclear plants -- which ERCOT counts on to be there when needed. They've failed. Of about 70,000 MW of thermal plants in ERCOT, ~25-30,000 MW have been out since Sunday night. Huge problem.

— JesseJenkins (@JesseJenkins) February 16, 2021

 

Some 35-40% of Texas's total traditional power generation was knocked out by cold weather. Green energy isn't the problem, it's a power grid specifically designed to be as inefficient as possible because nobody wants to invest in power infrastructure, period.

The utter refusal of states to invest in infrastructure nationally is going to kill us.

The Seven With Spines, Con't

The Trumpists are coming for Mitt Romney now, demanding the Utah GOP censure him for his vote to convict Trump.

 

Some Utah Republicans are hoping to censure Sen. Mitt Romney for voting to convict former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial. 

The motion, being circulated on social media, says Romney failed to “represent the average conservative Utah Republican voter” and “misrepresented himself as a Republican,” when he ran for office. 

The Utah Republican Party’s top leaders are not behind this effort. Instead, the party issued a statement Monday noting that both Romney and Sen. Mike Lee, who voted to acquit Trump, have faced criticism for their impeachment votes. “The differences between our own Utah Republicans showcase a diversity of thought, in contrast to the danger of a party fixated on ‘unanimity of thought.’ There is power in our differences as a political party, and we look forward to each senator explaining their votes to the people of Utah.” 

The draft censure of Romney includes a list of criticisms. It says Romney “embarrassed the State of Utah” when he was the only Republican senator to vote to convict Trump during his first impeachment trial. Romney had voted to remove Trump for abusing his power by pressuring Ukraine to launch an investigation into then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. 

The censure, pushed by party insiders, then attacks Romney for opposing the effort to declare Trump’s second impeachment trial unconstitutional since Trump was no longer in office, and for voting in favor of calling witnesses. It further excoriates Romney for joining six other Republicans to convict Trump on Saturday. It takes two-thirds of senators to remove a president, so Trump was acquitted. 

The censure motion concludes Romney used his “senatorial power and influence to undermine” Trump and claims “Romney appears to be an agent for the Establishment Deep State.” 

Evan McMullin, a former Republican who ran for president as an independent in 2016, said he was dumbfounded by the backlash against Romney from members of his own party. 

“Mitt has done more to defend the Constitution than any congressional Republican in modern history. He is serving the country and doing more to defend liberty than anyone else,” said McMullin. “We need to stand with him.” 

McMullin, a frequent critic of Trump during his time in office, said Romney’s courage should be celebrated, not condemned. 

“There is a tremendous need and opportunity for Utah to lead on this. There are plenty of good Republicans in Utah who are committed to the founding principles of our country, the very same kind of leadership Mitt is offering right now,” McMullin said. “This isn’t about Republicans, Democrats or independents. It’s about putting the country and Constitution first.” 

Utah GOP Chairman Derek Brown says he’s aware of the censure motion but has not seen it yet. 

“I’ve been saying the best censure occurs at the ballot box,” says Brown, a reference to 2024, when Romney would face reelection.

 

Evan McMullin, as all third-party spoilers should, can go intercourse himself with a rusty chainsaw. He's a major part of the reason we got Trump in the first place, along with Jill Stein. 

But the larger problem is that state GOP parties are declaring open season here on their own members, and while I don't expect things to get violent quite yet, we have to entertain the distinct possibility that somebody may try for Mitt, especially since he's in a red state, and would be replaced by a Republican by Gov. Spencer Cox. 

The Conserva-schism continues.

StupidiNews!

• Texas and other Southern states are digging out from a bitterly cold winter storm, thousands remain without power in the coldest temperatures in a century in parts of the Lone Star State.
• Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are expecting their second child, the royal couple are adapting to leaving the UK and living in the US.
• President Joe Biden will visit Wisconsin this week to pitch the administration's COVID-19 stimulus bill in a CNN town hall event, and he will visit Michigan on Thursday.
• Military leaders in Myanmar are dismissing US sanctions after the coup earlier this month, saying the United States has no standing to interfere after its own "election problems".
• Harvard researchers believe a comet fragment, not an asteroid, was responsible for the KT boundary impact that killed Earth's dinosaurs, possibly a fragment thrown out of orbit by Jupiter.
  

