Carol D. Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis, Reporters - The Washington Post
Stephan:
Here is some Pulitzer level journalism that validates what I have been saying in SR for the past year. It describes in detail the lack of ethics, and the cowardice of Merritt Garland and his senior staff in doing what was so obvious — prosecuting Trump for trying to overthrow American democracy. Because of Garland’s delay we now find ourselves in a completely avoidable crisis, trying to finally prosecute Trump for several dozen felonies in the middle of an election. Had Garland had the courage to do what the evidence so clearly proved a year ago this could have been avoided.
Illustration by Elena Lacy/The Washington Post; Photos by Bonnie Jo Mount, Jabin Botsford and Bill O’Leary / The Washington Post
Hours after he was sworn in as attorney general, Merrick Garland and his deputies gathered in a wood-paneled conference room in the Justice Department for a private briefing on the investigation he had promised to make his highest priority: bringing to justice those responsible for the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
In the two months since the siege, federal agents had conducted 709 searches, charged 278 rioters and identified 885 likely suspects, said Michael R. Sherwin, then-acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, ticking through a slide presentation. Garland and some of his deputies nodded approvingly at the stats, and the new attorney general called the progress “remarkable,” according to people in the room.
Sherwin’s office, with the help of the FBI, was responsible for prosecuting all crimes stemming from the Jan. 6 attack. He had made headlines the day after by refusing to rule out the possibility that President
Here is yet another confirmation of the Great Schism Trend I have been writing about in SR for over a decade. The difference between Red and Blue states is becoming so glaring that others are beginning to realize we are splitting into two countries with real power devolving from the federal level to the state level.
Republican woman wearing a MAGA hat. Credit: melissamn / Shutterstock
Ron Brownstein, a senior editor for The Atlantic, argued that many Republican-led states are essentially creating completely different countries within the borders of the United States.
Appearing on CNN, Brownstein argued that many red states seem to be in a race to roll back a wide array of freedoms, with a particular focus on women’s rights and LGBTQ rights.
“I think that they are building a nation within a nation on all sorts of issues: LGBTQ rights, voting rights, abortion rights, these book bans, classroom censorship,” he said.
He then argued that these efforts have created areas of the country where many areas have vastly different legal landscapes for citizens simply depending on where they live.
“That same effort that in many ways is attempting to reverse what has been six decades of nationalizing more rights and creating common rights that are available in every state,” he said. “I mean, we are moving back toward a pre-1960s world where your basic civil liberties depended much more on […]
The sheer nastiness of the Republicans in Congress is one of their defining characteristics. How can an ethical person be opposed to seeing that poor kids get enough to eat? And yet they are. Here is some good news about this. The Democrats are going to stand against the Republicans and insist that child food programs continue. Once again making very clear the difference between the two parties.
Valerie Yanez eats a smiley face fry during her lunch period in the cafeteria at Doby Elementary School in Apollo Beach, Florida Credit: Eve Edelheit for The Washington Post via Getty
Progressive U.S. lawmakers said Thursday that they’ll do everything in their power to stop the Republican Party from achieving its stated goal of eliminating a school lunch program that serves low-income communities, which was included in a proposed budget unveiled by the party this week.
Along with making former President Donald Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy permanent and imposing work requirements for recipients of social services up to age 64, the Republican Study Committee (RSC) made clear in its proposed budget on Wednesday that reducing the number of children who receive government-funded meals at school is a policy priority in the coming year.
The document states that the RSC—which counts three-quarters of House Republicans among its members—aims to eliminate the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) from the federal school lunch program, citing the fact that the provision “allows certain schools to provide free […]
The Republicans in Congress in service to their corporate masters are doing everything they can to keep the oligarchs’ taxes as low as possible, and their audits as infrequent as possible. It is estimated this Republican scam is going to cost hundreds of billions of dollars in tax fraud by the oligarchs. It will, of course, make the oligarchs who rent the Republican members very happy, and the black money to buy the election and keep the Republicans in office will come flowing in. Welcome to the most corrupt Party and Congress in American history.
IRS workers Credit: Getty
There was a lot of Republican anger over the recent debt ceiling deal—and it was delicious—but that shouldn’t obscure the ways they managed to extract concessions that will harm the country. One of their big wins, which Republicans would claim saves $20 billion in spending, could actually cost the U.S. $240 billion in revenue for an overall $220 billion loss, a new study finds. That money will instead stay in the bank accounts of the very wealthiest people.
How? The $20 billion in cuts are to the Internal Revenue Service, following nearly a year of Republicans screaming about the additional IRS funding in the Inflation Reduction Act. And if the IRS cuts back on audits, or doesn’t expand them as planned, then tax cheats get away with it and the federal government has less money for important services.
A new study conducted by researchers at Harvard University, the University of Sydney, and the Treasury Department digs into 710,000 in-person audits from 2010 to 2014, finding that the return on investment for audits of the wealthiest […]
Almost every week now I am seeing medical research papers and articles in the general audience press about OB/GYNs and graduating medical students leaving Red states because of laws passed by the MAGAt Republicans to control women. I confess it surprises me that in the second decade of the 21st century one of America’s two parties is still trying to keep women in a second class position and to control their most intimate function as women, and that women in those states voted for this. The result for the women in those Red states, particularly in the rural areas that make up much of the Red states are going to find themselves in obstetrical and gynecological deserts. This article explains the thinking of the medical professionals. It amazing the Republicans didn’t anticipate this; it is so obvious.
Maria Rodriguez, the director of the OHSU Center for Reproductive Health Equity. Credit: Christine Torres Hicks / Courtesy OHSU Center
Rachel is a third-year OB-GYN resident at a medical institute in Texas and last year, when the Dobbs vote overturned Roe v Wade, her education was derailed. For her safety, she declined to offer her last name or where she studies. In June 2022, the state’s “trigger law” went into effect and abortions became illegal – first after six weeks, now full stop.
“I was horrified and angry,” said Rachel, when Roe was reversed.
Following the ban, clinics in Texas have stopped providing abortion care to patients, as well as training to medical residents like Rachel.
Yet as a part of a national program requirement, under the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), Rachel needs to have experience in abortion procedures to become an OB-GYN physician. In Texas, abortion training is now limited to miscarriage procedures, but not hands-on abortion care.
“I went into OB-GYN to help women understand the options they have surrounding their health,” continued Rachel. “I can’t […]
