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The first Black principal of Colleyville Heritage High School in Grapevine, Texas, has lost his job after a months-long battle with the school board, which accused him of teaching and promoting critical race theory (CRT) in his school.

Just a month after Dr. James Whitfield wrote a letter decrying the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, saying systemic racism was “alive and well” and that “education is the key to stomping out ignorance, hate, and systemic racism,” Stetson Clark, a former school board candidate at Grapevine-Colleyville High School, called for the principal’s firing. 

“He is encouraging the disruption and destruction of our district,” Clark said, July 26, 2020, according to the Texas Tribune. 

Whitfield received a disciplinary letter from the district a few weeks later and was placed on administrative leave soon after that. In late July, the board then recommended a proposal not to renew Whitfield’s contract for the 2022-2023 school year. 

In addition to Whitfield’s email condemning the deaths of Black folk, the mostly white Texas community, had issues with the fact that Whitfield has a white wife and his participation on a district-approved panel about diverse differences. 

And even though the school district acknowledges that CRT was never taught in the school, these Karens and Brandons have elected to offer the principal a settlement in lieu of keeping him in his job. 

Monday, the school board voted unanimously to fire him. 

A joint statement from Whitfield and the school board gave the following rationale: 

”Both the District and Dr. Whitfield each strongly believe they are in the right. However, each also agrees that the division in the community about this matter has impacted the education of the District’s students… The District and Dr. Whifield have mutually agreed to resolve their disputes.” 

“Educators are fighting this battle. And it’s a battle that’s been manufactured,” Whitfield told NBC News’ Antonia Hylton about how he came to lose his job and how parents and students are responding to the decision.

“No teacher is teaching critical race theory in schools, but what they’ve termed to be critical race theory. Which are diverse books, which you’ve seen in Texas. A list of hundreds of books they want to have removed or investigated. And teachers are worried about what they’re bringing to their classrooms or the resources they’ve been given,” he tells NBC News. 

Texas is one of the eight states with broad laws banning the teaching of CRT. 

The irony of Whitfield’s case is that the majority of the community is in disagreement with the decision and believes it’s based on racism and discomfort with Whitfield himself. 

The issue of CRT ended up being at the dead center of the recent Virginia gubernatorial election. A rallying cry of Virginia moms created a groundswell many are crediting with the win of Glenn Youngkin to the post.

But, digging in a bit more deeply, The Daily Beast found that several of most vehement Virginia’s anti-CRT groups had backing by lobbying firms, Koch groups, former Trump officials, and The Federalist Society.

When Whitfield was suspended from his job in September, several local Grapevine residents spoke up on his behalf. 

“I grew up in the Jim Crow South, and what’s going on here is not particularly new. It’s an old playbook,” one resident, who said mentioned that she lived in the area for 10 years, said, according to the Daily Beast.

“But to beat it, we need to start being very clear about what’s OK and what’s not OK—or we’re going to continue being bullied by a reactionary minority.”

“It is not OK to make baseless accusations about what our schools are teaching, particularly when all you know about the topic is what’s been told by professional propagandists. It is not OK to demonstrate contempt for another human being by making salacious comments about his family… To the board: It is not OK to punish a respected educator for defending himself when you could not find the intestinal fortitude to defend him as you, yourself, should’ve done.”

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No doubt, when Republican Congressman Paul Gosar of Arizona tweeted out a fantasy anime video showing him killing his Democratic colleague, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and attacking President Biden, he intended it as a “gotcha” that would “trigger the libs.” But the video itself, apparently created by his staff, was also a dogwhistle signal to the white-nationalist audience that Gosar has been cultivating in the past year and longer.

The anime series and manga comic book that is the source for the video’s scenes, Attack on Titan, is in fact one of the white-nationalist alt-right’s favorite manga. That’s because the series is ripe with fascist themes and ill-concealed antisemitism, particularly in its storyline about a nefarious race of overlords manipulating human conflict.

The scenes in Gosar’s video show the series’ chief protagonist—his face replaced by Gosar’s—attacking the evil, mindless “titans” that are ravaging human civilization, their faces replaced by Ocasio-Cortez’s and Biden’s. The video is interspersed with news footage of immigrants at the U.S. border and Border Patrol officers engaging in various enforcement activities.

