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Tech companies are failing at combatting Spanish-language disinformation, lawmakers and advocates said during an online panel last week. NBC News reports that while tech companies flag or remove English-language posts, the same often doesn’t happen for Spanish-language versions of those posts.

“Platforms use the vast majority of their resources to (remove) misinformation within English language content,” New Mexico U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján said in the report. The panel, organized by anti-disinformation group Free Press Action, featured Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, “a commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission, which regulates deceptive trade practices,” the report continued.

The panel, which also featured Minnesota U.S. Sen Amy Klobuchar and California Rep. Tony Cárdenas, comes as another NBC News report last month highlighted rampant Spanish-language COVID-19 disinformation. That report cited the massive use of free messaging apps like WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, by younger Latinos in particular. ”The outsized use of this technology also makes these apps prime for spreading misinformation, particularly among Latino communities,” Nielsen noted in a report last month.

NBC News reported that the legislators from the panel last week “have been pressuring social media platforms such as Facebook to step up their monitoring and blocking of disinformation in other languages, particularly on Covid-19 and vaccines that they said is costing lives. The problem is far worse for non-English-speaking families, they said.”

“Platforms are even more behind when it comes to cracking down on non-English information,” Klobuchar said in the report. “Unfortunately reports have shown that Facebook will flag English language posts containing lies about vaccines days before acting on the same post in Spanish.” Klobuchar noted that “[s]ometimes Spanish language posts never get flagged. You can still find Spanish language Facebook posts from November 2020 that promote election lies with no warning labels.”

This was similarly noted by Equis Research and Equis Labs co-founder Stephanie Valencia in The Washington Post late last month. “More recently, we’ve seen that Facebook will flag vaccine misinformation content in English, but the same content in Spanish takes days to get flagged, if it ever does,” Valencia continued. “The online activist group Avaaz found Facebook failed to issue warning labels on 70 percent of misinformation in Spanish, compared to only 29 percent in English.”

Documented last year reported on a number of rumors being spread among Spanish-language social media. One claimed that children who test positive for the virus would be taken from their parents.  “According to Google, the text first appeared on a Facebook page called ‘Un Dia Mas,’” the report said. “That Facebook account serves as a ‘content farm’—a person or group of people who share entertaining images to draw an audience.” Within just two hours, the text from that post was picked up by an account with millions of followers.  

While legislators and advocates have said it’s long past time to take a sledgehammer to Facebook, Slaughter said there is action that can be taken now. “The FTC should not wait for federal legislation to act,” she said according to the report. “We should use all tools in our statutory toolbox to protect American consumers and competition … to investigate and take appropriate enforcement actions where we can.”

“I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again: Spanish-language misinformation campaigns are absolutely exploding on social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, etc,” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted last week, writing it puts “English misinfo campaigns to shame … So for all the English-only pundits out there who want to wax ideological poetic about Latino polling numbers, please understand that what’s happening now is way beyond a scale most English-only speakers can see.”

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The United States has a long, long way to go when it comes to protecting, honoring, and respecting LGBTQ+ people. There have been significant wins in relatively recent years—marriage equality, for example, and the growing number of openly LGBTQ+ elected officials—but we’ve also seen hateful legislation signed into law and violence against vulnerable queer groups continue year after year. In the not-so-distant past, LGBTQ+ folks lacked even the most fundamental dignities and protections, and few people were able to be both “out” and hold a position of power. That’s part of why the late Harvey Milk is still such an important icon.

And now, he’s finally being recognized by the U.S. Navy. As reported by the Associated Press, the Navy honored Milk on Saturday by christening and launching a ship in his memory. Milk, who became famous as the first openly gay politician in California, who was later assassinated by Dan White, first served in the Navy for four years. He was kicked out of the military because of his sexual orientation.

At the ceremony, which took place in San Diego, California, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro described Milk and other openly (or suspected to be) queer sailors as being “forced into the shadows” or pushed out of the Navy entirely. “That injustice is part of our Navy history,” he stated. “But so is the perseverance of all who continue to serve in the face of injustice.”

Milk served in the Navy in the 1950s, a time when openly queer people were not allowed to serve in the military. According to CNN, the Navy became suspicious of Milk, who served as a diving instructor during the Korean War, when supervisors noticed him hanging at a San Diego park frequented by gay men. Milk was eventually forced to resign after being confronted about his sexual orientation.

“He has a less-than-honorable discharge,” said Milk’s nephew, Stuart Milk, who attended the ceremony. “He was forced to resign because he was gay.” Though families can appeal to have these dishonorable discharges reversed, Milk said they want to keep his late uncle’s as it is for the sake of history, arguing that we “have to teach our history to prevent ourselves from going backwards and repeating it.” According to NPR, it’s estimated that more than 100,000 people were discharged over their (real or perceived) sexual orientation. 