Last Call For Loopin' The Third

A new Gallup poll finds record-high support for a third party, and it's no surprise that nearly seven out of ten Republicans think it's time for another party to enter the mix as the GOP as we know it continues to mutate into whatever Trump cult versus greedy corporate mud fight that will play out in the months ahead.

Americans' desire for a third party has ticked up since last fall and now sits at a high in Gallup's trend. Sixty-two percent of U.S. adults say the "parties do such a poor job representing the American people that a third party is needed," an increase from 57% in September. Support for a third party has been elevated in recent years, including readings of 60% in 2013 and 2015 and 61% in 2017.

Meanwhile, 33% of Americans believe the two major political parties are doing an adequate job representing the public, the smallest percentage expressing this view apart from the 26% reading in October 2013.

The latest results are from a Jan. 21-Feb. 2 poll. The survey was conducted before recent news reports that dozens of government officials in prior Republican administrations were in discussions to form an anti-Donald Trump third political party.

The survey found Americans' favorable opinion of the Republican Party has declined to 37%, while 48% view the Democratic Party positively. The poll also shows 50% of U.S. adults identifying as political independents, the highest percentage Gallup has ever measured in a single poll.

Gallup first asked about the need for a third party in 2003. At that time, most Americans did not think it was necessary, with 56% saying the parties were doing an adequate job representing the American people and 40% saying a third party was needed.

In several election years -- 2006, 2008 and 2012 -- Americans were divided as to whether a third party was needed, but since 2012, Americans have consistently favored the idea.

Independents are usually much more likely than Republicans or Democrats to favor a third political party, but in the current poll, Republicans are nearly as likely as independents to hold this view, 63% to 70%. That represents a dramatic shift for Republicans since last September when 40% favored a third party.

Republicans' current level of support for a third party is also the highest Gallup has measured for Republicans or Democrats in Gallup's trend. The previous high was 54% for Democrats in 2018. Currently, 46% of Democrats endorse a third party, down from 52% in September.

 

The ongoing problem with a third party is of course "What does the third party represent" and what Republicans want from a third party is definitely different from what Democrats may want from one. 

 

Current Republicans want either a Trump Patriot MAGA white supremacist fascist party, or they want the 2015 version of it before Trump took over, which is only slightly less racist and dangerous, and they want the other side banished from "their" party. 

If that happens, well I'm glad to see the crackup that makes the Dems stronger, but frankly I would suspect they would all caucus together anyway.

That's The Sound Of The Police, Con't

As Charles Blow explains, the one major consequence of the full transformation of the GOP into the white supremacy domestic terrorism party is the death of the odious Blue Lives Matter farce, as police are now the enemy of the terrorist insurgency.

Blue Lives Matter is officially dead. People may continue to chant and post the slogan, but it is dead. Senate Republicans killed it last week when they voted to acquit Donald Trump of inciting an insurrection that left one officer dead and 138 injured. (Two officers who responded to the insurrection later died by suicide.)

As The New York Times reported:

“One officer lost the tip of his right index finger. Others were smashed in the head with baseball bats, flagpoles and pipes. Another lost consciousness after rioters used a metal barrier to push her into stairs as they tried to reach the Capitol steps during the assault on Jan. 6.”

The Times continued that the injuries to officers “ranged from bruises and lacerations to more serious damage such as concussions, rib fractures, burns and even a mild heart attack.”

After conservatives condemned football player Colin Kaepernick for kneeling during the American national anthem at N.F.L. games, a violent mob assembled and encouraged by Trump assaulted the American Capitol.