Attack on Titan has become a favorite of the white-nationalist crowd because, in addition to its extreme violence, its extended storyline is an unmistakable metaphor for classic antisemitic conspiracy theories, with an elite cabal called the Marleyans overseeing the genocide of a persecuted race of humans called the Eldians. In the world of the alt-right, where anime is a predominant form of entertainment, the response has been unabashedly enthusiastic:

On 4chan, a website now nearly synonymous with the alt-right, the rabid message board /pol/ has archived 57 distinct threads with Attack on Titan in the subject line since 2016 alone. And this is hardly an exhaustive list of racist threads citing or discussing the show. In 2014, a user with a Nazi flag described the series as “one of the most redpilled shows I have seen in a long time,” while people down the list said it was an endorsement of “the revival of National Socialism.” A more recent post from 2019, titled “Redpilling Propaganda in the Form of Movies, TV Programs,” used season three of Attack on Titan as its case study.

Gosar’s digital director, Jessica Lycos, issued a statement that makes light of the video’s threatening content: “Everyone needs to relax,” she said. Similarly, Gosar’s Twitter account posted a meme with a crying “Soyjak” saying, “Your cartoon anime scares me with your jet flying and lightsabers,” to which a “Yes Chad” replies: “It’s a cartoon. Relax.”

Twitter chose not to remove the post, despite the clear violation of its terms of service. Instead, it limited the ability to retweet or reply to the post, while posting a warning on it: “This Tweet violated the Twitter Rules about hateful conduct. However, Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”

However, Gosar’s Democratic colleagues weren’t buying the “it’s just a cartoon” excuse. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for an investigation into Gosar’s conduct: “Threats of violence against Members of Congress and the President of the United States must not be tolerated,” she tweeted. “@GOPLeader should join in condemning this horrific video and call on the Ethics Committee and law enforcement to investigate.”

“This is sick behavior from Rep Paul Gosar,” California Democrat Ted Lieu tweeted. “He tweeted out the video showing him killing Rep Ocasio-Cortez from both his official account and personal account. In any workplace in America, if a coworker made an anime video killing another coworker, that person would be fired.”

Ocasio-Cortez commented that “a creepy member I work with who fundraises for Neo-Nazi groups shared a fantasy video of him killing me and he’ll face no consequences [because] @GOPLeader cheers him on with excuses. Fun Monday! Well, back to work because institutions don’t protect [women of color].”

“Remember when [Florida Republican Ted Yoho] accosted me on the Capitol [steps] and called me a f—ing b—. Remember when Greene ran after me a few months ago screaming … Remember when she stalked my office the [first] time [with] insurrectionists and people locked inside. All at my job and nothing ever happens,” she added.

Minnesota Congressman Ilhan Omar tweeted: “This man should not serve in Congress. Fantasizing about violently attacking your colleagues has no place in our political discourse and society.”

Max Berger of More Perfect Union pointed out that Gosar was heavily involved in the runup to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection (and has been heavily promoting the conspiracy theory that the event was a “Deep State” operation ever since). “He’s still promoting violence against Democratic members of Congress,” he tweeted. “He should be expelled from Congress immediately.”

In an interview on The View Tuesday, Congressman Adam Schiff opined that Gosar “has no business being in Congress.” He noted that Republicans so far have been entirely mute about Gosar’s tweet, noting that some of them are reportedly lining up to reprimand their 13 GOP colleagues who voted for Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill.

“Gosar creates this video glorifying violence against one of our colleagues who’s already been the subject of death threats, and that’s perfectly OK,” he said. “They are repeatedly glorifying violence.”

Not to mention white-nationalist antisemitism.

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Adding to the already thick stack of subpoenas doled out by the Jan. 6 Committee as it continues its investigation into the attack on the U.S. Capitol, chair Bennie Thompson rolled out 10 more subpoenas Tuesday, including one for Stephen Miller, Trump’s former senior advisor and White House stalwart instrumental in so much of the former president’s most virulent policies.

“The Select Committee wants to learn every detail of what went on in the White House on Jan. 6 and in the days beforehand. We need to know precisely what role the former president and his aides played in efforts to stop the counting of electoral votes and if they were in touch with anyone outside the White House attempting to overturn the outcome of the election,” Thompson said in a statement late Tuesday afternoon.  

The latest batch of subpoenas has been issued to players both large and small in the Trump administration. At the more senior level, in addition to Miller, congressional investigators have also demanded documents and depositions from former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and Vice President Mike Pence’s national security advisor, Keith Kellogg.

