You've heard of invoking the Defense Production Act to help fight COVID, and you may also have heard of activating FEMA to help fight COVID -- but you may not have heard of the Medical Reserve Corps, which our government created after 9.11 to help volunteer medical personnel help with national emergencies. We have almost 800 MRC units nationwide, but in recent years, and stop me if you've heard this story before, our government has barely funded the MRC, which, as you might imagine, hampers their ability to serve. Possible good news: the MRC is on Joe Biden's radar, suggesting that having nearly 50 years of federal government experience may not be an unqualified evil.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) gets upset after Vice President Harris pushes the American Rescue Plan in an interview at a Charleston TV station. (Ms. Harris did the same thing at an Arizona TV station, presumably to pressure Sen. Sinema.) One hopes this is a sign that the Biden Administration won't roll over for Mr. Manchin's dreams of being The One True King of Bipartisanship, dreams destined (or designed?) to fail. And there's really nothing wrong with "mak(ing) the case to the American people," though I can think of a certain former President who abused that privilege.
So you've been following the Reddit/GameStop brouhaha, and you know the trading app Robinhood stopped letting its users buy GameStop stock, a move which obviously protected the hedge fund corporations Reddit users have been making fools of lately -- but you may not know that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen made over $800,000 in speaking fees from Robinhood's owner Citadel, and when that came up at a press conference, Biden Administration Press Secretary Jen Psaki said of course Ms. Yellen wouldn't recuse herself from any advising or decision-making in this matter because "she's an expert and she deserves that money." Turns out Ms. Yellen's own ethics agreement from late December precludes her from interfering on Citadel's behalf here, but still, that's some serious tone-deafness on Ms. Psaki's part -- and in precisely a way Trump votaries can find an opening! I mean, nobody likes banksters! (Though if Trump votaries lard their attacks with anti-Semitism, they'll fritter away their chance.)
Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) writes a letter to President Biden asking him to withdraw the nomination of Deb Haaland for Interior Secretary, citing (among other things) her support for a Green New Deal he swears would cost "$93 trillion annually." $93 trillion, as you may know, actually represents a 10-year cost, per the folks who promulgated the scare number, and that makes Pete Stauber sound like a really stupid person, though I'm sure that's what he wants you to think. Then sgain, he has apparently alienated virtually every Native American voter in his district with his opposition to Ms. Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo, so maybe he is stupid.
Politico finds Marco Rubio, the man who gives the empty suit a bad name, in an impregnable position going into his 2022 Senate re-election effort. Sure, if Democrats run their standard do-nothing-don't-offend candidate, they'll lose, but that's true just about anywhere in America, and though I'm sure more Florida Democrats salivate at the prospect of unseating the incompetent-and-arrogant-about-it Gov. DeSantis, I don't think folks avoid challenging Mr. Rubio because of his alleged political prowess -- I mean, the man looks like he's about to have a seizure whenever someone asks him a tough question. No, Democrats aren't lining up to challenge him because they know that if Ivanka Trump wants the job, she'll knock off Mr. Rubio in the primary like she's a cat and he's a salt shaker, and then she'll coast to victory in the general. We all just saw how well the name Trump does in Florida, after all.
Finally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) also alleged, a little over two years ago, that space lasers funded by the Rothschild family and used at PG&E's behest caused California wildfires. Hence the "Jewish space lasers" you've heard about. I read her entire post -- since the final right-wing counter-argument will be "did you read what she actually said?" -- and I have three observations: 1) no amount of I'm-just-speculating-here actually excuses an allegation, 2) no amount of can-this-be-a-coincidence requires you to accept a theory, and 3) right-wingers will say anything to deny that our addiction to fossil fuels is destroying our planet.
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