Right-wingers turn on Mike Lindell after new DeSantis conspiracy theory
The splintering of the MAGA movement into rival camps accelerated this week when deranged conspiracy theorist and pillow huckster Mike Lindell announced a plan to "audit" the Miami-Dade County election, all but accusing Gov. Ron DeSantis of rigging the election to secure a win in a historically blue area. The blowback from right-wing media erupted immediately, all of a sudden perfectly willing to dismiss outrageous election denial when it targets one of their guys.
Take Action: Demand Florida restore the healthcare DeSantis just stripped away from thousands of trans people!
VIDEO OF THE DAY: Feud erupts between Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene
Get your popcorn ready, because the MAGA movement is having its Fort Dumbter moment.
Take Action: Replace Joe Manchin as Energy chairman!
Trump caught scamming his OWN supporters
No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen: Unreal.
Senators scramble to wrap $1.7 trillion spending bill in time for holidays
As a huge winter storm barrels down on the nation, the US Senate is struggling to reach agreement on a must-pass omnibus funding package because of — you guessed it! — last-minute Republican chicanery,. The GOP's latest legislative extortion act ties funding at the Department of Homeland Security to keeping Trump's appalling Title 42 deportation policy in place.
Take Action: Confirm progressive champion Gigi Sohn to the FCC!
Millions to lose Medicaid coverage under Congress' plan
The omnibus funding package currently being debated in Congress will sunset President Biden's pandemic-era rule preventing states from kicking people off Medicaid — at the request of 25 Republican governors, who are "concerned" about "bloated Medicaid enrollment" eating into the money they need for the important things, like corporate tax cuts and building giant trash walls in the desert. A push requiring states to extend Medicaid to new mothers for a 12-month period after giving birth also failed to make the cut. It is truly reprehensible how little Republicans care for the American people.
Take Action: Tell Congress to break up Big Tech's monopolies!
Two major FTX figures plead guilty to federal charges
Sam Bankman-Fried's pitiful attempt to argue that he was too dumb to have committed fraud on purpose was decisively undercut by a pair of guilty pleas from two of the bigwigs in the FTX collapse, including his ex-girlfriend, Caroline Ellison. Ellison was co-CEO of Alameda Research, the company Bankman-Fried used to place increasingly reckless crypto bets with all the money that people had invested into FTX.
Zelenskyy gives rousing speech to Congress
For the first time in American history, a former TV-star-turned president has given a good speech in front of the US government. Zelenskyy promised that the billions of dollars the US has given in aid is "not charity" but reiterated his call for more and more weapons as the war against the invading Russians enters a critical new phase. President Biden gave a pretty good speech himself!
It's not just Ukraine that's on the line: It's Global Democracy!
atAdvocacy partner: Defending democracy and stopping a genocide seem to be beyond the means of the authoritarian loving MAGA-GOP.
One of Trump's earliest congressional supporters turns on him
In a telling defection, Rep. Tom Marino — who once hailed Trump as a "fresh voice unbeholdened to Wall Street" — has apparently lost faith in the GOP's de facto leader. “I think the Republican Party has to do whatever it has to do to get away from Trump. He certainly, I think, has cost the party losses in this election that we had in November. I’m deeply disappointed in him," said Marino in an interview. He would then go on to complain that Trump was “acting like a childish bully” by attacking Ron DeSantis, meaning he thinks he sees the writing on the wall for Trump and is jumping ship in typical self-serving Republican fashion.
Gay New York councilman's office, home targeted by violent, anti-LGBTQ mob
A mob of anti-LGBTQ protesters targeted a gay councilman at his New York City office and his apartment building earlier this week, scrawling homophobic slurs on the pavement and attacking one of the councilman's neighbors. Neat!
House Jan. 6 committee releases transcripts of 34 witness testimonies
The House Jan. 6 panel on Wednesday made public 34 transcripts of witness testimony gathered from its investigation — one day before it's slated to release its highly anticipated final report. The transcripts include the testimonies of former Trump lawyer John Eastman, far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, and Trump's then-acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark. Unfortunately, most of the transcripts predictably read "I PLEAD THE FIFTH."
Incoming GOP congressman’s claims his grandparents fled the Holocaust contradicted by genealogy records
In what is quickly becoming the funniest political scandal of the year, it appears that Republican Rep.-elect George Santos lied about literally everything, including his supposed "Jewish heritage" and the tragic story of his "Ukrainian" grandparents fleeing both Hitler AND Stalin. In addition, the supposedly "gay" Santos was discovered to have divorced a woman not two weeks before starting his campaign. While all this is adding up to a very funny movie script sometime in the future, it is a SEARING indictment of the New York Democratic Party, which somehow failed to do enough opposition research to find out that this bozo had lied about his whole life.
The bastard report
Year in review: Best labor stories of 2022
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Today’s Action: Tell President Biden to pardon Air Force whistleblower Daniel Hale!
A year and a half ago, US Air Force veteran Daniel Hale was sentenced to 45 months in prison for divulging classified documents about the military’s secretive and highly controversial drone assassination program — in other words, because Hale felt more allegiance to humanity than he did to waging war. Hale explained to the presiding judge that he believed “that to stop the cycle of violence, [he] ought to sacrifice [his] own life and not that of another person.” By exposing the clandestine drone program, Hale gave the American people access to critical information regarding the United States’ taxpayer-funded, international targeted killings program. The bigger issue here isn’t Hale’s decision to come forward, but the actual program itself (which government and military officials have continuously downplayed and lied about.)
The American public has a fundamental right to know about gross and immoral misuse of power within our government, especially when innocent lives are at stake. Hale’s imprisonment is a jarring regression for both the freedom of speech and our democracy in general. Barring intervention from the Biden administration, he will remain in prison until July of 2024.
Write President Biden and call for the immediate pardon of whisteblower Daniel Hale!
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