Below The Fold: The news that do not make the headlines but is important. By PL Hade.
- In 2021, Take the GOP at Its Word: “By June, with the pandemic gripping the country, Donald Trump made a startling admission, revealing the goal of this aggressive and unprecedented assault on voting. He told Politico that voting rights litigation posed the greatest obstacle to his winning a second term. ‘My biggest risk is that we don’t win lawsuits,’ Trump said. ‘We have many lawsuits going all over. And if we don’t win those lawsuits, I think—I think it puts the election at risk.’” https://www.democracydocket.com/…/03/take-gop-at-its-word/
- Dems seem to have outplayed GOP on the Covid delay. After the all-night reading of the lengthy Covid19 Rescue Bill Senator Van Hollen simply got up, proposed shortening the debate from 20 hours to 3 and no Republican was around to contest the motion. In the end, the Bill reading delayed nothing.
- Rep. Zoe Lofgren has released a nearly 2,000 page report documenting the social media posts of GOP colleagues leading up to Jan. 6th who voted to overturn the results of the election. The report includes a breakdown of members by state. (She did not include Van Drew the only NJ Rep who voted to overthrow the election. His Twitter account has been shut down and it looks like his Facebook account has been sanitized if my memory serves. )https://lofgren.house.gov/socialreview
- The Gulf Stream is slowing to a ‘tipping point’ and could disappear. The current could slow down to a point of no return, altering the climate on both sides of the Atlantic. https://www.livescience.com/gulf-stream-slowing-climate…
- Biden Is the Anti-Trump, and It’s Working. If you can dial down the conflict, you can dial up the policy. https://www.nytimes.com/…/biden-american-rescue-plan.html
- Trump appointee arrested in connection with Capitol riotFederico Klein, a former State Department aide, was picked up Thursday on charges stemming from the Jan. 6 takeover of Congress. https://www.politico.com/…/trump-appointee-arrested-for…
- Rep. Eric Swalwell has filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump Jr., and Rep. Mo Brooks for their role in the deadly January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. If the courts take the lawsuit the discovery portion of the proceeding should yield some interesting information.
- Killings by Police Declined after Black Lives Matter Protests A study also found body-camera use and community policing increased in places with the most active movements
- “The difference was significant in this study: it found police killings fell by 16.8 percent on average in municipalities that had BLM protests, compared with those that did not.”
- “The question becomes, ‘Are Black Lives Matter protests having any real effect in terms of generating change?’ The data show very clearly that where you had Black Lives Matter protests, killing of people by the police decreased. It’s inescapable from this study that protest matters—that it can generate change.” https://www.scientificamerican.com/…/killings-by…/
- The US Chamber of Commerce is urging businesses to support GOP members who voted to overturn the election. “We do not believe it is appropriate to judge members of Congress solely based on their votes on the electoral certification.”
- Their National Political Director, argues that only members of Congress involved in “organizing the rally of January 6th or continuing to push debunked conspiracy theories” are culpable. https://www.uschamber.com/…/memo-political-support…
- Keep an eye on who donates to Van Drew.
- Covid19
- 524,560 Americans have died of Covid19
- NJ: 21,124 New Jersey residents have died of Covid
- 193347 new positives
- Rate of Transmission 1.04
- Counties with the highest positives: Bergen 442, Essex 318, Monmouth 313, Middlesex 301