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Where Things Stand: They Both Hyped Disinfo About A Stolen Election. Now They Might Be Senators 
Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) made speculation about his impending bid for retiring Sen. Richard Shelby’s (R-AL) seat official last night with a speech that not-so-subtly revealed that the “Big Lie” would be a crucial pillar of his campaign.
Voter Advocates Pressure Biz Community To Push Back On Restrictive Proposals
Americans and the Culture of Kings
My take on the British monarchy is one of general indifference. They’re quaint. They’ve inspired countless costume dramas I’ve enjoyed immensely. I even have some small element of nostalgia for them in the same way I do for dragons or jousting tournaments. But mostly I don’t care about them in any way. But I’ve been struck by the recent efflorescence of pro-monarchism on the American right, something that seems to flow in this particular case downstream from hostility to Meghan Markle, but is yet part of something larger. In the midst of the Markle drama, Trump immigration czar Stephen Miller hopped on to Twitter to defend the monarchy as a symbol of national service and praise the royals he met during President Trump’s state visit as “unfailingly gracious and deeply committed to preserving the traditions and heritage of the UK.” (emphasis added). A week later The National Review published An American Defense of Britain’s Constitutional Monarchy.
Where Things Stand: Now Ted Cruz Is A Defender Of The Media
Not really, of course.
Like his fellow GOPers’ efforts to raise awareness surrounding the humanitarian crisis at the border, Cruz’s newfound concern for media access is convenient, to say the least.
One of the oddities or ironies – I’m not sure quite what it is – of the COVID Pandemic is that the US and UK, which did so poorly managing the disease vs much of Europe, have done so much better vaccinating their populations. This shows up particularly for the UK which is mostly relying on the same AstraZeneca as the the EU. Now comes word that the EU may block exports of the vaccine and its constituent ingredients to the UK until the manufacturer meets its delivery obligations to the European Union. (Needless to say, some of the knock on consequences of Brexit.)
Where Things Stand: Abortion Back On SCOTUS’ Mind
It’s been a fear for pro-choice advocates for some time — one that grew when Trump was elected and only accelerated after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away late last year.
When will reproductive rights be back in front of the Supreme Court?
Yesterday Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) announced his support for abolishing or dramatically reforming the Senate filibuster. This comes after comments earlier this week from Joe Manchin in which he said he won’t budge from the Senate’s current 60 vote threshold for advancing legislation. That comes less than two weeks after Manchin expressed support for moving toward a so-called ‘talking filibuster’ and only a few more weeks after Manchin insisted he would support the filibuster no matter what and forever. Put this all together and at least on the surface you have a confusing mix of signals – often entirely contradictory – that makes it very hard to make sense of what is happening with the filibuster and thus whether there is any real chance of more legislation this year while Democrats have the slenderest hold on both the executive and the legislative branches of government.
Where Things Stand: Cohen To Meet With Vance — For The Eighth Time
But this time, it’s a bit different.