The ship, called the USNS Harvey Milk, will replenish aircraft carriers with fuel while they’re at sea. The decision to name this ship after Milk actually dates back to 2016, when Ray Mabus (who at the time served as Navy secretary) declared that the six new oilers would be named in honor of civil rights advocates. Rep. John Lewis, Lucy Stone, Robert F. Kennedy, Earl Warren, and Sojourner Truth are the others.

Milk championed and campaigned on issues that are still, sadly, relevant today; for example, he introduced legislation to protect LGBTQ+ people from housing and employment discrimination. He also worked to make sure that teachers couldn’t be fired for their sexuality. As Daily Kos has covered, we’re still seeing allegations of teachers being fired or pushed to resign because of their sexual orientation. We also know housing and employment discrimination are alive and well, especially when it comes to trans people of color and queer sex workers. 

Milk was shot and killed by White, a former colleague who worked as both a city supervisor and former police officer, when he was just 48 years old. Milk was serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors when White killed him, as well as Mayor George Moscone, on Nov. 27, 1978. White shot and killed Moscone first, then entered Milk’s office and shot him five times, killing him.

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein was actually in city hall when the shootings occurred, found Milk herself, and announced the deaths on the news. In recalling the murders in an interview with NPR back in 2018, Feinstein said it’s still “traumatic.”

“I tried to get a pulse in his wrist and put my finger in a bullet hole,” she told the outlet. “And it was clear he was dead. And that changed the world.” Though Feinstein was not present at the ceremony on Saturday, she wrote a letter saying the ship will hold a “rich legacy” of leadership.

White, who consistently opposed LGBTQ+ rights and battled with Milk about politics, was sentenced to only seven years in prison. 

You can watch some news footage from the time below, including some clips of Milk walking with constituents—happy, brave, iconic.

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The coronavirus pandemic’s shake-up of the U.S. economy still hasn’t fully resettled, and it’s clearly visible in reporting on businesses looking for workers and workers looking for jobs. On the one hand, top retailers say their industry is heading into its busiest time of the year desperate for more workers—so much so that some top retailers are raising pay or offering signing bonuses or referral bonuses. On the flip side, many job seekers say they’re not getting interviews—let alone offers—for jobs they’re well-qualified to do, including in retail.

The reasons people might hesitate to go back to retail jobs aren’t hard to figure right now: Retail workers are exposed to a lot of people, and many have contracted COVID-19 on the job. Customers have assaulted workers in disputes over mask-wearing and other public health precautions. Top executives and shareholders have been handed large piles of cash while workers saw their meager hazard pay cut while the pandemic was still raging.

“A lot of people do not want to work in retail right now—I really, really see it,” a personal shopper at Bergdorf Goodman told The New York Times. “People are not feeling appreciated or fairly compensated, and I think this whole COVID thing has made them really rethink that. They want to feel valued.”

Some chains say they are working on the compensation side, at least. Saks Off Fifth raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour. Walmart’s minimum wage is now $12 an hour, but new hires in some stores are now starting at $17 an hour. Nordstrom’s bonus and incentive pay topped out at $400 for the 2020 holiday season but could reach $650 this year. Amazon warehouse jobs can come with up to $3,000 as a signing bonus. Macy’s is giving current employees referral bonuses of up to $500 if they help bring in new employees. 

Other retailers are offering some additional flexibility. Best Buy is allowing job applicants to submit videos rather than be in-person for first-round interviews. L.L. Bean’s call center workers are now remote—as the percentage of remote workers drops, but many people are still looking for such jobs—and, its CEO said, “we have changed our shift structure so you can do two- or four-hour shifts.” Saks Off Fifth not only won’t be open on Thanksgiving this year—something an increased number of retailers are steering clear of—but won’t have extended holiday hours.

But while retail companies say they’re having trouble finding the workers they need, some job seekers say retail companies don’t seem to be interested in them. One 62-year-old Texas man with decades of retail experience told The Washington Post he had only gotten three interviews since June, and in one, the store manager strongly implied he wasn’t getting the job because of his age. This is not someone who’s holding out for high pay—one job he was recently disappointed not to get paid $11 an hour.

An experienced bartender looking for work in Los Angeles said many places he applied are being more, not less, specific in their demands of workers. “The preeminent vibe I’m getting is the people hiring are desperate, but they are unwilling to adjust their expectations at all,” he told the Post. That’s bars, not retail, but it’s not hard to imagine that outside of the incentives retail companies are telling the Times they’re offering, the reality of finding retail work is also in many cases that of companies being desperate and demanding at the same time.

