>Home page of The Hustings takes on the contentious issue of critical race theory (CRT). Go to https://thehustings.newsfor an explainer by Nic Woods in the center column, with David Iwinski in the right column and Chase Wheaton in the left. >>President Biden travels to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, today to pitch the bi-partisan “hard” infrastructure bill negotiated with 10 senators last week. >>>The House of Representatives is set to vote today on establishing the 1/6 Select Committee, with a likely makeup of seven Democrats and six Republicans.
Facebook Anti-trust Lawsuit Dismissed; 30 Days Allowed for New Complaint – A Federal Trade Commission (FTC) anti-trust lawsuit against Facebook is “legally insufficient” and did not support charges that Facebook is a monopoly, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled Monday. The judge gave the FTC 30 days to file a new complaint, The Wall Street Journal reports, calling the ruling a “blow” to bi-partisan efforts to go after tech giants.
Boasberg dismissed another case against Facebook in its entirety, the newspaper says, largely because FTC attorneys waited too long to bring the claim, which involved other social media apps gobbled up by Facebook years ago, including Instagram and WhatsApp.
Note: The case is “far from over,” NPR reported Tuesday. It is worth noting that there is Republican support for this anti-trust lawsuit despite the historic fact that Democrats, not Republicans, have been against what are alleged to be monopolistic practices. The reason? Because Facebook, Twitter and other social media giants have restricted and barred Donald Trump and some of his followers from their platforms.
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U.S. Population High on Authoritarian Scale -- Research conducted by Morning Consult found that 26% of the U.S. population qualifies as being “right-wing authoritarian,” with the definition of RWA being based on the work of Bob Altemeyer, a researcher specializing in authoritarianism. That number is twice that of the countries coming in second, Canada and Australia. According to Morning Consult: “Altemeyer defines authoritarianism as the desire to submit to some authority, aggression that is directed against whomever the authority says should be targeted and a desire to have everybody follow the norms and social conventions the authority says should be followed.”
When asked about the motives of the January 6, 2021, rioters:
•34% of right-leaning adults answered “Protecting the U.S. Government,” 46% said “Undermining the U.S. Government” and 21% didn’t have a position
•26% of High RWA adults answered “Protecting the U.S. Government,” 52% said “Undermining the U.S. Government” and 22% didn’t have a position
Note — Republican or Democrat, these numbers should be massively disturbing. When there are a third or a quarter of a segment of the population looking at the U.S. Capitol being stormed on behalf of a claim that has not been proven by anyone — a lie, not a fact — and someone perceiving that as “Protecting the U.S. Government,” then clearly there is a lack of understanding of what the U.S. Government is.” When William Barr acknowledges that the claims of election fraud were “bullshit” — and realize that he carried Trump’s water far longer than a respectable lawyer would have done — it is clear that there needs to be a whole lot of remedial civics lessons for the American electorate.
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Biden Vows No Iranian Nukes – Iran will “never get a nuclear weapon on my watch,” President Biden said in remarks following a White House meeting with outgoing Israeli President Reuven Rivlin Monday, Politico reports. The remarks came a day after U.S. military airstrikes on Iranian militias operating in Iraq.
Note: Biden’s comments, the airstrikes and Iran’s new hard-right president could have a negative effect on the president’s vow to reinstate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran, signed by President Obama and rescinded by President Trump.
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Does Congress Deserve a Pay Raise? – The House Appropriations Committee requests a report comparing its members’ salaries with those in the private sector in its 2022 Legislative Branch Appropriations Bill, Roll Call reports. The “base” salary for U.S. representatives is $174,000, though pay can be higher for “those with official leadership titles and responsibilities.” The base salary has been frozen since 2009, and each year lawmakers have written into law that no pay raises would be given. The committee is scheduled to mark up the bill today.
Roll Call describes the line item in the Appropriations Bill a “trial balloon.”
Note: Here’s a private-sector comparison -- the U.S. federal minimum wage has been $7.25 per hour, also since 2009.
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Maricopa County Will Need New Voting Machines – A widely derided audit of presidential election votes in Maricopa County, Arizona, run by the inexperienced firm Cyber Ninjas, of Florida, will require the county that includes Phoenix to buy new voting machines and tabulators, The Washington Post reports.
“The voters of Maricopa County can rest assured, the County will never use equipment that could pose a risk to free and fair elections. As a result, the County will use the subpoenaed equipment in future elections,” county officials said in a press release.
Maricopa County has not given an estimate of the cost of replacing the equipment affected by a state GOP request for the audit in deference to ex-President Trump’s false claims the election was stolen from him. WaPo says the county previously estimated the equipment involved cost “in the millions” of dollars. The GOP-led state Senate has seized nine tabulating machines and 385 precinct-based tabulators and nearly 2.1-million ballots.
Note: Chalk this up as potential win for Dominion Voting Systems, which to date has sued Trump-related attorneys Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell for billions of dollars, in defamation lawsuits, for making allegedly false claims that the voting equipment company “manipulated” ballots in last November’s presidential election.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash