Democrats Getting It Done
The House passed a resolution to nullify Donald’s declaration of a phony national emergency, with the support of 13 Republicans. The motion will be forced to the Senate floor for a vote now; it needs only 4 Republican Senators to vote for it in order to pass, and three GOP senators have already indicated support.
Meanwhile the governor of Wisconsin joined two other state governors in pulling his state’s National Guardsmen from the southern border, stating, “There is simply not ample evidence to support the president’s contention of a national security crisis at our southwestern border.”
The House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena Trump administration officials to hand over documents related to the separation of families at the border.
The House passed universal background checks for gun ownership and voted to extend the period of review time from 3 days to 10.
After the New York Times exposed a story about Donald DIRECTLY ordering security clearance for Jared Kushner, despite intelligence concerns (against advice from John Kelly and Don McGahn, who filed memos at the time registering their opposition), House investigators demanded the White House turn over security-related documents immediately.
And if you haven’t yet watched Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez’s incisive five-minute questioning of Michael Cohen, you should—the razor-sharp questioning lays the groundwork for the House to subpoena Donald’s tax returns.
Republicans Against the Law
The DC attorney general became the third government entity to subpoena financial records from Donald’s inaugural committee.
A federal judge blocked the GOP’s attempt to purge voter rolls in Texas, calling it “unconstitutional” and “ham-handed.”
After threatening Michael Cohen in a tweet, GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz is under investigation by the Florida bar. Even Rick Scott is upset, y’all, calling Gaetz’s threats “embarrassing” and “disgusting.”
A Wake County grand jury voted to indict Leslie McCrae Dowless, the operative working with Republican Mark Harris in the election where widespread fraud was revealed to have been perpetrated by the GOP campaign with absentee ballots. Harris announced he will not run in the new election due to health concerns.
Social and Civil Rights Advances
Grace Slick licensed rights to a Jefferson Airplane song to Chick-Fil-A—then donated all her proceeds to LGBTQ causes in direct opposition to company’s known support for hard-right conservative causes, especially those that assail the rights of the LGBTQ community.
Wedding-planning mega site The Knot cut all ties with an anti-LGBTQ wedding videographer after he refused to film the ceremony of a same-sex couple.
A movement to transition to a popular vote rather than the electoral college is gaining momentum in several states, opposed mostly—to no one’s surprise—by Republicans, who have won two presidential elections in the last five election cycles in the electoral college that they lost thumpingly in the popular vote.
Your Feel-Good Stories of the Week
This guy became an Internet sensation for ten minutes.
This black man managed to get the “commander” of a longtime white supremacist Neo-Nazi hate group to sign over control of the group to him (it’s the second time he’s done something similar), and his first act was to recommend to a Virginia court that it find the organization guilty of conspiring to commit violence at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017 that resulted in the death of Heather Heyer. He will be using the organization’s social media and Web sites as a platform to offer education about the Holocaust, racism, and anti-Semitism to the millions of white supremacists that visit them each year. An extraordinary read if you have 15 minutes.