And, as companies struggle to find workers for whatever reason, the ones they have are burning out on increased demands. In the recent Nabisco strike and the ongoing Kellogg’s strike, workers are citing mandatory overtime as a key issue pushing them to the brink. Amazon, where warehouse workers suffer high rates of injuries and turnover is astronomically high, has traditionally had mandatory overtime during high-demand periods, like the holidays.

October brought good news on the job creation front, but the pandemic’s economic impacts are still with us—and workers should be using this moment to demand better treatment on the job. 

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A number of House Democrats have asked the Justice Department to open an investigation into the border “shadow police unit” that human rights groups said in a letter late last month has covered up agent abuses for years. The Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) said in its Oct. 27 letter that Border Patrol’s Critical Incident Teams’ (BPCIT) actions “to withhold, destroy, and corrupt evidence and to tamper with witnesses have gone unchecked for decades.”

“The allegations of ‘Shadow Units’ or ‘Critical Incident Teams’ within U.S. Border Patrol, made public by the San Diego Union-Tribune article, are very disconcerting,” Representatives Juan Vargas, Sara Jacobs, and Joaquin Castro tell the Justice Department. “The accusations of obstruction of justice, corruption, and extreme misconduct must be thoroughly investigated and, if true, those involved must be held accountable immediately.”

SBCC wrote that BPCIT has existed since at least the late 1980s, and played a key role in the cover-up around the 2010 killing of Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, who was hog-tied, beaten, and tased by border officers. ”By the time he reached the hospital, he was brain-dead, and he died days later,” The Los Angeles Times reported earlier this year. But as SBCC wrote, BPCIT obstructed the investigation by tampering with evidence and attempting to falsely portray the dad of five U.S. citizens as violent. BPCIT at one point even tried to push the FBI to charge Hernandez Rojas with assault “while he lay brain dead in the hospital. The FBI declined.”

“All use-of-force incidents investigated by BPCITs should be re-examined,” SBCC said in that letter. “As a priority, the investigation of Anastasio Hernández Rojas’s death should be reopened. It is a landmark case as the first ever to go before an international tribunal where it is currently pending.”

SBCC’s Oct. 27 letter called on Congressional leaders including Sen. Dick Durbin, Sen. Gary Peters, Rep. Bennie Thompson, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, and Rep. Jerry Nadler to open an investigation into this shadow police unit. It’s unclear from House Democrats’ Nov. 4 letter if they intend to open their own investigation. What is available from the letter requests “the Department of Justice open an investigation into these allegations,” and “that U.S. Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security cooperate throughout this investigation.”

“Government agencies and departments such as U.S. Border Patrol are established to provide safety and security to the United States and the people in our country, not to shield its agents or the agency from criminal prosecution,” the three legislators continued. “If these allegations are true, it will further diminish the trust between the public and law enforcement agencies.”

We know it’s not just this secretive shadow police unit that’s worked to protect abusive border agents; it’s also the agency itself. The House Oversight and Reform Committee, chaired by Maloney, said in a report last month that just two agents were fired for their participation in a racist Facebook group where posters mocked an unaccompanied child who died alone while in U.S. custody. Despite dozens of agents being implicated, the committee said CBP and its union fought to shield them from any accountability. 

One agent, who posted “among the most explicit and offensive graphics and comments” and was recommended for firing by the Discipline Review Board, actually retired with full benefits before any actions could be taken. Dozens of others “found to have committed misconduct” continue to “work in positions of power over migrants, including families with children,” the report said. “After completing the disciplinary processes, these agents returned to their previous duties working face-to-face with migrant populations at the border, in detention, and throughout inspection and processing.”

“SBCC has documented over 150 deaths resulting from encounters with border agents since 2010,” the coalition said in its letter. “The actual number might be significantly higher. According to a 2020 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, CBP does not have reliable information on deaths and ‘has not consistently reported deaths of individuals in custody to Congress.’ Apart from deaths, abuse is rampant … Despite the magnitude of harm, few border agents are held accountable. In fact, not a single agent has been successfully prosecuted for use of force on duty that ended in death. Not a single one in the nearly 100 years that Border Patrol has existed. Zero.”

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All 12 federally recognized Indigenous tribes in Michigan sent Joe Biden a letter on Friday laying out a plan for the president to shut down the Line 5 oil pipeline, which stretches 645 miles from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario, as part of Canadian pipeline giant Enbridge’s Lakehead System. The aging 3-mile section that runs under the Straits of Mackinac in particular poses a severe threat to major waterways in the area, including Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

As the coalition of organizations known as Oil and Water Don’t Mix note, “Line 5 has spilled 33 times and at least 1.1 million gallons along its length since 1968.” Sections of the pipeline were damaged in 2018 due to an anchor hitting the twin pipes under the Straits of Mackinac and additional damage in 2019 from Enbridge contractors, essentially make the pipeline a ticking time bomb for environmental disaster.

“We view Line 5 as an existential threat to our treaty-protected rights, resources, and fundamental way of life as Anishinaabe people of the Great Lakes,” the tribes wrote. The 12 tribes make up the Three Fires Confederacy of the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi. What the tribes propose is for the president to publicly support Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s order to shut down the Line 5 pipeline through an official statement of interest via the Justice Department.

The tribes stressed the importance of Biden explicitly urging in his letter that the shutdown be affirmed and resolved in a timely manner. Tribes also want the president to consider revoking the 1991 Presidential Permit that allowed for the pipeline expansion that included key sections of Line 5 being built. The tribes also requested that they be involved in negotiations with Canada by having a designated representative participate in those talks.

In addition to hitting Biden’s desk, the letter was sent to numerous lawmakers and Cabinet members, including Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, and Secretary of State Tony Blinken. Officials including Biden have so far been silent about the letter. A Biden administration official told Michigan Advance that they “expect that both the U.S. and Canada will engage constructively in [the 1977 Treaty] negotiations.”

Article six of the 1977 Transit Pipelines Treaty was invoked last month by Canada in an effort to allow Line 5 to remain operational and effectively halt any progress with State of Michigan v. Enbridge, a lawsuit filed by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel asking an Ingham County Circuit Court judge to uphold Whitmer’s order to shut down Line 5. The treaty prevents public officials from hindering the flow of oil in U.S.-Canada pipelines.

Enbridge and conservative lawmakers in both the U.S. and Canada have continually fought to keep the pipeline running, bringing up the specter of rising energy costs despite the fact that experts believe incrementally shuttering the pipeline would only lead to negligible price hikes. A look at Enbridge’s PR campaign against the shuttering of Line 5 shows a company desperately clinging to oil in the face of an ongoing climate crisis. Instead of signaling even a passing interest in renewables, Enbridge’s team mocked up a map showing tanker trucks bringing oil up to Canada.

The tactics from Enbridge and the lawmakers who benefit from the fossil fuel industry reek of desperation. It’s worth noting that of the 14 lawmakers who sent a letter urging Biden to keep Line 5 in operation, just one person received no donations from fossil fuel companies. The rest benefitted from thousands of dollars from the likes of Exxon Mobil, Marathon, and Valero, among others.

Biden sending a message to Enbridge and its sycophants that Line 5 must go would be an incredible way to honor Native American Heritage Month and the land so violently stolen from the Indigenous groups still fighting to keep it from being destroyed. The Great Lakes represent 21% of the Earth’s fresh water. It’s unacceptable that such a vital ecosystem would be deprioritized for the sake of such limited and damaging resources.

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Long-anticipated subpoenas for senior officials to former President Donald Trump and members of his 2020 reelection campaign were issued by investigators on the Jan. 6 Committee on Monday.

The subpoenas come at the same time obstruction to congressional oversight wafts in the Washington, D.C., air with former White House adviser Steve Bannon being held in contempt of Congress two weeks ago, after flatly refusing to cooperate with the probe. Former acting attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil division, Jeffrey Clark, has also refused to cooperate citing claims of executive privilege.

A total of six new subpoenas were issued Monday. One went, as widely expected, to John Eastman, a senior fellow of the conservative think tank The Claremont Institute and former legal professor at Chapman University. Eastman authored a six-point memo instructing Vice President Mike Pence on how to deny Joe Biden’s rightful victory, but has since waffled publicly about the memo’s intent. But for lawmakers on the committee, Eastman’s actions, regardless, demand answers.

In addition to Eastman’s now-notorious memo, the committee also cites his participation in a briefing “for nearly 300 state legislators from several states regarding purported election fraud,” during which he propped up Trump’s lies about election fraud and told the group it was “’the duty of legislators to fix this, this egregious conduct and make sure that we’re not putting in the White House some guy that didn’t get elected,” the committee’s letter states.

Eastman also allegedly met with Trump and Pence on at least two occasions—mere days before the insurrection. It was then, the committee contends, that he communicated with Pence’s counsel, Greg Jacob, regarding his earlier proposal to delay or block certification of the election.

