A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things.
Move Over, Alex Jones
Fox News host Tucker Carlson announced last night his upcoming FOX Nation “documentary” on the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection that he claimed “answers a lot of the remaining questions from that day,” and based on the trailer, one of those remaining questions seems to be “why is the government being so mean to the people who tried to overthrow the government for Trump?”
- The dark trailer of the documentary, titled “Patriot Purge,” portrays the violent insurrectionists as fighting a righteous war against an oppressive government.
- Violence and patriotism are the themes of the trailer, opening with a military drum riff against images of gunfire, law enforcement agents breaking into buildings, helicopters, and the torture of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.
- “The helicopters have left Afghanistan, and they’ve landed here at home,” Carlson declares in the trailer.
- The trailer ends with an interviewee suggesting that the insurrection was a “false flag” operation.
- And in case you still had any doubts that this documentary is about anything but rebranding the insurrectionists as brave patriots, Carlson commented during his “Tucker Carlson Today” program yesterday that “you can see why the people who showed up in Washington on January 6th were mad.”
- The reactions are already pouring in:
Biden To Announce Reconciliation Framework
The President is expected to publicly lay out the “framework” of whatever’s left of his Build Back Better plan in the reconciliation bill after these long, long months of negotiations, according to the Washington Post.
- Biden is delaying departure for his trip to Europe today and will meet privately with the House Democratic Caucus this morning, according to Politico and the Washington Post.
- So with two years of free community college, the Clean Electricity Performance Program and now paid family and medical leave out, what social benefits are we left with right now in the package?
- Free universal pre-K, a one-year expansion of the child tax credit, three years of expanded Obamacare premiums, child care expansion, and housing subsidies seem to have survived the negotiations with Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), according to CNN.
Key Analysis
“Who is killing the billionaires’ tax?” – Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent
Eastman Still Advising GOPers On Voting Restrictions
Ex-Trump legal adviser John Eastman, the guy who tried to map a way for Mike Pence to steal the 2020 election, is “still very involved with a lot of the state legislators and advising them on election integrity,” according to Ryan Williams, the president of the conservative think tank where Eastman works as a senior fellow.
- Williams told undercover progressive activists at a gala this past weekend that Eastman was still “running the legal side” of the think tank, Claremont Institute.
Whoops, We Might Have Fomented A Fascism
An attendee at a Turning Points USA event earlier this week asked Charlie Kirk, the right-wing group’s founder, when conservatives should just straight-up murder their enemies, because “at this point, we’re living under corporate and medical fascism.”
- Emphasizing that his question was “not a joke,” the attendee asked Kirk, “When do we get to use the guns?” and “How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?”
- Kirk tried to “denounce” the guy’s proposal–but only the basis that killing people would be somehow giving the left “what they want,” not because violence is bad. “They are trying to make you do something that will be violent that will justify a takeover of your freedoms and liberties, the likes of which we have never seen,” he said.
Big Oil Finally In The Hot Seat As World Burns
Executives from oil and gas giants Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP and Shell will testify in front of the House Oversight Committee today.
- It’ll be the first time oil chiefs will be forced to answer under oath how they peddled disinformation about climate change as the U.S. and the rest of the world suffer extreme (and sometimes deadly) weather patterns caused by burning fossil fuels.
Prosecutor Drops Felony Charge Against Man Who Underpaid For Soda
A Pennsylvania DA dismissed the charge against a homeless man who had accidentally paid $2 for a Mountain Dew that cost $2.29 plus tax at a gas station, which had deprived the gas station of a whole $0.43.
- The man had been facing up to seven years in prison for the offense. He was also put on a $50,000 cash-only bond.
Child Does Not Become Magnet During COVID Vaccine Trial
During a clinical trial for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for kids ages 5-11, there were five “severe adverse events” (none of which were linked to the vaccine), including “ingestion of a penny.”
- The FDA’s advisory panel approved that vaccine yesterday. COVID-19 was “the eighth-highest killer” of kids in that age group over the past year, according to a CDC official.
- Remember when people tried to testify that the vaccine made them magnetic? (Yes I know copper pennies aren’t magnetic but the steel pennies that were minted during World War II are, so my vaccine-magnet bit still works, okay?)
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