Music: Brandon Williams — ‘Everything’ (ft. Matt Cusson)
Herd immunity may be out of reach — but normality is in sight
Eric Levitz writes: Nearly 20,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 over the past seven days. The hypercontagious U.K. variant is rapidly spreading through Florida, while a South African strain infamous for its resilience against antibodies has been spotted in California. Our government’s lackadaisical approach to genomic surveillance leaves us blind to precisely how prevalent these mutants are — and yet, even as other nations have responded to the emergence of such strains with lockdowns, our cities are reopening indoor dining…
Young people’s despair deepens as Covid-19 crisis drags on
The New York Times reports: Life seemed promising last year to Philaé Lachaux, a 22-year-old business student in France who dreamed of striking out on her own in the live music industry. But the onset of the pandemic, leading to the loss of her part-time job as a waitress, sent her back to live at her family home. Now, struggling to envision a future after months of restrictions, Ms. Lachaux says that loneliness and despair seep in at night. “I…
The GOP’s extremism is at its core, not its periphery
Ronald Brownstein writes: Congressional Republicans have crystallized an ominous question by rejecting consequences for Donald Trump over the January 6 riot in his impeachment trial and welcoming conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia into their conference: Has the extremist wing of the GOP coalition grown too big for the party to confront? Sanctioning Trump or Greene offered the party an opportunity to draw a bright line against extremist groups and violence as a means of advancing political goals….
Senate GOP ready to turn page on Trump
The Hill reports: Senate Republicans are warning that they no longer view former President Trump as the leader of the party amid growing signs that they are ready to turn the page after a chaotic four years. Though only seven of the 50 GOP senators voted to find Trump “guilty” at the end of his second impeachment trial, Republicans, including those who voted to acquit, are plotting a future where Trump is no longer their center of gravity after years…
Trump’s defense was an insult to the impeachment proceedings and an assault on reason
Masha Gessen writes: Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial was an artifact of his Presidency. It was a battle of meaning against noise, against nothing-means-anything-and-everything-is-the-same nihilism—and nihilism won. Over the course of three days, the House impeachment managers meticulously lined up facts, images, and arguments. What had been a fragmented understanding of the events of January 6th became an ordered narrative. President Trump had incited a violent insurrection. For months, he had acted consistently on his belief that he deserved to…
First Oath Keepers guarded Roger Stone. Then they joined the Capitol attack
The New York Times reports: At least six people who had provided security for Roger Stone entered the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack, according to a New York Times investigation. Videos show the group guarding Mr. Stone, a longtime friend of former President Donald J. Trump, on the day of the attack or the day before. All six of them are associated with the Oath Keepers, a far-right anti-government militia that is known to provide security for right-wing personalities…
A decade after the Arab Spring, autocrats still rule the Mideast
The New York Times reports: A decade ago, crowds massed in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to demand the ouster of Egypt’s American-backed strongman, President Hosni Mubarak. In Washington, President Barack Obama made a fateful decision, calling on him to leave power. The backlash from other Arab potentates was swift, Mr. Obama recalled in his recent memoir. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates — a tiny country with an outsized military built on American weapons…
Music: Brandon Williams — ‘Heaven’ (ft. Quamon Fowler & Bernard Wright)
Impeachment did not prevail, but Trump still lost
David Frum writes: In 1955, a junior United States senator named John F. Kennedy published Profiles in Courage, a collection of short essays about eight of his predecessors who had risked their careers for their ideals over the previous 150 years. In one single day in 2021, that many senators showed courage worth enduring historical honor. Seven were Republicans: Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, and Pat Toomey. The other was Joe Manchin, a…
Republican senators are asking the courts to take care of Trump for them
Jonathan Chait writes: Donald Trump limped his way to acquittal in his second impeachment trial, with 57 senators voting to convict him of inciting insurrection. But it is an ominous sign that not only did many of the senators who did vote to acquit base their position on a technicality — Trump was supposedly ineligible for impeachment as an ex-officeholder, as opposed to not guilty of the crime — they conspicuously pointed toward the court system as a venue for…
McConnell says Trump was ‘practically and morally responsible’ for riot after voting not guilty
CBS News reports: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell excoriated former President Trump Saturday in a speech on the Senate floor shortly after McConnell voted to acquit in the former president’s second impeachment trial. In a speech with a first half reminiscent of the arguments made by House impeachment managers, McConnell said the former president was “practically and morally responsible” for the attack on the Capitol on January 6. But McConnell argued that he believed it was unconstitutional to convict a…
Democrats wrestle with how to quit an acquitted Trump
Politico reports: Donald Trump was just acquitted for a second time. Now the real question is, can Democrats finally quit the former president? Democrats have spent five years hammering Trump for what they see as the most destructive and corrupt administration in U.S. history. But as the party juggles a daunting legislative to-do list with full control of Washington for the first time in a decade, there’s a growing debate among Democrats over how much more time Congress should spend…
The origin of modern humans cannot be traced to any one single point of time or place
Science Alert reports: Homo sapiens today look very different from our evolutionary origins, the microbes wriggling about in the primordial mud. But our emergence as a distinct species cannot, based on the current evidence, be conclusively traced to a single location at any single point in time. In fact, according to a team of scientists, who have conducted a thorough review of our current understanding of human ancestry, there may never even have been such a time. Instead, the earliest…
Music: Brandon Williams — ‘Leave Love Be’ (ft. Alex Isley & Moonchild)
New details about Trump-McCarthy shouting match show Trump refused to call off the rioters
CNN reports: In an expletive-laced phone call with House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy while the Capitol was under attack, then-President Donald Trump said the rioters cared more about the election results than McCarthy did. “Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Trump said, according to lawmakers who were briefed on the call afterward by McCarthy. McCarthy insisted that the rioters were Trump’s supporters and begged Trump to call them off. Trump’s comment…