Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) emphatically slapped down the GOP recall effort on Tuesday, which means it is time to treat yourself to one (1) rare and luxurious sigh of relief. Enjoy!
 

• Not only did the recall fail, but California Republicans got their asses handed to them in spectacular fashion, with the “no” campaign winning 67 percent of the vote when approximately two-thirds of ballots had been tallied. Early numbers suggest that a late surge from Latino voters helped make that possible. There’s one unmistakeable takeaway here: Californians simply cannot get enough of the loveable scamp Gavin Newsom and his hilarious French Laundry antics! 
   
• (Touches earpiece) Apologies, it seems the takeaway is that California’s recall system is dumb as hell. Newsom’s margin of victory underscores the puniness of the GOP minority in California, which has turned to recall initiatives to circumvent the statewide elections that it can’t possibly win. Republicans were able to trigger a recall election by gathering signatures equal to just 12 percent of total vote in the last gubernatorial election, which they only accomplished with the help of a Trump-y judge who gifted them a four-month extension. The result was a very stressful, $300 million waste of time, and it will hopefully build momentum to reform the recall system before this happens again. 
   
• That said, it was never a given that Newsom would turn out enough Democratic voters to overcome a small-but-motivated right-wing minority, and he did it by (accurately) framing the recall as a race between him and an anti-vax lunatic who would prolong the pandemic in California. “We said yes to science, we said yes to vaccines, we said yes to ending this pandemic,” Newsom declared in his victory speech on Tuesday night. The overwhelming success of that strategy is bad news for MAGA Republicans with prominent “I <3 COVID” tattoos any way you slice it, and Democratic candidates in 2022 should take notes.

The abject failure of the California recall is unequivocally Good, but the effort set off a warning light we shouldn't ignore.
 

• It has to do with, you guessed it, the GOP’s uninterrupted swan dive into authoritarianism. The good news is, Larry Elder conceded the election on Tuesday night (while hinting at another run), telling his supporters, “Let’s be gracious in defeat...we may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war.” The bad news is, that was a newsworthy twist. Elder had openly threatened not to accept the results and claimed to have found fraud in an election that hadn’t happened yet, and likely would have stuck to that lie if he hadn’t lost in an undeniable landslide. (Thanks for getting those ballots in, California.) 
   
• Unfortunately, we can’t count on landslides to smother the zombie Big Lie in most elections, and it’s not about to fade away: In a new CNN poll, 59 percent of GOP voters said that believing Trump won the 2020 election is an important part of being a Republican. And while GOP candidates casually fold Donald Trump’s fraud narrative into their own campaigns, Trump is going around systematically endorsing Big Lie-promoters for secretary of state positions, in preparation to take another stab at stealing the presidency in 2024. Not great!

Newsom’s win doesn’t mean our troubles are over, but the immediate implications are worth celebrating: California’s mask and vaccine mandates—which have just made it the only state to drop out of the CDC’s high transmission category—are safe, that Democrats’ Senate majority is in no extra peril, and that we don’t need to approach the Virginia gubernatorial election in a state of blind panic. Make sure to take that sigh of relief, and then let’s get back to work. 

The Guantánamo Prison is by all measures a catastrophic failure. It is a global symbol of injustice, abuse, and disregard for the rule of law.

Now, in its almost 20th year, thirty-nine Muslim men are still captive in Guantánamo – at a cost of $540 million per year. Many are torture survivors, and twelve have been charged in the fundamentally broken military commission trial system. All of the prisoners have been exposed to the physical and psychological trauma associated with prolonged indefinite detention. They are also aging rapidly and exhibiting complex medical conditions that staff at Guantánamo are not equipped to manage.

Guantánamo is a human rights disaster. Sign the ACLU’s petition today and demand that it be shut down once and for all.

Guantánamo continues to impose enormous costs to both our values and our resources. It is long past time for this shameful episode in American history to be brought to a close. Tell the Biden administration to end indefinite military detentions and unconstitutional military commissions at Guantánamo, and shut this national embarrassment down once and for all. Add your name today.