And, perhaps most damning for Eastman, are his own words in a Jan. 6 email. The committee specifically cited an email from the former law professor to Greg Jacob. Eastman allegedly told Jacob “the siege” unfolding at the Capitol that day was due to Jacobs and Pence failing to promote lies about the election certification process. Eastman blasted Jacobs, saying he and Pence “did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened.”

Eastman is also allegedly one of the numerous officials who met with Trump toadies in a “war room” at the Willard Hotel. It has been widely reported that in addition to Eastman, Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani were also regularly on hand at the war room.

Incidentally, in a new analysis published by The Bulwark on Monday, Christian Vanderbrouk unpacked a 37-page report first published by The Claremont Institute last October. The Texas Public Policy Foundation, which did not return a request for comment Monday by Daily Kos, co-published the report.

As pointed out by Vanderbrouk, the post-election war game was dreamed up by Eastman and others and amounts to “an instruction manual for how Trump partisans at all levels of government—aided by citizen ‘posses’ of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers—could, quite literally, round up opposition activists, kill their leaders, and install Donald Trump for a second term in office.”

When reached for comment Monday, Vanderbrouk told Daily Kos by email that he wrote and published the piece Monday because he hopes “that it puts to rest any remaining questions about whether Claremont and its supporters are good-faith players in our system.”

The committee has demanded a response by Eastman by Nov. 23; his deposition is currently slated for Dec. 8.

No stranger to congressional oversight, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn was also subpoenaed Monday and requested for deposition on Dec. 6.

“You reportedly attended a Dec. 18, 2020, meeting in the Oval Office, during which participants discussed seizing voting machines, declaring a national emergency, invoking certain national security emergency powers, and continuing to spread the message that the November 2020 election had been tainted by widespread fraud,” the subpoena letter states.

Also cited by the committee was Flynn’s appearance on Newsmax TV the day before that Oval Office meeting, where he opined openly about so-called precedents he perceived for deploying military troops or declaring martial law to “rerun” the election.  

Flynn reportedly met with Trump just weeks after he was pardoned by the president on charges that he lied to the FBI. He was one of Trump’s most stalwart allies, even speaking to the former president’s supporters at a “MAGA March” protesting the outcome of the election on Dec. 12, 2020.

Trump reelection campaign officials like William Stepien, Jason Miller, and Angela McCallum were also subpoenaed Monday.

As a manager to the reelection campaign, Stepien oversaw “the conversion of the Trump presidential campaign to an effort focused on ‘Stop the Steal’ messaging and fundraising,” the committee said in its subpoena.

That messaging overtly highlighted conspiracy claims about voting machines that Stepien and other Trump campaign members had long known were patently false, the committee added. A memo published in September outlines how Trump campaign staff knew of the deceit for weeks, but ran with it, anyway.

The committee also wants Stepien to provide any information he might have about the campaign’s attempts to persuade states to delay or deny certification of electoral votes, or send multiple slates of electoral votes to Congress.

Stepien, if he complies will be deposed on Dec. 13.

Jason Miller regularly spread claims of “widespread fraud” in the election, and publicly asserted Democrats would “steal the election,” a committee letter to the former Trump campaign adviser states.

This message was echoed by the mob who attacked the Capitol and notably, even after the election, lawmakers claim Miller, Trump, and Trump’s former personal attorney Rudy Giuliani coordinated press events to make more bogus claims about the election. Miller is also believed to have been in the war room at the Willard Hotel on Jan. 5.

Miller is scheduled to be deposed on Dec. 10.

As for Angela McCallum, the national executive assistant to Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, investigators say she was directly involved in efforts to “encourage state legislators to alter the outcome of the 2020 election.” One such example provided by the committee is a publicly available recording of a voicemail left to a Michigan state representative. McCallum wanted to know whether Trump could “count on” the representative.

“And you told the representative that he/she had authority to appoint an alternate slate of electors based on purported evidence of widespread election fraud,” the subpoena states.

If she complies, like all others subpoenaed Monday, the deadline to submit documents is Nov 23. Her deposition is currently slated for Nov 30.

Also subpoenaed Monday was Bernard Kerik. The former New York Police Department Commissioner—who was convicted of tax fraud in 2001—reportedly booked hotel rooms to be used as command centers for Trump officials, and is alleged to have been at the Willard Hotel on Jan. 5 along with Bannon, Eastman, and Giuliani. 

In Kerik’s subpoena, lawmakers allege the former commissioner met with Giuliani “at least as early as Nov. 5” to promote claims of election fraud.

Former White House deputy chief of staff for communications, Dan Scavino, and Kash Patel, the former chief of staff to then-acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, were subpoenaed weeks ago. Onetime White House chief of staff Mark Meadows was also slapped with a subpoena but has been on thin ice with the committee in recent days. He has reportedly delayed providing materials as requested.

