As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.
In case you're wondering what's in the COVID-19 relief/ stimulus bill the House passed on Friday, here's a summary. The bill goes to the Senate now.
The Conservative Conspiracist Political Action Conference concluded yesterday with a straw poll of the candidates the assorted fascist nuts assembled there would like to see win the 2024 Republican nomination. Mango Mussolini won, but not bigly:
In the possible battle for the next GOP presidential nomination, Trump was backed by barely more than half of the respondents at CPAC ― 55%. Presumably benefiting from the gathering being held in Orlando, Florida, the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, placed second with 21%. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem ran a distant third with 4%, and a smattering of candidates split the rest of the vote.
Veteran Republican operative Karl Rove, noting on Fox News that the CPAC crowd comprised “the truest Trump believers,” said that for him “to only get 55%” shows “he is losing strength because he’s not introducing something new. He’s losing strength whether he recognizes it.”
Vox's Zack Beauchamp provides 13 charts that demonstrate these points, and more, about the Republican Party:
The Republican Party is the biggest threat to American democracy today. It is a radical, obstructionist faction that has become hostile to the most basic democratic norm: that the other side should get to wield power when it wins elections.
A few years ago, these statements may have sounded like partisan Democratic hyperbole. But in the wake of the January 6 attack on the Capitol and Trump’s acquittal in the Senate on the charge of inciting it, they seem more a plain description of where we’re at as a country.
But how deep does the GOP’s problem with democracy run, really? How did things get so bad? And is it likely to get worse?
It's a good, sobering read.
President Biden addressed workers yesterday, specifically those seeking to unionize Amazon, reminding them of their rights and his support:
President Joe Biden spoke to workers in America on Sunday who will soon vote on whether to join a union. Though the message was for all of the nation, it was really meant for a faction of Amazon workers in Alabama.
Employees at an Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama, have begun mail-in voting to join a union, and it's the largest such attempt in three decades of Amazon's existence.
Here's the video:
Workers in Alabama – and all across America – are voting on whether to organize a union in their workplace. It’s a vitally important choice – one that should be made without intimidation or threats by employers.
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 1, 2021
Every worker should have a free and fair choice to join a union. pic.twitter.com/2lzbyyii1g
How refreshing to have a President who will stand up for worker rights.
Meanwhile, the suffering still goes on in deregulated Republican paradise Texas:
Over half a million Texans are still under boil water notices more than a week after a winter storm brutalized large swaths of the South, leaving millions without water and power for days.
A total of 509,206 people were still impacted by boil water notices as of Sunday night, with 458 boil water notices in effect, according to the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ). An additional 1,709 boil water notices serving over 17 million Texans have been lifted, the agency said.
Finally, please take a spin over to Infidel 753's link round- up for the best selection of links to posts from around the Internet you're going to find. Something for everybody!
