-Kevin McCarthy, shouting some words he knows

A Wisconsin jury has found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on all charges related to his shooting of three people during a protest in Kenosha last year, an unsurprising but disturbing outcome that far-right Republicans have (also unsurprisingly, also disturbingly) celebrated.
 

• After three-and-a-half days of deliberation, the jury acquitted Rittenhouse of intentional homicide and four other charges, finding that Rittenhouse committed no crime when he fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and badly wounded Gaige Grosskreutz in August 2020. What’s frightening and angering about this isn’t that jurors and the Extremely Neutral Judge Bruce Schroeder ignored the law to give a murderous white guy a free pass—it’s that they didn’t ignore the law at all.
   
• Rittenhouse’s lawyers argued that all three shootings were acts of self-defense. Under Wisconsin law, a person is allowed to use deadly force if they “reasonably believe” that it’s “necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm.” That belief doesn’t have to be objectively reasonable, just reasonable to the shooter in that moment. In Rittenhouse’s trial, it was up to the prosecution to disprove his self-defense claims beyond a reasonable doubt. The jury decided, not outrageously, that prosecutors hadn’t managed to do so.
   
• What the prosecution did demonstrate is that this kind of self-defense statute, in combination with expanding gun rights and America’s thriving extremist community, makes for some utterly batshit loopholes in the rule of law. Any of the men Rittenhouse shot could just as easily have killed him first and plausibly claimed self-defense. More and more Americans are carrying guns, our laws aren’t set up to address the kinds of “kill or be killed” confrontations that will result, and Rittenhouse’s acquittal could embolden more armed vigilantes to enter or create volatile situations, in the hope of pulling the trigger first.

Setting legal justifications aside, it shouldn’t be controversial or partisan to say that crossing state lines to open-carry at a protest and then gunning people down is nothing to celebrate.
 

• And yet! Republicans in Congress have fallen all over themselves to welcome Rittenhouse into the GOP fold, after militias and white supremacists embraced him as a hero. Rep. Madison Cawthorne (R-NC) gleefully offered Rittenhouse an internship minutes after the verdict came down, telling his Instagram followers to “be armed, be dangerous, and be moral.” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-SEX TRAFFICKING) mused about hiring Rittenhouse earlier this week, and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), rounding off the most normal week of any politician’s life, tweeted Friday that he’d arm-wrestle Gaetz for the honor of employing the murder boy. 
   
• That jubilance from Republican elected officials and right-wing media figures is more ominous than the verdict itself, as the GOP continues to invite violence into American politics. As Jamelle Bouie wrote in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, “the extent to which Carlson and Coulter and Turning Point are representative of conservative thought on violence against protesters is the extent to which we may have to prepare for further Kenoshas.”

It’s one thing for the law to have a deadly blind spot; it’s another for a major political party to encourage its most radicalized supporters to exploit it. In the right’s telling, Rittenhouse isn’t just not guilty in the legal sense, he’s a moral figure to admire and emulate. That’s the verdict we need to be worried about.

Last week on With Friends Like These, food historian Linda Civitello joined host Ana Marie Cox to discuss the evolution of the traditional Thanksgiving meal, and how many items we love to indulge in are thanks to Indigenous people. Because, duh. Conversation goes on to explore food racism, the legacy of the Indigenous people, and everything in between! Listen to With Friends Like These wherever you get your podcasts.

House Democrats passed the Build Back Better Act on Monday, after waiting for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to wrap up his eight hour stream-of-consciousness rant. Among the provisions so offensive to Republicans that McCarthy nearly pissed himself on television in order to delay their passage: Free, universal pre-K for all children ages three and four, a plan to make child care more affordable, and an extension of the child tax credit. A $550 billion investment to combat climate change. An expansion of Medicare benefits to cover hearing, and a cap on insulin copayments at $35. Just one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), joined every Republican in voting against the bill, but said he’ll be on board if and when Senate Democrats change the included SALT cap increase to kill a tax break for millionaires. We now begrudgingly return our gaze to Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), though hopefully not for long—Manchin indicated this week that he’s cool with voting on the bill before the end of the year.

• President Biden will remove an ally of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy from the U.S. Postal Service board of governors next month, a step towards ending DeJoy’s reign of sabotage.
   
• Vice President Kamala Harris briefly became the first woman to hold presidential authority while Biden underwent a colonoscopy on Friday, finally breaking the (sorry) ass ceiling (free newsletter, baby).
   
• House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy promised to restore Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar’s (R-AZ) committee assignments if Republicans regain control of the House next year. (Sit with the words “House Speaker Kevin McCarthy” for a moment, and then consider donating to our No Off Years fund.)
   
• A federal judge described a Capitol rioter as a “pawn” of Donald Trump while delivering his 14-day sentence, saying that Trump was primarily to blame for the attack.
   
• Austria has become the first European country to mandate vaccinations for everyone who’s eligible, as it reimposed a nationwide lockdown.
   
• John Deere workers ended a month-long strike this week after securing a new contract that will immediately deliver 10 percent raises, among other concessions. 
   
• California wildfires killed thousands of giant sequoias this year, for a second year running. Nearly a fifth of all giant sequoias have been wiped out in the last two years combined. 
   
• The FBI has begun searching a former Jersey City landfill for Jimmy Hoffa’s remains based on a deathbed confession from a worker who said he buried the body in a steel drum.
   
• Vials labeled "smallpox" that turned up in a Pennsylvania lab's freezer did not contain smallpox. Gotta celebrate the virus wins as they come.

Wisconsin Republicans have openly embarked on a mission to steal the next presidential election in a bloodless, administrative coup, by giving themselves full control over the state’s elections. In the weeks since a 2020 election audit ordered by the GOP-controlled legislature found no evidence of fraud, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) has led a push among GOP state lawmakers to disband the state’s bipartisan elections commission—which Wisconsin Republicans themselves created just six years ago—an effort that Gov. Tony Evers (D-WI) may not be able to shut down with a veto. The state senate’s GOP majority leader has even backed a Trumpy sheriff’s recommendation to bring felony charges against the commission’s members. This past Wednesday, a GOP member of the state assembly formally proposed decertifying Wisconsin’s 2020 election results, earning a public pat on the head from Donald Trump. Republicans are dismantling democratic institutions right out in the open, and Democrats might want to start making more noise about it.

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The FDA has cleared Pfizer and Moderna boosters for all adults. Go get boosted!

Baby vaccines could be available by early 2022, according to Dr. Fauci.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will propose reinstating a rule to ban road-building on more than half of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.

The Senate has unanimously confirmed Charles “Chuck” Sams III as National Park Service director, making him the first Native American to lead the agency.