Daily Dose of Democracy:
Marjorie Taylor Greene makes major flub during first House Oversight Committee hearing
Back in the blazing stupid saddle after being kicked off her committees for the past two years, the notably racist Greene thoroughly embarrassed herself claiming that a single elementary school in Illinois received $5.1 billion in COVID-19 relief money and used it "for equity and diversity." How one school could spend that enormous amount of money on "equity and diversity" is unclear. Perhaps they could pay the entire school to attend Harvard University and take advanced philosophy classes, which is where the "critical race theory" MTG is obsessed with is actually taught. Either way, it's clear that we are in for two years of staggering stupidity and deranged conspiracy theories from one of Congress' most important committees.
Take Action: Kick Marjorie Taylor Greene off the Homeland Security Committee!
VIDEO OF THE DAY: Kari Lake hit with surprise legal bombshell
The woman who has made denying the results of the 2022 election her entire personality has found herself in serious legal hot water. Unsurprisingly, it is because of all the election-denying.
Take Action: Allow student loans to be discharged through bankruptcy!
Republicans pull DISASTROUS stunt in the House
No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen: Gross.
AP African American Studies course gutted after DeSantis criticism
The College Board decided to celebrate the beginning of Black History Month by gutting their AP African American Studies curriculum. No longer will students have to learn about the Black Lives Matter movement, incarceration, queer life, or the debate over reparations. Nor will they read the works of authors like bell hooks, Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, Roderick Ferguson, or Ta-Nehisi Coates, who have all been purged from the curriculum. The efforts by Republican legislatures in 14 states to ban everything they think is "critical race theory" represents a serious threat to the College Board's bottom line, so of course they decided to cave to white supremacists instead of doing the right thing for students.
Take Action: Demand the Senate Judiciary Committee hold hearings on the unaccountable Supreme Court!
Florida wants to force student athletes to share their period history
Ron DeSantis' extremely creepy and cruel obsession with policing women's bodies and terrorizing the LGBTQ community has led to the Florida High School Athletic Association’s Sports Medicine Advisory Committee implementing a requirement that all student athletes provide detailed and very private information about their periods to the state in order to participate in high school sports. This information would then be kept by a private company, Aktivate, that is not bound by HIPAA privacy regulations. Not only is this a horrendous invasion of privacy for Florida's student-athletes, many fear the data will also be used to determine if a student has had an abortion and expose them to punishment by the state. We don't ever want to hear the words "small-government Republican" ever again.
Take Action: Tell the DOJ to challenge EVERY abortion ban in the country!
Ohio man killed by police as he was cleaning out late grandmother's apartment
A 911 call led to the killing of Joe Frasure, 28, who was shot to death by police after they responded to an errant attempted burglary call. The police claim Frasure, who along with his father was emptying out a recently deceased family member's apartment, ignored their commands and accelerated his minivan towards them. To be clear, the police officers' official story should not and cannot be taken at face value here — especially since Frasure's sister, who was present at the scene, disputes the story. Shonda Coleman told WLWT Cincinnati that “I didn’t hear none of that. I didn’t hear no commands. All I heard is pop, pop, pop, pop. Like, it was, like, 10 rounds."
Hunter Biden seeks federal probe of Trump allies over laptop
The president's embattled son is fighting back against the constant barrage of GOP smear campaigns, asking for the federal government to probe Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani, and the computer repair shop owner who gave them Hunter's laptop for disseminating his personal information and files without his consent. He has also demanded an apology from Tucker Carlson, who has baselessly accused Hunter of accessing the classified documents that nobody knew were in President Biden's house to do communist corruption, or something. Poor Hunter has been the subject of incessant ridicule and conspiracy by the jackal GOP media machine ever since his private pictures leaked, and it's good to see him finally fighting back.
Anonymous billionaires amplify politicians' lies with no accountability
Brennan Center for Justice: Anyone who turned on a TV in the past year knows just how out of control electioneering has become. TV ads and radio spots regularly mislead voters or flat-out lie while mailboxes across the country are stuffed with mysterious mailers from dark money PACs that hide their funders. The Brennan Center for Justice is fighting to make our elections honest again — can you chip in to support their efforts?
George Santos relative says they never gave $5,800 reported by the campaign: “I’m dumbfounded”
Santos, the gilded scion of the Hapsburg dynasty and former poolboy to Saddam Hussein, appears to have committed some serious campaign finance fraud. A $5,800 "donation" from one of his relatives turned out to not be from that relative, who had no idea they had "donated" and told Mother Jones that they didn't have "that kind of money" to throw around. Making contributions under false names is extremely illegal, and it raises even more questions about who would be willing to give this bozo thousands of dollars for his election — and why.
FBI finds no classified docs at Biden's Delaware beach home
Nothing to see here, folks. Nothing except an honest president legitimately owning up to a real mistake and doing what he can to make it right. Unlike a CERTAIN SOMEBODY...
Massachusetts prisoners could choose between freedom and their organs
As if the American carceral state isn't dystopian enough already, a new bill has been filed in the Massachusetts statehouse that would allow prisoners to donate organs in exchange for reduced sentences. As horrifying as the idea of dangling freedom over prisoners in exchange for their body parts is at face value, it is also yet another grim reminder that the imprisonment of millions of Americans has little to do with paying a "debt to society" but in fact exists to commodify human beings for exploitation, extortion, and now apparently literal harvesting. Beyond the barbarism, it's also almost certainly illegal.
NY Gov. Hochul’s new bail reform plan would reverse decades-old protections
The supposedly Democratic governor of New York continues to behave like a Republican, this time taking aim at fundamental protections in the state's bail system. Her proposed reforms would offer judges near-limitless discretion in assigning bail, instead of only considering the accused's likelihood of returning to court. Given how hard she fought to put a right-wing judge on the state Supreme Court, it appears that New York's judicial system is in for a trip back to the bad old days.
For the union makes us strong!
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Today’s Action: Support Pittsburgh Post-Gazette workers on strike!
Union members at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have been on strike for more than 100 days demanding better healthcare and wages. While their strike has yet to yield compassionate action from their employers, an administrative judge justly ruled in the union’s favor last week, castigating Post-Gazette executives who “negotiated in bad faith, unlawfully imposed working conditions, and illegally surveilled workers engaged in union activities.” National Labor Relations Board Judge Geoffrey Carter’s ruling could award the newspaper’s employees as much as $4 million in collective backpay, a potentially huge win for labor. It also compels that management bargain in good faith and reinstate the mutually negotiated union contract from 2017.
While Judge Carter’s ruling is a most welcomed development, this fight is far from over. The heartless, greedy, unlawful moves made by the Post-Gazette’s owners — and Jan. 6 insurrection supporters, it should be noted — stripped employees of crucial benefits and rightful earnings (remember that $4 million?). Unsurprisingly, the paper has yet to make any of these issues right, and the union needs our unwavering solidarity until they do.
Donate to the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh’s strike solidarity fund to match the union-busting bonuses being pocketed by people crossing the picket line! While you’re at it, sign the guild’s petition to have the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s insurrectionist co-owner Allan Block removed from the board of directors of C-SPAN!
PS — Please don't forget to sign the petition to tell the College Board to fight DeSantis' ban on Black history, and be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
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