Trump himself said the following about Kaepernick and Black Lives Matter protests:

“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these N.F.L. owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’ You know, some owner is going to do that. He’s going to say, ‘That guy that disrespects our flag, he’s fired.’ And that owner, they don’t know it [but] they’ll be the most popular person in this country.”

And then, a member of the mob in January acting at Trump’s behest used a flagpole flying that very same American flag to attack an acting D.C. police officer. As NBC Washington reported:

“A man with a backpack and long, brown hair is shown repeatedly slamming a flagpole with an American flag toward the ground. The victim is off-camera but a police shield can be seen. The crowd chants ‘USA,’ with some wearing red Make America Great Again hats.”

In September, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina introduced the Protect and Serve Act, which would make it “a federal crime to knowingly cause, or attempt to cause, serious bodily injury to a law enforcement officer. Offenders are subject to imprisonment for up to 10 years.”

As Tillis posted on his website: “We cannot sit idly by and allow for the streets to be filled with dangerous, violent criminals who face no consequences.” And yet, Tillis voted to acquit the man responsible for filling D.C.’s streets with dangerous, violent criminals who attacked police officers, even though Tillis conceded:

“It is important to note that a not-guilty verdict is not the same as being declared innocent. President Trump is most certainly not the victim here; his words and actions were reckless and he shares responsibility for the disgrace that occurred on January 6.”

Tillis’s bill was co-sponsored by 15 other Republican senators. All of the ones who remained in the Senate after the election voted to acquit Trump except one: Richard Burr, the other senator from North Carolina.

 

Make no mistake now, the police are now the bad guys to Republicans, maybe even more so than they are to black America. Senate Republicans acquitted Trump of inciting an insurrection that left several Capitol Police dead, and white supremacist groups are now freaking out, wondering how many of their members are undercover cops.

The Proud Boys are having a rough time. The self-described "Western chauvinist" drinking club has long been a refuge for white supremacists, anti-Semites and assorted extremists seeking a veneer of legitimacy.

But in the wake of the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last month, the group is in some disarray, as state chapters disavow the group's chairman and leaders bicker inpublic and in private about what direction to take the Proud Boys in.

Proud Boys chairman Henry Tarrio, who goes by Enrique, was arrested days before the Capitol riot and charged with two federal weapons charges. Three weeks later, Tarrio was outed as a longtime FBI informant,a role he has now admitted to. The news about the Proud Boys leader came as other members of the group were arrested for their involvement in the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Then, on Feb. 3, Canada designated the Proud Boys as a domestic terrorist group.

The barrage of controversy, discord and betrayal seems to have been too much for at least three state chapters of the Proud Boys, who used the messaging app Telegram to denounce Tarrio and proclaim their independence from central Proud Boy leadership. That raises questions about the future of the group, and also has experts concerned about more radical factions of the Proud Boys, or a newly-branded gang, emerging.

"We do not recognize the assumed authority of any national Proud Boy leadership including the Chairman, the Elders, or any subsequent governing body that is formed to replace them until such a time we may choose to consent to join those bodies of government," read an announcement on a website connected to the Alabama chapter of the Proud Boys.

The same sentiment was shared on Telegram by Proud Boys chapters in Indiana and Oklahoma.

 

Police will be rebranded as "Biden's jackbooted thugs" in the weeks and months ahead. The one good thing that may come from it is real police reform, as suddenly Republicans will want to rein in cops. 

Watch that happen.

 

The Seven With Spines

Seven Republican senators voted to convict Donald Trump in Saturday's Senate trial vote, which is honestly seven more than I thought it would be. The real shocker of the bunch is Louisiana GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, who apparently developed a spinal column over last week and has already received swift backlash from the state GOP.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy broke with the Republican party in visceral terms Saturday, voting with just six other members of his party to convict Donald Trump on charges of incitement of insurrection and declaring he was putting the Constitution over the former president.

The blowback from Republicans back home was swift and dramatic. The state GOP took the remarkable step of censuring the Baton Rouge Republican hours after his vote to convict. Several Republican elected officials condemned the senator, who was a reliable conservative vote during his first six-year term that began in 2014, voting with Trump 89% of the time.