According to the committee, Miller is being subpoenaed because, based on his own public statements, he repeatedly spread bogus information about alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election and set himself about the task of encouraging state legislators to alter the election’s outcome “by, among other things, appointing alternate slates of electors to send competing electoral votes to the United States Congress.”

Indeed, in December, Miller appeared on Fox & Friends saying: “The only date in the Constitution is Jan. 20, so we have more than enough time to right the wrong of this fraudulent election result and certify Donald Trump as the winner of the election.”

Donald Trump did not win the election, but that did not deter Miller.

“As we speak, today, an alternate slate of electors in the contested states is going to vote and we’re going to send those results up to Congress. This will ensure that all of our legal remedies remain open. That means that if we win these cases in the courts, that we can direct the alternate slate of electors be certified.”

In reality, nothing in the Constitution or even in-state electoral processes permits an “alternate” slate of electors. And there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the election, per Trump’s very own Attorney General William Barr.

Miller also had a hand in crafting Trump’s remarks from the Ellipse on Jan. 6 and was at the White House during the siege, legislators note. Miller was with Trump, too, when the president delivered his inciteful speech that eventually descended into chaos that morning. Lawmakers have demanded Miller be deposed on Dec. 14.

Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who stood at the dais in the James Brady briefing room to deliver daily canned responses and admonish any press that would dare question the president or his policies, has also been slapped with a subpoena.

“In a press conference, after the election, you claimed that there are ‘very real claims’ of fraud that the Trump re-election campaign was pursuing and said that mail-in voting was one that ‘we have identified as being particularly prone to fraud,’” the subpoena to McEnany states.

Like Miller, McEnany was with Trump when he traveled to the Ellipse and spoke at the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally.

She also “popped out to join Mr. Trump as he watched the attack on the U.S. Capitol later that afternoon,” the committee said. McEnany’s deposition is slated for Dec. 3.

Keith Kellogg, Pence’s onetime national security adviser may also have credible evidence sought after by investigators. Lawmakers want records connected to a meeting Kellogg took with Trump and attorney Pat Cipollone during which Trump reportedly insisted that “Pence needed to send the votes back and not certify the election.”

“You were in the White House with former President Trump as the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol unfolded and have direct information about the former president’s statements about, and reactions to, the Capitol insurrection,” the committee emphasized.

Kellogg also allegedly met with Trump before the rally and then afterward where he “urged Mr. Trump to send out a tweet to his supporters at the U.S. Capitol to help control the crowd.”

This is the first time Kellogg has received a subpoena from congress as it relates to Trump. In 2019, during Trump’s first impeachment inquiry, Kellogg was revealed to be on the July 25 call Trump took with Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelensky when the commander-in-chief abused his power as he pursued political dirt on Joe Biden. Lawmakers never called Kellogg forward during that inquiry.

Kellogg is scheduled to be deposed on Dec. 1.

In addition to Miller, McEnany, and Kellogg, lawmakers also want to hear from John McEntee, the former body man turned White House Personnel director who, lawmakers contend, was in the Oval Office with Trump when Trump’s former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, campaign counsel Justin Clark, and Pence discussed auditing the count in Georgia.

Investigators also believe McEntee listened in as Giuliani gamed out how to seize Dominion voting machines.

As the director of personnel, McEntee was privy to or involved directly in communications wherein officials were questioned about their loyalty to the president.

Further, investigators said, McEntee “specifically discouraged a number of individuals from seeking employment after the election, as it would appear to be a concession of President Trump’s defeat.”

Deposition for McEntee is slated for Dec. 15.

Benjamin Williamson, the former deputy assistant to Trump and senior adviser to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, is “in a position to potentially inform the Select Committee’s examination of Mr. Meadows’ efforts to communicate” with other officials, the subpoena states.

Williamson allegedly discussed already-dismissed voter fraud cases with officials in Georgia and during the attack on the Capitol, reportedly spoke to both White House communications director Alyssa Farah and Meadows. Farah urged the men that day to have Trump issue a statement both addressing the attack and condemning the violence.

Williamson is slated to appear for deposition by Dec. 2.