In September, rally organizers including Amy Kremer, founder and chairwoman of Women for America First, were subpoenaed. The group coordinated a rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6. Kremer’s daughter and co-founder of Women for America First, Kylie Kremer, was also subpoenaed. Their depositions were recently put on hold, but it is unclear exactly why. A spokesperson for the committee has declined to comment on details of the investigation. 

Caroline Wren and Cindy Chafian were served, too. As reported by ProPublica, Wren served as a deputy to Donald Trump, Jr.’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, at the joint presidential fundraising committee, Trump Victory, throughout the 2020 campaign. Chafian, yet another organizer of the rally at the Ellipse, was involved with Wren in planning and budgeting for the event.

Maggie Mulvaney, listed as a “VIP lead” in a rally permit arranged by Women for America First, was also subpoenaed. Mulvaney is the niece of Trump’s former acting White House chief of staff, then director of the Office of Management and Budget, then special envoy for Northern Ireland, Mick Mulvaney.

In addition, Megan Powers, of MPowers Consulting LLC, and Hannah Salem, of Salem Strategies LLC, were also listed on permits for the rally. Legislators believe the women were supervising rally scheduling and logistics. Also subpoenaed were Lyndon Brentall of RMS Protective Services—flagged on permit paperwork as an “on-site supervisor”—and Justin Caporale and Tim Unes. Both Caporale and Unes worked for Event Strategies Inc.; the committee believes they have information about project and stage management for the rally. 

Katrina Pierson, Trump’s campaign spokesperson in 2016, received a subpoena last month. According to the FEC, Pierson received $10,000 biweekly for her work with the Trump campaign from September 2019 to January 2020. Pierson is believed to have been in contact with Trump regularly before and on Jan. 6.

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The House and Senate are both in recess this week, neither planning floor sessions. However, that doesn’t mean that they’re not working on the critical half of President Joe Biden’s big economic, climate change, and family agenda he’s calling Build Back Better (BBB). It’s the companion bill to the hard infrastructure bill that both the House and Senate have passed. Now that House Democrats have decided to trust Biden’s ability to bring recalcitrant Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema along and do it in the next three weeks, with the Thanksgiving holiday thrown in, the pressure is very much on. Because it’s not just BBB that has to be dealt with by Dec. 3.

The conservative House Democrats who have been fighting that larger budget reconciliation bill agreed that they would allow for a vote on the package “no later than the week of Nov. 15.” So that’s the immediate job. There won’t be any time to rest if that achievement is met because Congress agreed to give themselves that Dec. 3 deadline for two rather important things: lifting or suspending the debt ceiling, and providing government funding for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2022 (we’re already almost a month and a half into it).

Republicans are going to help with neither task. Which means it would make a lot of sense for Democrats to get one of those big must-pass things done as quickly as possible—they need to put the debt ceiling suspension in the budget reconciliation BBB bill, which will pass with only Democratic votes.

There’s a lot of good reasons to do that. Joe Manchin is one big one. He backed the idea as recently as a few weeks ago, saying, “Democrats have the responsibility, being the majority party right now, to do it through reconciliation” if Republicans refuse to help. Republicans will refuse to help.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has already promised that, and he can’t back down. He’s already been blasted by other Senate Republicans who said he caved on extending the deadline in early October. For his reward, the former guy is renewing his attacks on McConnell. Republicans aren’t going to help.

It would be a sweetener for Manchin—as much of an obstructionist asshole as he is, he’s not willing to play with that particular fire, the full faith and credit of the United States. But he is going to be more than willing to delay and delay and delay the BBB budget reconciliation bill. It’s been a constant game of whack-a-mole for Democrats with him, as he takes turns with Sinema to pose objections that Democrats have to address—because this thing doesn’t pass without them.

If it’s the only game in town for lifting the debt ceiling, or better yet forever eliminating it as a weapon for McConnell, then Democrats had better do that.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has blessed the strategy. On the way to the Glasgow climate summit last week, Yellen told reporters that Democrats should be willing to do it. “Should it be done on a bipartisan basis? Absolutely. Now, if they’re not going to cooperate, I don’t want to play chicken and end up not raising the debt ceiling. I think that’s the worst possible outcome,” Yellen told The Washington Post. “If Democrats have to do it by themselves, that’s better than defaulting on the debt to teach the Republicans a lesson.”