New York’s bipartisan independent redistricting commission has released two sets of draft maps after failing to reach an agreement, both of which are likely to wind up in the garbage. New York’s redistricting laws give the state legislature the authority to bypass the commission and approve maps of their own with a two-thirds vote, and the Democratic supermajority is likely to do so, since neither of the commission’s maps do Democrats any particular favors. Democratic gerrymandering in New York could be one of the party’s best shots for picking up seats through redistricting; if they take the most aggressive route, Democrats could take control of 23 out of New York’s 26 House seats. Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) has indicated that she supports using redistricting to help Democrats expand (or...keep) their majority, and since Republicans won’t be stopping to second-guess the ethics of gerrymandering in states where they control the process, it would make no sense to pass up the opportunity. If Senate Democrats feel like reforming the filibuster to outlaw partisan gerrymandering altogether, that would work too!

• One in 500 Americans have now died from COVID, marking another horrifying milestone we never had to pass. In an effort to avoid the next one, President Biden met with top executives on Wednesday to promote his private-sector vaccine requirements.
   
• The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to block Texas from enforcing its abortion ban in an emergency motion, after suing Texas over the law last week.
   
• Biden met with Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) separately on Wednesday to discuss their nonsensical obstruction of his infrastructure agenda. 
   
• Gen. Mark Milley’s calls with his Chinese counterpart to avoid accidentally starting a war after the 2020 election were entirely within protocol, according to Joint Staff spokesperson Col. Dave Butler, who has a callous disregard for Bob Woodward’s book sales. 
   
• Four elite gymnasts testified on the FBI’s mishandling of their allegations about Larry Nasser in a Wednesday Senate hearing. “They allowed a child molester to go free for more than a year and this inaction directly allowed Nassar's abuse to continue,” McKayla Maroney told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
   
• Arizona’s Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich has filed a lawsuit to block the Biden administration’s new vaccine requirements, marking the first baseless legal challenge to the Labor Department rule. 
   
• A Minnesota judge struck down proposed language for a ballot initiative that would have allowed the Minneapolis City Council to replace the city’s police department with a new agency. Since ballots are already being printed, the city won’t have a chance to revise the language again, and no votes for the initiative can be counted.
   
• The Mercer family gave nearly $20 million to a conservative dark money fund last year, shielding their contributions in the 2020 election. In the Mercers’ defense, dumping $20 million into Donald Trump’s failed re-election bid is incredibly embarrassing.
   
• Coronaviruses from animals cause around 400,000 infections in humans a year, according to a new (as-yet-unpublished) study. While most are no big deal, each spillover event has the potential to spark a COVID-like pandemic, a solid reason to start keeping a closer eye on popular bat hangouts.
   
• The first January 6 insurrectionist sentenced for a felony charge has had second thoughts about this whole going-to-jail thing, and now claims his signature on his plea deal was forged. Looks like somebody forgot about the centuries-old legal tenet of “no takebacks.”

Pennsylvania Republicans have moved to seek personal information on every voter in the state as part of their “review” of the 2020 election, which couldn’t possibly end badly. Republicans on a state Senate subcommittee have approved subpoenas for the names, birthdays, driver’s license numbers, partial Social Security numbers, addresses, and methods of voting for millions of people who voted in 2020, as well as for communications between state and county election officials. In other shambolic election investigations, Wisconsin election clerks received a fishy email asking them to preserve “any and all records and evidence” related to the 2020 election, signed by Wisconsin Republicans’ lead investigator Michael Gableman. The email itself came from somebody named “john delta” at a gmail.com address, and a pdf attachment listed former Trump administration official Andrew Kloster as the author. All very orderly and aboveboard.

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.  

Millions of people are trying and loving online therapy. It doesn’t have to be sitting around just talking about your feelings.

So, what is therapy, exactly? It’s whatever you want it to be.

You can privately talk to someone if your stress is too much to manage, you’re battling a temper, having relationship issues, anxiety, depression, etc… Whatever you need, there’s no more shame in these normal human struggles. We take care of our bodies, why not our minds, too? Without a healthy mind, being truly happy and at peace is HARD.

BetterHelp is customized online therapy that offers video, phone and even live chat sessions with your therapist, so you don’t have to see anyone on camera if you don’t want to. It’s much more affordable than in-person therapy and you can start communicating with your therapist in under 48 hours.

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.

Nearly three million people have signed up for ACA health plans during the Biden administration’s special enrollment period, and active enrollment in ACA coverage is at an all-time high.

Today in Vaccine Requirements Work: Delta Air Lines said that 4,000 employees had gotten their shots after it announced a health plan surcharge for unvaxxed workers, and no one has resigned in response to the policy.

The Justice Department has restricted the use of chokeholds and no-knock warrants for federal law enforcement.

Los Angeles will require proof of vaccination at indoor bars, nightclubs, wineries, and breweries.