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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has achieved a new low by using people seeking asylum as a political prop. Of course he didn’t invent the idea (xenophobic hat tip to Donald Trump!), before DeSantis sent a planeload of people from Venezuela to Martha’s Vineyard, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey have been sending migrants to Democratic strongholds like Chicago and Washington, D.C.
After President Biden called out Trump supporters and politicians for undermining democracy, the MAGA set was shocked (shocked, I say!) that he dare attack them with such partisan vigor. Never mind that they really are undermining democracy. Regardless, most Republicans and a good number of beltway reporters thought Biden went a little too far in his “Battle for the Soul of America” speech.
A nation that can’t even provide safe drinking water for its people can’t fly the banner of “exceptionalism” for too long. Thanks to a dangerous mixture of systemic racism, tax cuts and bootstraps politics, Jackson, Mississippi is in the midst of a water crisis. Again.
Now that things are looking even worse for Donald Trump’s legal fight after the latest DOJ court filing, he and his Trumpist followers will no doubt double-down on mob style threats. Trump, his lawyers and most recently, Sen. Lindsey Graham have all “predicted” dire riotous consequences should the defeated president be prosecuted by the feds.
It seems that Donald Trump and his cultists are suddenly enamored with transparency. In the hope of blowing up the investigation into Trump’s top secret document hoarding, the current tactic is to call on the FBI, Department of Justice and federal court to release everything to the public. (Paradoxically, Trump and crew know that not everything will get released, so they’ll still be able to rant about how the investigation is just another big witch hunt.)
Signing legislation makes for much more boring news coverage than FBI raids. Even though President Biden and the Democrats have managed to pass some seriously major legislation, most eyes are on the train wreck that is the Trump Republican Party.
Well, so much for the Republican Party being the supposed party of “law and order.” After the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago and apparently broke open Donald Trump’s safe, Republicans were quick to condemn law enforcement and the Department of Justice. Many party leaders went far beyond just condemnation, they called for the FBI to be “defunded” as mentions of “civil war” spiked on Twitter.
In another sign of how extreme the Republican Party has become, leaders in the party recently came out against injured veterans and U.S. manufacturing. Sure, both the burn pit bill and the semiconductor bill eventually passed — but not before Republicans blocked both bills in retaliation for Democrats who had the nerve to make progress on a climate change and health care bill.
The January 6th committee unveiled outtakes from the video address Donald Trump released the day after the insurrection. Needless to say, the video was not flattering. The committee revealed an unedited look at a maniacal president who just can’t bring himself to say the election is over.
The climate is clearly going bonkers, as human-caused climate change is ramping up and heat waves spread across the globe. Here in the United States, we’ve been working on legislation that will help combat climate change — we’re just waiting until Democrats win over their most recalcitrant senator, who happens to be a coal millionaire.
One stop on President Joe Biden’s Middle East trip is in Saudi Arabia, where he will apparently meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known also as “MBS.” You know, the same MBS who ordered Jamal Khashoggi — a U.S. permanent resident who lived in Virginia — to be killed. (Murdered and dismembered, to be specific.)
California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy recently released his party’s “Commitment to America,” which is of course meant to harken back to Republican victories (falsely) attributed to Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America.” How did McCarthy’s rollout go?