The schism between Cassidy and his own party made clear that the allegiances among many Louisiana Republicans still lay with the former president, and not their senior U.S. senator.

“Our Constitution and our country is more important than any one person,” Cassidy said in a brief video released after the vote. “I voted to convict President Trump because he is guilty.”

Cassidy joined six other Republicans in voting with all Democrats to convict Trump, leaving Democrats well short of the two-thirds threshold needed to convict. Still, they touted the vote as the most bipartisan impeachment vote in U.S. history. The historic impeachment trial centered around Trump’s role in inciting a mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 to interrupt the certification of President Joe Biden’s electors. Five people died in the riot.

Louisiana’s other senator, John Kennedy of Madisonville, who is up for re-election in 2022, voted to acquit Trump, criticizing the impeachment proceedings as “political sport.” Kennedy had also voted earlier this week not to move forward with the trial on the basis that it was unconstitutional to convict a former president; Cassidy broke with most members of his party on that vote as well.

“The merits of the Democrats’ case were not even close,” Kennedy said. “The Democrats afforded the president no due process in the House — no hearings, no investigation, no right to be heard, no defense. No one is above the law, but no one is beneath it.”

Both Kennedy and Cassidy were Democrats for years -- the Democratic party for years dominated Louisiana politics -- before switching to the GOP as Republicans cemented their political power in the state.

Almost immediately after his vote to convict, Louisiana Republicans blasted Cassidy. Attorney General Jeff Landry said the vote was “extremely disappointing,” calling the impeachment trial unconstitutional. He said Cassidy fell into a “trap laid by Democrats to have Republicans attack Republicans.”

Mike Bayham, the secretary of the LAGOP, said he hopes the Legislature will revamp the state’s election system to hold closed primaries, which he believes will result in more reliable Republican candidates. Currently, all candidates for office appear on the same ballot regardless of party, in what's known as a jungle primary.

“Bill Cassidy is a senator without a party as of today,” he said.

LAGOP Chairman Louis Gurvich said the party condemns Cassidy’s vote.

“Fortunately, clearer heads prevailed and President Trump has been acquitted of the impeachment charge filed against him,” Gurvich said.

State Rep. Blake Miguez, of Erath, the head of the House GOP delegation, said Cassidy “no longer represents the majority of people in Louisiana” who voted him into office. “Don’t expect a warm welcome when you come home to Louisiana!” he tweeted.

 

Cassidy may have ruined his political career doing the right thing, but he also knows that the LA GOP won't lay a glove on him, not while his replacement would be selected by Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards.

 

Note that nobody is calling for Cassidy's resignation.

 

It's all politics and Cassidy knew what he was doing when he came out to convict Trump. Sure, he'll probably retire or be primaried out in 2026, but he's betting he's got five plus more years to cross that bridge.

 

Besides, it's not like the LA GOP are good people. 

The LA GOP formally censured Sen. Bill Cassidy today. Interesting side note: When I was on the staff of US Senator Bennett Johnston, we asked the LA Republican Party to censure our opponent, David Duke, because he had literally been a self-professed Klansman. They refused. pic.twitter.com/8WBW9qBDMa

— Robert Collins (@DrRobertCollins) February 14, 2021

And if he's "without a party", well, he can always caucus with the Dems...

StupidiNews!

• President Joe Biden will join other G7 leaders in a virtual COVID-19 summit as the international community moves forward on vaccinations and distribution.
• US Secret Service officials have arrested a woman who approached the White House last weekend with a "letter for Joe Biden" after a search revealed a loaded handgun in her car.
• Myanmar's military government has deployed armored vehicles amid an internet blackout to break up demonstrations after last week's military coup deposed civilian leaders.
• The White House is calling for "common-sense gun reforms" from Congress, with the House expected to pass sweeping background check legislation later this month.
• CDC head Dr. Rochelle Walensky says new COVID-19 school safety regulations are "science-based" and "free" from political pressures.