Other officials subpoenaed Tuesday include Nicholas Luna, Trump’s former personal assistant; Molly Michael, special assistant to the president and Oval Office operations coordinator; Christopher Liddell, former White House deputy chief of staff; Cassidy Hutchinson, special assistant to the president for legislative affairs and Kenneth Klukowski, former senior counsel to then-Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark. Clark has already been subpoenaed by the committee but has reportedly stonewalled members, citing claims of executive privilege.

Investigators say Luna was in the Oval Office with Trump on the morning of Jan. 6 and was listening in as Trump urged Pence not to certify the election results.

Michael, as a special assistant, was in regular contact with Trump and was “specifically involved in sending information about alleged election fraud to various individuals, apparently at the director of President Trump,” the committee asserts. 

In December, Michael forwarded an email to Jeffrey Rosen, then-acting attorney general, with the blaring subject line “From POTUS,” and attached to it talking points plus a “purported forensic report discussing unfounded voting irregularities in Antrim County, Michigan.”

Michael sent another email on Dec. 29 on Trump’s behalf to Justice Department officials, including the solicitor general, ultimately hankering to have the department file a lawsuit at the Supreme Court in hopes of overturning the election results.

Christopher Liddell’s testimony could prove useful to the committee: Not only was he in the White House on Jan. 6, he frequently communicated with Meadows.

Liddell, originally from New Zealand, told a reporter at the New Zealand-based news outlet Newsroom, that the events of Jan. 6 “horrified him” and he considered quitting but “after a great deal of persuasion,” Newsroom reported, he opted to stay.

As for Hutchinson, she accompanied Trump to the Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6, and prior to that, on Dec. 30, following Meadows’ trip to Georgia for an election audit, investigators allege Hutchinson reached out directly to Georgia’s deputy secretary Jordan Fuchs by email.

Hutchinson, like many of the other assistants to the president, is believed to have communicated directly with members of Women for America First, including its founder Amy Kremer. Kremer has already received a subpoena, but her deposition has been delayed for now.

Klukowski, Jeffrey Clark’s senior counsel, was engaged in attempts to “involve the Department of Justice” to get in on the alternate slate of electors scheme, the committee argues.

As of Tuesday, 35 subpoenas have been issued as lawmakers keep ramping up their probe. On Monday, the panel kicked off the week issuing six new demands, including one to John Eastman, author of the six-point memo instructing Pence how to deny Joe Biden’s win.

Meanwhile, Trump has appeared anxious to shroud hundreds of pages of records from the select committee. The judge handling his request, however, has so far appeared disinclined to go against President Joe Biden’s formal refusal to assert executive privilege over the records.

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Senate Republicans’ projection of confidence following last week’s elections isn’t exactly translating into improving prospects for next year’s midterms.

On Tuesday, New Hampshire’s very popular GOP governor, Chris Sununu, announced he would bypass a Senate bid to run for a fourth term in the Granite State.

Sununu had been considered the strongest possible contender to unseat first-term Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, and his declination is a major blow to the GOP effort to retake the Senate majority next year.

In explaining his decision, Sununu also suggested joining the U.S. Senate was about as appealing as choking down a plate full of cold, soggy eggs every day for the foreseeable future.  

“I’d rather push myself 120 miles an hour delivering wins for New Hampshire than to slow down, end up on Capitol Hill, debating partisan politics without results,” Sununu said. “That’s why I’m going to run for a fourth term.”

Nothing sums up Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s GOP caucus better than “partisan politics without results.” Even better, Sununu forgot to inform McConnell and Senate GOP campaign chief Rick Scott of his decision before going public with it.”I guess you’ll have to let them know. I haven’t talked to them,” Sununu told reporters. Ouch.

But Sununu wasn’t alone in his grim assessment of joining Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill. Shortly after Sununu gave McConnell the heave-ho, former Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who narrowly lost her seat to Hassan in 2016, also appeared to be taking a pass on the prospect of taking orders from McConnell in the Senate. Sources close to Ayotte told WMUR the former senator would not be running.

Senate Republicans’ chances of picking up a seat in New Hampshire just got significantly downgraded. But the rejection from both Sununu and Ayotte represents something much bigger that just one seat: It’s a collapsing of the Senate GOP’s establishment wing.

McConnell is looking weaker than ever. His recent endorsement of alleged wife abuser Herschel Walker for the Georgia Senate seat laid bare how truly desperate and subservient to Donald Trump he is. No sane-ish Republican wants to join McConnell’s do-nothing caucus so they can twiddle their thumbs for two years in hopes that they will become Trump’s chattel in 2024.

