As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.
Should there be any doubt whose incompetence has led to the vaccine shortage we're experiencing now, read this report from Stat:
Top Trump officials actively lobbied Congress to deny state
governments any extra funding for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout last fall
— despite frantic warnings from state officials that they didn’t have
the money they needed to ramp up a massive vaccination operation.
The push, described to STAT by congressional aides in both parties
and openly acknowledged by one of the Trump officials, came from
multiple high-ranking Trump health officials in repeated meetings with
legislators.
Without the extra money, states spent last October and November
rationing the small pot of federal dollars they had been given. And when
vaccines began shipping in December, states seemed woefully
underprepared.
The previously unreported lobbying efforts underscore that even after
the Trump administration spent billions helping drug makers develop
Covid-19 vaccines, it not only dismissed states’ concerns about the help
they would need to roll them out, but actively undermined their efforts
to press Congress to get the funding they needed.
Much of the lobbying push came from Paul Mango, the former deputy
chief of staff for policy at the Department of Health and Human
Services. He argued, repeatedly, that states hadn’t demonstrated they
needed additional funding because, at least as of last October, they
hadn’t spent the $200 million that the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention sent to states in September.
There's much more at the link worth reading. Not getting your shots? Thanks, Trump!
According to a Wall Street Journal report, the January 6 "Stop the Steal" rally that was the immediate catalyst for the Capitol insurrection had financial backing from one thug familiar to most and a sugar momma (WSJ paywall, so this is part of a Vox summary):
A Wall Street Journal investigation
has found a number of key allies of former President Donald Trump —
including far-right media personality Alex Jones and Julie Jenkins
Fancelli, heir to the Publix supermarket fortune — helped to fund the
rally that preceded the storming of the US Capitol on January 6 that
left five dead.
According to reporters Shalini Ramachandran, Alexandra
Berzon, and Rebecca Ballhaus, Jones pledged $50,000 of his own money to
the event, and organized additional funds, including a $300,000
contribution from Jenkins Fancelli, who is a major GOP donor.
All told, the rally cost about $500,000, according to the
report. That event, during which Trump pledged to never concede the
November election to President Joe Biden — and whipped up supporters who
later took over the Capitol — formed the basis of Trump’s second
impeachment in the House of Representatives. In part due to comments he
made at that rally, Trump has been charged with “incitement of insurrection,” and will soon face a trial in the Senate.
The Journal also reports that, according to Federal
Election Commission records, “at least five former Trump campaign
staffers” were involved in the logistics of the event. The rally was
particularly lucrative for Trump fundraising official Caroline Wren,
who was paid $730,000 throughout the 2020 election cycle for her and
her firm to work on fundraising for the Trump reelection campaign team,
according to the Journal.
But there was another critical fascist faction laying the groundwork for the insurrection, as Sarah Posner points out:
Coverage of the Capitol insurrection has focused on such far-right
instigators as the White supremacist Proud Boys and the Three
Percenters, a militia group. But a reconstruction of the weeks leading
up Jan. 6 shows how a Christian-right group formed to “stop the steal”
worked to foment a bellicose Christian narrative in defense of Trump’s
coup attempt and justify a holy war against an illegitimate state. In
late November, two federal workers, Arina Grossu – who had previously
worked for the Christian-right advocacy group Family Research Council –
and Rob Weaver, formed a new Christian right group, the Jericho March.
The new group’s goal, according to a news release announcing its launch,
was to “prayerfully protest and call on government officials to cast
light on voter fraud, corruption, and suppression of the will of the
American people in this election.” In fact, the Jericho March would help
lay the groundwork for the insurrection. (our emphasis)
It's a great read that exposes the role not just the talibangelist hustlers like Paula White and Franklin Graham, but groups like "Jericho March" that have been under the radar for most casual observers. Their phony patina of being a "peaceful prayer" movement is only a cover, while their shock troops plan violence to attain their end of one- party, theocratic rule. (Chrissy Stroop has another look at these Christofascists here. And Rachel Mikva, too.)
As State Republican Parties descend into QAnon quackery and ramped- up voter suppression initiatives, the stakes for our democracy will hinge on passage of the new Voting Rights Act (H.R. 1) in the Senate. Ron Brownstein explains why this means the filibuster must go:
The party’s immediate political fate in the 2022 and 2024 elections
is likely to turn mostly on whether Joe Biden can successfully control
the coronavirus outbreak—restarting the economy and returning a sense of
normalcy to daily life. But the contours of American politics just over
that horizon, through 2030 and beyond, will be determined even more by
whether Democrats can establish new national standards for the conduct
of elections through a revised Voting Rights Act and sweeping
legislation known as H.R. 1, which would set nationwide voting rules,
limit “dark money” campaign spending, and ban gerrymandering of
congressional districts. With both bills virtually guaranteed to pass
the House, as they did in the last Congress, their fate will likely turn
on whether Senate Democrats are willing to end the filibuster to
approve them over Republican opposition on a simple-majority vote.
That
decision carries enormous consequences for the future balance of power
between the parties: The number of younger and diverse voters
participating in future elections will likely be much greater if these
laws pass than if they don’t, especially with state-level Republicans
already pushing a new round of laws making it tougher to vote based on
Donald Trump’s discredited claims of election fraud in 2020. Given those
stakes, the Democrats’ voting-rights agenda is quickly becoming a focal
point of the pressure from left-leaning activists to end the
filibuster. “Our grass roots will not accept the notion that we had good
intentions, but we just failed” to pass these laws, Senator Jeff
Merkley of Oregon, a Democrat who is the lead sponsor of the Senate
companion to H.R. 1, told me.
We're optimistic Democrats will use their power to counter the anti- democratic actions of the anti- democratic Republican Party -- January 6 changed everything.
A cautionary tale from Myanmar: when you try to ride the tiger, you often end up inside:
Aung San Suu Kyi defended Myanmar's generals against genocide charges at The Hague. She praised soldiers as they unleashed artillery against ethnic minority settlements. She took only modest steps toward democratic changes that would chip away at the army's political power.
On Monday, Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup,
detaining Suu Kyi, elected ministers from her National League for
Democracy (NLD) party and others in a predawn raid. Though condemned
internationally for defending the military and its campaign against the
Rohingya minority, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who spent 15 years
under house arrest until 2010 now finds herself again at the generals’
mercy.
Now that you've gone through our limited reading selection, do yourself a favor and check out Infidel 753's link round- up for a truly comprehensive selection of worthy posts from around the Internet. His essays are also worth your attention, like this one on the so- called Republican civil war. Trust us.
UPDATE: Rather than do excerpts from it, the New York Times basically has an extensive blueprint for impeachment managers to follow in "77 Days: Trump's Campaign To Subvert The Election" that's a must read.