Last Call For I Can't Seem To Recall Gavin, Con't

Republicans trying to get rid of California GOP Gov. Gavin Newsom say they already have the 1.5 million signatures they need to force a recall ballot initiative this year, meaning Newsom is now in the fight of his political life.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom faces a possible recall election as the nation's most populous state struggles to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.

Organizers for "Recall Gavin 2020" said Friday they have surpassed the 1.5 million signatures required to place the proposal on this year’s ballot. The signatures still need to be verified. Once verified and approved, the recall election would happen sometime over the summer.

Earlier this week, President Joe Biden said he opposes the effort to recall Governor Gavin Newsom. In a tweet, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki noted that Biden and Newsom share interests in addressing the climate crisis and the coronavirus pandemic.

Recall adviser Randy Economy says interest is higher since it was revealed Newsom dined with friends at an opulent restaurant while telling state residents to stay home and not socialize.

Several previous attempts to recall the governor faded, but the current effort has been gaining momentum with more Californians upset over health orders that have closed school campuses and businesses.

Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer responded on Twitter. "Gavin Newsom won’t listen to our struggles, so he will have to deal with our signatures, all 1.5 million of them. A recall is on the verge of happening, and better days are coming" Faulconer said.

The California Republican Party is giving $125,000 to the campaign aimed at recalling Governor Newsom. The funds will go toward hiring workers to gather signatures. So far, that work has fallen largely on volunteers.

Expect Democrats to have to spend a lot of money to defend Newsom here, which is exactly what California Republicans want heading into 2022. It's arguably the best weapon they have to get control of the Governor's mansion back, as well as to gain US House seats.

Keep an eye on this fight heading into the summer.  It's going to be an ugly one, especially if vaccination in California runs into trouble. It'll also put tremendous pressure on Newsom to reopen schools and businesses early, which could be catastrophic.

I have a bad feeling about this.

Graham, Crackers, Con't

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham is making it clear that Democrats refusing to call his bluff involving Trump impeachment trial witnesses on Saturday means he's now raising the stakes for future threats against Democrats.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Sunday said that he expects Republicans to impeach Vice President Kamala Harris if the party takes control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, Graham told host Chris Wallace that former President Donald Trump is ready to "move on" and rebuild the Republican Party after his impeachment trial.

"I thought the impeachment trial was not only unconstitutional, I condemn what happened on Jan. 6, but the process they used to impeach this president was an affront to rule of law," Graham opined. "We've opened Pandora's Box to future presidents."

"And if you use this model, I don't know how Kamala Harris doesn't get impeached if the Republicans take over the House," he added. "Because she actually bailed out rioters and one of the rioters went back to the streets and broke somebody's head open. So we've opened Pandora's Box here and I'm sad for the country?"

"Does Donald Trump bear any responsibility for the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6th?" Wallace asked.

"Uh, no," Graham replied. "In terms of the law, no. He bears responsibility of pushing narratives about the election that I think are not sound and not true. But this was politically protected speech. The speech on Jan. 6th was not an incitement of violence."

Before ending the interview Graham insisted that Trump and his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, are the "future" of the Republican Party. 

 

It's sad, but Graham won this round, as he has several others. Dems caved on impeachment witnesses, and Republicans acquitted Trump. He'll keep upping the stakes until he's stopped, and it's clear that the voters of South Carolina have no intention of doing so. White supremacy won this weekend, and it will keep on winning like it has for 400 years.

One of two things has to happen, either Dems have to get rid of the filibuster, or get 60 seats in the Senate, and it doesn't look like either one will be happening anytime soon.

Having said that, Graham only makes good on this threat if Democratic voters give Republicans the House.

Remember that.

Sunday Long Read: What's On Deprogram?

Millions of Americans have been taken in by QAnon conspiracy theories, some so badly warped by their immersion on the cult that they will need deprogramming. Just another ugly by-product of the Trump regime, America now has a growing need for mental health services like this, and families across the country are struggling with bringing their loved ones back from disaster.