Back in Kentucky, McConnell put on a brave face, telling reporters, “I think the wind is going to be at our backs in both the House and Senate.” He also reiterated for the umpteenth time that the 2022 midterms “will be about the future, not about the past.” Republicans just keep saying that as if they will be able to wipe away the stain of Trump’s ceaseless grousing about the supposedly “stolen” 2020 election.

But Sununu and Ayotte know that past is prologue. McConnell’s standard of governing—whether he’s in the minority or the majority—is to impede progress and get as little done as possible. They also know that McConnell has surrendered the party to Trump, and that will continue to be true no matter who wins the Senate next year.

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Yet another lawsuit has been filed against the state of Texas over its abhorrent redistricting maps, which were approved last month by Gov. Greg Abbott after the third and final special legislative session of the year. The Texas State Conference of the NAACP is being represented by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Dechert LLP, who filed their complaint in federal court in the Western District of Texas, Austin Division, last Friday.

The lawsuit explicitly names state Rep. Todd Hunter, who chairs the House Redistricting Committee and filed the house redistricting plan that was tinkered with but ultimately passed. Along the way, Hunter blocked public testimony from experts, imposed strict time limits on key hearing components, and forced lawmakers to push his proposals through while disregarding and ultimately voting down a baffling number of amendments designed to protect voters of color.

Also named is state Sen. Joan Huffman, who chairs the Senate Special Committee on Redistricting and introduced congressional and senate redistricting maps. Huffman routinely ignored requests to show how the redistricting maps that were ultimately adopted complied with the Voting Rights Act and said she saw no evident reason to create any new opportunity districts for voters of color, despite the fact that a majority of the nearly 4 million new Texas residents counted in the recent census were Black, Asian, and Latino.

A section of the lawsuit describing Huffman’s aversion to acknowledging race when drawing the Senate map really says it all: “Senator Huffman told lawmakers and the public that the maps were ‘drawn blind to race,’ despite the fact that some consideration of race is necessary for compliance with the [Voting Rights Act].”

Texas lawmakers have had a markedly easier time elevating Republicans over actual voters due to the fact that redistricting for the first time in the state required no federal preclearance. A key provision in the Voting Rights Act in which federal oversight was necessary for states like Texas—along with regions and cities with histories of voter disenfranchisement—was struck down in 2013 by the Supreme Court.

Prior to the Shelby vs. Holder decision nullifying the 1976 Voting Rights Act amendment, Texas faced more than 200 objections by the Justice Department over redistricting and voting accessibility. It’s clear Texas hasn’t learned from its mistakes and groups like the NAACP and Lawyers’ Committee are more than willing to take lawmakers to task for the sake of accountability.

Lawyers’ Committee Voting Rights Project co-director Ezra Rosenberg didn’t mince words in a press release announcing the recent lawsuit: “This is backward and a perversion of justice that cannot stand. The court must recognize this illegal chicanery for what it is and rule that these maps are unconstitutional and act to protect the voice of every voter in Texas.”

In addition to this latest lawsuit, Texas faces legal challenges to its redistricting maps from the likes of Voto Latino, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

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Trump ex-spokescreature Kellyanne Conway is a lying propagandist. That is her only purpose. She may have had, at some earlier point in her life, another, but for the last half-decade her purpose has been to brazenly lie to the public in service to a fascist movement bent on propping up a delusional and incompetent narcissist as the nation’s long-awaited golf-cheating tax-dodging god-king. Fox News is a fascist network, a network now so devoted to promoting falsehoods that their pandemic viewers are dying off at elevated rates.

Just because the propagandists are literally getting people killed doesn’t mean their efforts aren’t ridiculous. Fox News hosted Conway to gaslight their equally ridiculous viewers into believing that one of the most memorable parts of the early pandemic didn’t happen. You know, the thing we all lived. The thing every last person old enough to have grasped object permanence lived through, because it was a freakin’ year and a half ago. Welcome to the magical world of rewriting history, explained to you by a floating head reporting from what appears to be some sort of alcohol-serving news casino:

There is, we’re all going to admit, at least some possibility that First Lieutenant Bullshit here “never even heard” of a supply chain crisis during her White House tenure. There is a staggering amount of things the Trump White House appeared to neither know about nor give a rat’s ass about, from ethics laws to why attempting to cure COVID patients with ingested disinfectants might be a bad idea. Conway’s White House most definitely heard about a supply chain crisis during the first year of the pandemic, however, because Conway was one of the malevolent, lying hacks whose White House job was to tell reporters asking about it that it was all perfectly under control.