The Senate Budget Committee has ruled out that approach previously, but they could and should change their minds, and they should do it using the process Greg Sargent at the Post discussed with Georgetown law professor David Super. The reluctance of Democrats to deal with the debt limit in reconciliation has been because this form of bill requires specific amounts of either spending or revenue increases, and they don’t want to saddle themselves with having passed a $3 or $4 or whatever trillion increase. But, Super has argued, they don’t actually have to specify a number: “You can probably change the number to something you don’t spell out in ink, but that you describe,” Super explained. “You tie it to the national debt. That is a number. It’s just not a number you wrote out.” The number is the national debt, and the debt ceiling is set is tied to that number. Period. No more need for Congress to ever get involved.

Resolve those two things by Thanksgiving (a tall order, but not impossible). Then Congress can focus all of its attention on government funding, which is also mired down right now by Republicans refusing to help appropriators in the Senate set spending levels. They want to skip the budgeting and appropriations process completely and just have another full-year continuing resolution—the kind of stop-gap funding measure that continues funding for everything at current levels until a date specified in the resolution. The current one runs until Dec. 3.

“An endless cycle of continuing resolutions is not a responsible way to govern,” Appropriations Chairman Patric Leahy said in response to the proposal. “It means cuts to veterans, cuts to national security and defense, handcuffing our response to the pandemic, and not meeting the challenges of climate change. We have made clear what we are for. What are they for? We are ready to get to work as soon as they come to the table.”

They will not come to the table, and they don’t have to. There are 50 of them, just like there are 50 Democrats, and they have Manchin and Sinema willing to continue giving Republicans veto power over the Democrats’ agenda. As long as the two of them insist the filibuster remains, McConnell has minority rule, with the exception of budget reconciliation. So Democrats need to use it, and they need to make Manchin help. That would make the next two months just slightly less hellish.

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On Nov. 22, 1963, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Many people believe that Lee Harvey Oswald, who was arrested and charged with Kennedy’s murder, was not the only person involved in the assassination. Since that time there have been myriad conspiracy theories that run the gamut from a belief that director of the CIA Allen Dulles colluded with organized crime and Lyndon B. Johnson to get rid of Kennedy to the idea that JFK faked his own assassination in order to better fight against some shadowy New World Order from below the radar of the public eye.

The one consistent touchstone in most, if not all, JFK conspiracy theories is that Kennedy himself (and his brother Robert) were creating giant upheavals in the established order of the U.S. government. It is the belief that the Kennedys represented a light in the dark and shadowy world of true power and elitism that drives the conspiracy theory’s staying power. At the beginning of November, QAnon Trumpists descended on Dallas and Dealey Plaza under the impression that one of the many Q-conspiracy theories would be realized: the resurrection of John F. Kennedy, or at the very least the resurrection of his son, John K. Kennedy Jr., who died in 1999 in a plane crash off of Martha’s Vineyard. The MAGA-conspiracists went down to Dealey Plaza on Nov. 2 with the assumption that something big was going to be revealed. It wasn’t.

They don’t care. They’re staying.

Reporter Steven Monacelli and VICE reporter David Gilbert have been following this QAnon crew in Dallas, and found that they’ve been led by an antisemitic QAnon activist, Michael Brian Protzman, to the grassy knoll in downtown Dallas for a reappearance of one of the deceased Kennedys. And while nothing happened to support the wild conservative Christian eschatological theories on JFK and/or JFK Jr. anointing Donald Trump the “king of kings,” their belief in Protzman has not wavered.

But unlike most influencers, Protzman has effectively built a cult within the QAnon movement, where his followers refer to him as a godlike figure, are willing to travel across the country to see JFK resurrected, and most of all, continue to praise Protzman even when the miracle fails to materialize.

His rise within the QAnon world has been rapid. Back in March, his Negative48 Telegram channel had around 1,700 members; today, it has over 105,000 members. But aside from the number of followers Protzman has, what makes him stand out from other QAnon influencers is the loyalty and worship he has engendered in those people.

According to VICE, Protzman has promoted content to his audience like the film Europa: The Last Battle, which purports to explain how Jews created communism and orchestrated both World War I and its sequel, World War II, in order to get Israel created at the expense of the Nazis. True story. Anyways, this asshat has also been able to take advantage of the fact that President Joe Biden recently delayed the public release and declassification of thousands of remaining government documents related to the JFK assassination, which has not helped. Of course, the fact that Donald Trump first delayed the release of these documents in 2017 does not seem to have registered with this MAGA-adjacent QAnon crowd.

The motivations for the assassination in all of these conspiracy theories lead to the same the thing: the protection of a secret world power establishment. In these theories, whether Kennedy’s death allows the escalation of war into Vietnam and Cambodia or it is simply the outgrowth of a sexual jealousy between Kennedy and organized crime boss Santos Trafficante is immaterial in the end. The important thing to understand is that in the end, the government and other secret establishment officials covered up the “truth” about the Kennedy assassination in order to protect their world order.