Shortly before Joe Biden was inaugurated, Sam’s mother began stocking up on food in a panic. He didn’t know why, but he knew it probably had something to do with QAnon.

The 19-year-old started to notice changes in his mother’s behavior around the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. She had always been a nervous woman: She stopped flying after 9/11 and had hovered closely to Sam and his two younger siblings for their entire lives. But during the COVID-19 crisis, his mom’s paranoia spiraled from quirky to deranged. It has turned her into someone he hardly recognizes.

Though she didn’t used to be very political, she now fears the president is a pedophile who stole the election. She’s scared of radiation from the 5G towers in her neighborhood and, as a white woman, she told her son, she’s afraid of being harmed by Black Lives Matter protesters — a movement she once supported. She worries that Sam’s brother and sister are being “indoctrinated” at their public high school and wants to move them to a Catholic one. She’s also refusing to get them immunized against COVID-19 as false rumors swirl that the vaccine contains a secret location-tracking microchip. (She was initially terrified of the virus but now considers the lockdowns an affront to her freedoms.)

“She wasn’t always like this,” Sam said. “It just keeps getting worse.”

Sam moved back into his mom’s Michigan home last March when his college campus shut down. His dad, who’d been divorced from his mother for many years, had recently died, and it was nice to be back around family. But Sam quickly noticed his mom was spending almost all of her time online. For hours into the night she’d be on Facebook and, later, Parler, obsessing over articles from obscure, ultraconservative websites that traffic in fake news. She’d send posts to Sam pushing political claims that were risibly false, and they’d get into furious arguments over dinner as he tried to debunk them.

As his mom grew increasingly irritable and combative, Sam spent more time hiding out in his bedroom. It was disturbing to hear his mother rattling off such brazen and hateful falsehoods, unwilling to listen to reason. She seemed angry all the time and was suddenly gravely concerned about things like pedophilia. So a few months ago, Sam decided to look into #SaveTheChildren, a hashtag she’d been using a lot on social media. It led him straight to QAnon. And at once, things started to make sense.

QAnon, as Sam learned, is a far-right conspiracy theory movement centered on the idea that Donald Trump is championing a shadow war against a “deep-state” cabal of liberal elites who rule the world and run a global child sex trafficking ring. QAnon adherents are convinced that anyone and everyone is out to get them: the government, the media, Big Tech and Big Pharma — no one can be trusted save for Trump and “Q,” their anonymous online leader (and supposed government insider) who has fed them coded “intel” via the message board 8kun. They’re endlessly waiting for a prophesied day of reckoning known as “The Storm,” during which all the evildoers will be rounded up and executed.

Sam’s mom had found a community that not only validated her fear, but also encouraged her anger. “It’s hard. I don’t know what to do,” he said. “I do feel like I’m losing her.”

The teen often feels alone, but he’s far from it. Although there’s limited data on the issue, researchers believe QAnon has ensnared millions of Americans and is especially popular among baby boomers who are struggling with digital literacy. The formerly fringe movement gained explosive traction in 2020 by seizing on fear and confusion stemming from the pandemic and exploiting political tensions surrounding the election and nationwide racial justice protests. It played a major role in inciting the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 through its months-long deluge of propaganda amplifying and embellishing Trump’s false claim that the election was fraudulent.

The result is a disinformation crisis of unprecedented scale with countless fraying families on the frontlines, blindly trying to pry their loved ones from a cult.

HuffPost spoke to nine children of QAnon believers in seven states, ranging in age from 19 to 46. Some are desperately trying to deradicalize their moms and dads — an agonizing process that can feel maddening, heartbreaking and futile. Others believe their parents are already too far gone and have given up trying to help them. A few have made the painful decision to cut off contact entirely, for the sake of their own mental health. (Unless otherwise noted, each person in this article is identified by a pseudonym to protect their family’s privacy.) All are sharing their stories in hopes of providing comfort to the myriad others experiencing the same heartache behind the scenes.