Just because Conway is still around and still one of the most dishonest people in all of America, however, doesn’t mean we have to treat her with any respect. The great and glorious internets were very quick to latch on to the Conway-Fox attempt at mass delusion, and Conway’s garbage doesn’t deserve any response other than internet mockery so away-we-freakin’-go:

She’s not a liar. She’s a propagandist. Her lies are not for her own personal sake, but to convince Americans that their own recent history did not happen in an attempt to justify the political ideology that produced it. Conservatism demanded that pandemic preparedness be slashed, that international pandemic cooperation be curtailed, all in service to cutting government and lowering the taxes of the topmost class. It was a calculated risk, an assumption that a pandemic would not happen or, if it did, none of those affected by it would put two and two together and wonder why the nation was caught flatfooted when it did.

Most of the internet’s replies to Conway consist of pictures and reminiscing about the days when store shelves were empty, not just of cleaning supplies but of meat, and fruit, and God help you if you needed the Postal Service to deliver a critical replacement part because it would get to you sometime between four weeks from now and never. Gas prices were high, even though there was nowhere to go. Hospitals could not get enough of anything—and the Trump White House seemed quicker to focus on purchasing anti-malaria miracle cures, to the tune of a bajillionty doses, than the things actually needed.

Conway is a propagandist still devoted to a fascist and incompetent movement. If history needs to be rewritten to convince Fox News viewers that the movement produced only victories and their hated opponents are the cause of all ills, Conway will come out of semi-retirement to lie again.

The COVID-19 pandemic is, after all, spreading most vigorously in Republican-led regions with Republican-devoted Fox News viewers. The people she is lying to are the ones who most need reassurance that the pandemic surrounding them is Actually somebody else’s fault.

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Have you guys subscribed yet to The Brief, our weekly podcast about politics?

We film live on Tuesdays, 1:30 PM PT/4:30 PM ET. 

Today, we take a look at last week’s electoral wreckage and what it means for next year’s 2022 midterm elections. Joining us are Drew Linzer, who runs Civiqs, our data and research arm, and David Nir, who runs Daily Kos Elections. We’ll look at the results, the data, and the current polling, and explore whether Democrats have any chance of holding Congress next year. 

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CBS News reports that advocates for refugees evacuated from Afghanistan this past summer as part of Operation Allies Rescue have urged the Biden administration to waive immigration-related fees. Many families arrived to the U.S. with just the clothes on their backs, much less with money in their pockets for work permits and green card applications.

But good news came for them on Monday, when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it would be waiving U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) fees for thousands of refugees who arrived after July 30. “These actions will help facilitate their resettlement in the U.S. by streamlining the processing of requests for work authorization, Green Cards, and associated services.” Advocates applauded the move.

“Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, one of nine national refugee resettlement agencies, welcomed Monday’s announcement, saying many of the Afghan families her group serves face financial insecurity and are eager to find jobs,” CBS News reported. Work permit and associated fees top nearly $500; green card paperwork more than doubles that amount.

“Today’s announcement provides some much-needed financial relief to our newest Afghan neighbors,” O’Mara Vignarajah wrote in a Twitter thread. “Most of the families we’re serving have no nest egg to draw from, and every expense is a source of stress and anxiety. Removing this financial burden will go a long way in leveling the playing field and setting up these newcomers for success. We are especially grateful to the Biden administration for streamlined processing of work authorization.”

DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement that by waiving USCIS fees, “we will open doors of opportunity for our Afghan allies and help them begin to rebuild their lives in communities across our country more quickly. These actions demonstrate our ongoing commitment to Afghan nationals who provided valuable assistance to the United States over the past two decades as well as other Afghans at risk.”

CBS News reports that the vast majority of Afghan evacuees, 50,000, continue to be housed at several military bases across the U.S. 14,000 have left these bases for resettlement throughout the country. Among those resettled have been four children orphaned when their mother was killed amid the withdrawal, CBS Evening News said. They are now in Texas with a cousin. “Another 2,000 Afghan evacuees remain at bases in the Middle East and Europe, where U.S. officials have been conducting security screenings and background checks, according to DHS statistics,” CBS News continued.