This unbelievably general and truly unsophisticated view of global power dynamics is at the center of these cult-level conspiracy theories. Are you ready for this? Hold on to your socks!

And after JFK Jr. didn’t appear at the site of his father’s assassination, QAnoners moved their goal post to the Rolling Stones concert that was In town. The irony that these QAnon folks are heading to see a rock and roll group that openly hates Donald Trump is lost on them, of course. In fact, it almost wouldn’t be a story about QAnon if the logic wasn’t so truly wrong-headed.

Guess what? They totally saw all kinds of people you thought were dead, including Michael Jackson, Prince, and Aaliyah. Plus, these QAnon music fans saw the original not dead musician, Elvis!

Sounds like a truly amazing concert. The most important thing to realize here is that while this sect of QAnon seems to be a bit more acutely delusional in their views of reality than maybe other QAnon conspiracists who are a little more shrewd in how openly ridiculous their theories are in practice, the results are the same: The concert these QAnon folks went to was a lot more exciting than the concert that the rest of the people enjoying the Rolling Stones saw.

And that’s the point. 

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After his COVID-19 diagnosis led to the revelation that he had refused to be vaccinated and lied about it publicly, saying, “Yeah, I’ve been immunized,” Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is facing something he doesn’t seem to have a lot of experience with: consequences for his actions. But don’t worry. He’s rich, famous, white, and embracing a Republican position. The consequences will be limited, as the NFL and one of his top sponsors have made clear.

Rodgers spent last week whining about being “in the crosshairs of the woke mob” and “cancel culture,” because that’s how conservative white guys tell the world that it would be worse for them to face consequences for their actions than it was for them to do whatever they fear the consequences of. 

He also said, “The great MLK said that ‘You have a moral obligation to object to unjust rules and rules that make no sense.’” And that he did his own research on the vaccines, but also was following Joe Rogan’s advice on how to treat his COVID-19, which are two statements that kind of contradict each other. Note: Listening to Joe Rogan or even talking to him directly does not constitute research.

Rodgers offered up a series of false claims about COVID-19 vaccination while accusing an NFL doctor of having told him categorically that no vaccinated person could get or spread COVID-19. That would be false information, but, CNN reports, a league source said, “No doctor from the league or the joint NFL-NFLPA infectious disease consultants communicated with the player.”

On to the consequences! Rodgers quickly lost his sponsorship from Prevea Health, which he’d had since 2012. And State Farm silently pulled most of its ads featuring Rodgers from circulation on Sunday. For the previous two Sundays, Rodgers had been in about a quarter of the ads in State Farm’s weekly football advertising blitz. This Sunday, his share was down to 1.5%.

However, State Farm is not fully ditching Rodgers. 

”Aaron Rodgers has been a great ambassador for our company for much of the past decade,” the company said in a statement Monday.

“We don’t support some of the statements that he has made, but we respect his right to have his own personal point of view. We recognize our customers, employees, agents, and brand ambassadors come from all walks of life, with differing viewpoints on many issues. Our mission at State Farm is to support safer, stronger communities. To that end, we encourage vaccinations, but respect everyone’s right to make a choice based on their personal circumstances.”

Which of the statements don’t you support, guys? Come on, get specific. Was it where he advocated treating COVID-19 with unapproved medications? Was it his decision to “immunize” himself with homeopathic treatments? Was it the Martin Luther King, Jr. thing? State Farm doesn’t support some of the statements Rodgers made, so tell us which. 

An NFL source, similarly, told ESPN that while the league was looking into whether Rodgers had followed protocols—which he acknowledges he did not, by refusing to wear a mask to press conferences—he won’t face suspension. Rodgers has also been pictured spending time with his teammates off the job, something NFL rules prohibit for unvaccinated players. And get this: His rationale for why it’s okay to refuse to wear a mask to press conferences in violation of the rules is that everyone else is vaccinated and masked.

Aaron Rodgers does not believe the rules apply to him. Prevea Health is suggesting the rules do, in fact, apply to Rodgers. State Farm insurance is trying to have it both ways, dramatically dialing back their visible association with him in the immediate wake of his comments, but refusing to cut him loose or even to strongly criticize his statements. And while State Farm is not primarily a health insurance company, it does offer life insurance so you’d think it would want as many people as possible to get life-saving vaccinations. Apparently not as much as it wants to keep Aaron Rodgers’ waning star power on board, though—or not as much as it wants to avoid enraging the ivermectin crew.