Senate acquits former President Donald Trump of incitement charge, as 57 out of 100 Senators vote to convict. Thus Mr. Trump can run for President again, and who thinks any Republicans can stop him in 2024 no matter how much they try to suck up to his votaries? Anyone? Bueller? We can stop him, of course, just like we did in 2020, but establishment Republicans can't, and since when do we think establishment Republicans are so good, anyway? They suck! In the meantime, circle Thursday, March 4 on your calendar, as the next day Trump supporters stamp their feet and stage a riot where people get hurt and die. (Surprise! It's a QAnon thing.)
Harvard-led study informs us that the air pollution from fossil fuel emissions caused one out of every five premature deaths in 2018. And when your right-wing friends retort that "nobody measures how many lives fossil fuels have lengthened ha ha ha snort," remind them that we can get people and essential goods around quickly and kill fewer people with pollution at the same time! I mean, if we can't, we'll really have to re-evaluate this whole "progress" thing.
Senate Republicans say a NASDAQ diversity plan that would require more women, folks of color, and LGBTQ folks on their corporate boards would hurt shareholders. Of course these Senators first unctuously declare their support for more diverse corporate boards, and then larding the "but" sentence with stock right-wing phrases such as "arbitrator of social policy" and "one-size-fits-all." But neither their fake concern nor their bad arguments can save them from supporting a kind of shareholder redlining -- don't let Those People on the board, or we'll lose money! isn't a far walk from Those People keep property values down.
Maria Bartiromo, Jeanne Pirro, and Lou Dobbs file a ludicrous motion to dismiss the Smartmatic lawsuit that names them. "Smartmatic lost money last year anyway" is the kind of thing you offer just to see if it'll stick, but more importantly, they're lying when they say they were "just covering issues" that "happened" to be of "public interest" -- they and their bosses chose those "matters of public interest," and we have every right to suspect they also chose what guests to interview about them so they could keep the lies going. And do you think Maria Bartiromo regrets that softball interview with Mr. Trump now? Insofar as she's capable of regret, of course.
Finally, Ari Berman at Mother Jones describes, at considerable length, how Republicans still hold most of the power in America. From the Senate giving outsized power to less-populous (and more right-leaning) states to state legislature gerrymandering House seats to the "feedback loop" where Republican-appointed judges help keep Republicans in power by sanctioning their vote suppression tactics, you'll find it all here, and the final sentence tells us what we can do about it: "Until democracy breaks them (i.e., the Republicans), they'll continue to break democracy." That's right, we have to break Republicans, in every race in every corner of America. Tainting all of them with the stain of January 6 would be a good start.
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