I can only imagine going through this kind of hell, to lose a parent or loved one to these monsters. America is going to have to reckon with this for decades, and many of us will never be the same again. 

The New Boss Isn't The Old Boss

Biden admin deputy press secretary T.J. Ducklo has resigned after telling a WH reporter that he would "destroy" her over revealing Ducklo's relationship with a former WH journalist.

White House Deputy Press Secretary TJ Ducklo resigned Saturday amid allegations he threatened a reporter who was investigating his relationship with another journalist.

Ducklo’s departure came after Vanity Fair reported Friday that he used misogynistic language as he tried to talk a Politico reporter out of writing about his relationship with an Axios reporter. He was initially given a one-week suspension as his boss, Press Secretary Jen Psaki, defended him. But by Saturday, the situation became untenable.

“We accepted the resignation of TJ Ducklo after a discussion with him this evening,” Psaki said in a statement. “We are committed to striving every day to meet the standard set by the president in treating others with dignity and respect, with civility and with a value for others through our words and our actions.”

President Joe Biden has long made clear he doesn’t accept disrespectful treatment of others by his staff. On Inauguration Day, as he swore in hundreds of political appointees, Biden laid out a zero-tolerance policy for misbehavior.

“I’m not joking when I say this: If you ever work with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I will fire you on the spot. No ifs, ands, or buts,” Biden said.

After word of Ducklo’s suspension, Biden aides expressed frustration that he’d been treated too leniently, according to three people familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter. Given the nature of his comments to the reporter and Biden’s recent warning, they believed he should have been fired immediately.

Ducklo, 32, warned a female Politico reporter against publishing a story about his relationship with Alexi McCammond of Axios, who’d covered the Biden campaign, according to the Vanity Fair report. He told the Politico reporter “I will destroy you,” and spoke in sexually explicit terms as he worked to kill the story, according to the magazine.

There's so, so much wrong here with this story that I can't begin to describe it, Ducklo's entitled behavior, having a relationship with a member of the press when you're deputy WH press secretary, the intial decision to suspend Ducklo for a week, and most of all, Ducklo's problem is that he thought the White House still worked like it did under Trump.

He was wrong.

Joe Biden is president now, and he keeps his promises. 

Here's hoping that all the White House staff, from WH Press Secretary Jen Psaki and Chief of Staff Ron Klain on down, all understand that things don't work like they used to.

We need a higher standard, and shitcanning Ducklo's ass is absolutely part of it.

And you know what? If there are others in the White House that need to be taught this lesson?

Great.

Trial of the Century 2.0, Con't

It's easy to get angry at Democrats today for their roller-coaster 180 on witnesses in Trump's impeachment trial, and lord knows they make it easy to do so, but the problem remains that the GOP refuses to convict.

When Senate Democrats stepped onto the floor on Saturday morning, they had no idea the House impeachment managers were about to drop a political grenade in their laps.

But after a brief schism that threatened to throw Donald Trump's trial into chaos, House and Senate Democrats quickly agreed to put the pin back in. House Democratic managers and the former president's lawyers ducked the issue of witnesses nearly as soon as it was raised, and Senate Democrats approved the turnaround.

Instead of a weeks-long drama over trial witnesses that risked upending the Senate schedule, a widely known statement from one House Republican was entered into the record. Trump’s team declined to dispute it. And amazingly, both sides decided to move on.

But that speedy resolution came after several hours of utter uncertainty.

While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and his members had prepared for the possibility of voting on witnesses, they got no warning that the lead House prosecutor was about to force a vote that could have prolonged the trial for days or weeks. The impeachment managers spent Friday night and Saturday morning wrestling with the question themselves, according to Democratic sources.

Then Senate Democrats held a 9 a.m. Saturday conference call where members still indicated they were in the dark about House Democratic managers’ plans. The managers didn’t make the final call to force a Senate vote until minutes before the Senate gaveled in at 10 a.m., Democrats said.

