January 27, 2021 at 18:00:05
Investigators getting close to laying serious charges, but the delusions behind Jan. 6 remain

Testimony delivered on Tuesday by the acting chief of the Capitol Police made it clear that in advance of the Jan. 6 insurgency, police were expecting armed militias and white supremacists to descend on the nation's capital in response to Donald Trump's call. What they may not have expected is just how central those organizations might be in turning Trump's "wild" event into a serious attempt to overthrow the elected government.

January 27, 2021 at 17:35:06
A third of Trump voters are ready to jump GOP ship for the 'Patriot Party'

Fully 81% of Republican voters still get warm fuzzies when they think of Donald Trump, with 54% feeling "strongly" about their adoration, according to a newly released Politico/Morning Consult survey taken Jan. 23-25. That whole attack Trump orchestrated on the homeland—whatevs. In fact, positive views of Trump have bounced back a handful of points since the outlet's Jan. 10-12 survey taken shortly after the riot. The survey also found that 75% of GOP voters disapprove of the Senate following through with an impeachment trial for Trump, with just 18% backing it.

January 27, 2021 at 17:05:05
Full of sour grapes, McConnell threatens to destroy the Senate in the name of comity

A humiliated Mitch McConnell was all threats and bluster on the Senate floor Tuesday after his capitulation to Democrats over the filibuster. McConnell has been blocking the new Senate majority—and much of President Biden's Cabinet from forming—so that he could preserve his ability to block absolute everything. Boy, is he a sore loser (and massive liar) or what? He lobbed a lot of threats while waxing poetic about "minority rights," including a "guarantee" to make life sheer hell for Democrats (and the nation) "if Democrats ever attack the key Senate rules." Meaning, letting the minority rule through the filibuster. One of the things he threatened was tying the floor up in quorum calls, noting that "a quorum is 51 Senators and the Vice President does not count." He made a point of that: "The majority cannot even produce a quorum on their own and one could be demanded by any Senator at almost any time." So he's saying he'd put a Republican senator on the floor at all times to bring everything to a stop by demanding a quorum call, in which every senator would have to show up. He also warned that "committees need quorums to function as well, and will also be evenly split."

January 27, 2021 at 16:35:06
Senate Democrats move to apply that 'no taxation without representation' thing to Washington, D.C.

The over 700,000 residents of Washington, D.C., are denied full participation and representation in U.S. democracy. But the momentum to change that by granting the District statehood continues to grow, and on Wednesday, Sen. Tom Carper introduced a statehood bill with 38 original cosponsors—a record. Forty-six Democratic senators have indicated support for statehood, and even Sen. Joe Manchin has recently indicated that he might possibly be open to it.

January 27, 2021 at 16:00:09
Testimony shows police had just 170 officers in riot gear on Jan. 6 as Pentagon delayed use of guard

Since January 6, there have been multiple revelations about the inability of Capitol Police to secure assistance from the National Guard, and the D.C. National Guard being restricted in their actions in a way that's not true of other guard forces. On Tuesday, the acting chief of the Capitol Police testified before the House Appropriations Committee in a closed door hearing, and what she told them seemed to signal a complete breakdown in preparations for an event whose nature was understood well before insurgents rushed the Capitol.

January 27, 2021 at 03:30:04
Tuesday Night Owls: Billionaires' gain$ since March could fund Biden's relief for working families

Night Owls is a themed open thread appearing at Daily Kos seven days a week. Chuck Collins at the Institute for Policy Studies reports—U.S. Billionaire Wealth Surpasses $1.1 Trillion Gain Since Mid-March:

January 27, 2021 at 03:00:02
If there were any Jews still wondering which party is on their side, Jan. 6 answered the question

Late on the afternoon of Jan. 6, the Associated Press called the Georgia Senate race for documentary filmmaker Jon Ossoff. Just a few hours earlier, Donald Trump had incited an insurrection that saw his followers—a number of whom openly and proudly displayed vile anti-Semitic signs and language—violently take over the Capitol in an attempted coup that would have spelled the end of our democracy. A single, solitary minute separated the AP's call and Trump's issuance of a post-takeover video in which, although he told the rioters to go home, he also said he loved them, told them they were special, and restated the lie that his "landslide" election victory had been "stolen from us."

January 27, 2021 at 02:30:08
'I can't have you guys walking around': Innocent Black teens handcuffed, accused of theft in Target

A Black teen who did little more than observe an alleged crime at a California Target store was pushed against a counter and thrown into a police car, with a sheriff's deputy closing the door on his feet, the child's mother told The Los Angeles Times . Malik Aaron, 17, was with a few other teenagers making a routine trip for snacks last Sunday in Westlake Village when they witnessed a group of Black men steal iPhones from the display case in the electronics department, Malik's mother La Shaun Aaron said. It's unclear why—well, not really—a store employee decided to instead focus on Malik and his friends. The employee accused the teens of loitering then allowed coworkers to use shopping carts to block the children from leaving.   

January 27, 2021 at 02:00:03
Surprise! Georgia Republican refuses COVID-19 test and faces major consequences

As of the publishing of this story, Georgia has 722,062 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Georgia is passing 12,000 confirmed deaths due to COVID-19, with more than 48,498 Georgians being admitted to the hospital because of the virus. Over 8,000 people have ended up in intensive care units across the Peach State. Like most places throughout the United States, the pandemic is very much not under control. Like many places in the country, the reason for this is bad leadership combined with a federal government response that was terrible from the start. Republican operators promoting bad science and attacking public health and safety measures has also eroded the efficacy of public health departments across the country's advice.

January 27, 2021 at 01:30:07
After Democrats retake Senate, expected Republican sabotage of Biden's Cabinet loses momentum

After Senate Republicans suggested they would delay consideration of even Joe Biden's most essential Cabinet-level nominations, a move that only fell apart after a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol turned the Republican "Trump may have actually won after all" game from cowardly attempts to avoid Donald Trump's wrath into something more transparently seditious, it was beginning to look like the party's blanket opposition to non-Republican governance would swiftly result in a staffing crisis for the new Biden presidency.

January 27, 2021 at 00:00:04
In major shift from the prior guy, qualified people are going to important Homeland Security roles

President Joe Biden has named Ashley Tabaddor, a vocal critic of the previous administration's anti-immigrant and anti-asylum policies and the president of the national immigration judges union, as the top attorney at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency tasked with adjudicating immigration paperwork that has been decimated and politicized over the past four years. It's another major sign that the new Biden administration is intent on fulfilling its pledge to retreat from many of the prior administration's actions at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In fact, CNN reports that "[o]ver recent days, the department has started to hire staff with extensive backgrounds in immigrant rights, immigration law and refugee resettlement."

January 26, 2021 at 23:30:03
Earth Matters: Global ice loss rises 60%; cicadas prepare to emerge; climate and the federal budget

Earth Matters is a weekly compendium of wonderful, disturbing, and hideous news briefs about the environment.

TRILLIONS OF CICADAS SET TO EMERGE IN 15 STATES COME SPRING