In a move attempting to lessen the burdens facing agencies working to resettle families within the U.S., the administration late last month announced an initiative that would allow small groups of vetted individuals to form “sponsor circles,” which will be responsible for securing housing and financial support for Afghans. The Sponsor Circle Program mirrors efforts in Canada. That move was similarly applauded by advocates, including O’Mara Vignarajah.

Other recent efforts have also included a campaign urging Americans to donate spare airline miles to refugees leaving U.S. bases. In a release received by Daily Kos, Miles4Migrants and partner Welcome.US said they’re seeking to secure 450 million miles, “needed to provide every evacuee with a flight to their new home.” Thousands of flights have already been secured.

When it comes to applying for necessary documents to help secure their new lives here, O’Mara Vignarajah said in her thread that LIRS clients “have expressed their frustration with the bureaucratic inefficiency that has prevented them from accessing the dignity of a job and the financial security that comes with it. This policy decision is an economic win-win; we can get these families on the road to self-sufficiency, and we can unleash their potential for employers desperate for talented workers amid a labor shortage.”

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As the Kyle Rittenhouse trial continues, the only protester shot by Rittenhouse to survive testified on Monday. Gaige Grosskreutz, a volunteer medic and protestor who was the third and final man shot by Rittenhouse in the summer of 2020, recalled the events that led up to the shooting during Rittenhouse’s murder trial, the Associated Press reported.

Defense attorneys attempted to use Grosskreutz’s testimony to justify their claim that Rittenhouse acted in self-defense because Grosskreutz admitted that he pointed his own gun at Rittenhouse prior to being shot. Rittenhouse stands on trial for killing two men and wounding Grosskreutz.

“I thought the defendant was an active shooter,” 27-year-old Grosskreutz said. When asked what was going through his mind during the incident he said, “That I was going to die.” Grosskreutz was shot in the arm, which resulted in tearing away much of his bicep. Witnesses described it as being “vaporized.”

While the prosecution depicted Rittenhouse as the coldhearted racist killer he is, defense lawyers have been arguing the case of self-defense. Defense attorney Corey Chirafisi attempted to make it seem like Rittenhouse was in danger and acted upon that during the cross-examination. According to Reuters, he asked: “When you were standing 3 to 5 feet from him with your arms up in the air, he never fired, right?”

“Correct,” Grosskreutz responded.

“It wasn’t until you pointed your gun at him, advanced on him, with your gun, now your hands down pointed at him, that he fired, right?” Chirafisi continued.

“Correct,” Grosskreutz said. A photo depicting Grosskreutz pointing a gun at Rittenhouse was also shown.

According to Wisconsin’s self-defense law, deadly force is permissible only if “necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm.” Defense attorneys are banking on this law.

However, Grosskreutz did not shoot first, although he “closed in” on Rittenhouse.

“That’s not the kind of person that I am. That’s not why I was out there,” Grozzkreutz said when asked why he didn’t shoot at Rittenhouse. “It’s not who I am. And definitely not somebody I would want to become.” He added that he did not mean to point his gun in the direction of Rittenhouse.

Grosskreutz attended the protest to serve as a medic. He wore a hat that said “paramedic” and carried medical supplies, in addition to a loaded pistol.

“I believe in the Second Amendment. I’m for people’s right to carry and bear arms,” he said, explaining why he was armed. “And that night was no different than any other day. It’s keys, phone, wallet, gun.”

According to Grosskreutz’s testimony, he didn’t act until after seeing Rittenhouse kill a man just feet away. While he was holding his pistol his hands were in the air. Video evidence and a criminal complaint filed days after the shootings last year confirm this.

“At that moment I felt that I had to do something to try and prevent myself from being killed or shot,” Grosskreutz said.

Chirafisi not only attempted to portray Grosskreutz as threatening to Rittenhouse but brought up his lawsuit against the city of Kenosha.

“If Mr. Rittenhouse is convicted, your chance of getting 10 million bucks is better, right?” Chirafisi said.

Grosskreutz’s testimony is pivotal as the trial enters its second week. Multiple witnesses provided testimony that seemed to support the teen’s claim of self-defense last week, Reuters reported. If convicted, Rittenhouse faces life in prison. He has pleaded not guilty and is looking to take the stand under self-defense.