“We don’t coordinate with the managers,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), adding that Democratic senators "have social conversations" with their House counterparts but "don’t talk strategy. So we did not know that they were going to request witnesses or not. And that’s how it should have been.”

Summing up the position Democratic senators decided on, Cardin said: “If the managers believe it would help their presentation, we should let them have witnesses.”

As Senate Democrats huddled on their call, their party's impeachment managers initiated outreach to at least some of the ten House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, according to multiple sources. The exact nature of those conversations remains unclear -- but what happened next shocked everyone.

The Senate quickly moved to a bipartisan 55-45 vote to consider possible witnesses. Schumer had long deferred to the managers: If they wanted to call witnesses, he said Democrats would support it. Still, the vote on witnesses personally surprised the Senate majority leader, Democrats said.

The Senate ultimately devised a fast solution to help the chamber avoid trekking down a long path of depositions that could drag the trial into March. Instead of calling witnesses, a statement from Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) that reiterated her month-old account of a call between the former president and House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy on Jan. 6 was entered into the record. And the trial headed toward a close.

Now everyone's mad at the Democrats over witnesses, instead of being mad at the Republicans for making this a foregone conclusion weeks ago.

But that's the way the political universe works in America.

Trump acquitted 57-43, short of the 67 needed. Republican Senators Burr, Cassidy, Collins, Toomey, Murkowski, Toomey and Romney all voted guilty, along with all 50 Democrats and Independents.

It's more guilty votes than I thought he'd get, but it was still preordained.

On to the courts now for justice.

A Little Sinema Verite

Why should Sen. Joe Manchin get all the attention when Arizona Blue Dog Dem Sen. Kyrsten Sinema can equally extort anything she wants from the 50+1 caucus?

Kyrsten Sinema doesn’t often make big policy pronouncements. But when she does, Democrats had better listen.

Take the $15 hourly minimum wage that Democratic leaders want to add to a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. Sinema, who became the first Democrat to win a Senate race in once deep-red Arizona in 30 years, is crystal clear: She’s against including it.

“What’s important is whether or not it’s directly related to short-term Covid relief. And if it’s not, then I am not going to support it in this legislation,” Sinema said in a telephone interview this week. “The minimum wage provision is not appropriate for the reconciliation process. It is not a budget item. And it shouldn’t be in there.”

Sinema’s opposition is a blow to Democrats’ hopes of bumping up the federal minimum wage through budget reconciliation to avoid a GOP filibuster, complicating follow-through on a campaign promise from Democrats and President Joe Biden. And her defense of the Senate’s age-old rules is likely to frustrate progressives eager to use every tool at their disposal to advance their priorities in a Senate where one wayward Democrat can mean the difference between a policy breakthrough and utter failure.

Her breaks with her liberal colleagues are both a reflection of her state, which she won by a narrow margin in 2018, and her temperament. But the former state legislator, House member and now first-term senator has literally never served in the majority before — so she feels the minority’s pain.

It’s just one of the things that makes the 44-year-old Democrat one of the most quirky and interesting members of the stodgy Senate. She often wears a bright-colored wig to vote, drawing wide eyes from her colleagues. She waits for a single elevator most of the time, once peeking into a jam-packed vessel and declaring it a “Covid elevator.” The walls of her office are a loud purple, accented by leopard patterns.

And though she’s more attentive to Democratic Caucus meetings than she was in the minority, she still keeps Republicans at least as close as members of her own party. She was a pretty lonely Democrat during former President Donald Trump’s last State of the Union speech, standing and applauding at times. Now she talks to President Joe Biden’s team just about every day.

“She’s not someone who cares about convention and the way things were,” said Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), a friend and ally. “She recognizes the real tradition of a Republic, which is that we are elected not to put our finger in the air to determine the direction of the wind.”

 

In other words, if Joe Manchin won't block it, Sinema will. 

Get used to it.

Her career Trump score: 50.4%, matching Manchin's career total.