Here is NBC News: The Senate on Thursday night passed the most sweeping gun bill designed to prevent gun violence in decades, a major victory for advocates and a rare defeat for the National Rifle Association. The vote was 65 to 33, with all...
Senate
Senators agree on bipartisan gun safety
A step in the right direction. Here is a Politico: A group of 20 senators struck a bipartisan gun safety framework on Sunday, marking a significant breakthrough in Congress’ attempts to address recent back-to-back mass shootings. In a Sunday morning...
The power of a Trump endorsement in Ohio
If you read one thing to get up to speed on the J.D. Vance’s win in the Ohio GOP primary for U.S. Senate, I recommend Alex Shephard’s short piece at The New Republic. A taste: In a seven-person race full...
George Will: “Amend the Constitution to bar senators from the presidency”
Will offers a stinging critique of GOP Senators who appear to be using their Senate seats to run for president. Here is a taste: In Jonathan Haidt’s recent essay for the Atlantic, “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been...
New poll: Fetterman and Oz lead Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate primary races
Source. The primary elections are May 17, 2022....
Trump endorses Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race
Donald Trump just endorsed Mehmet Oz’s candidacy for the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat currently held by Pat Toomey. Here is Trip Gabriel at The New York Times: Wading into a tight Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania, former President Donald J....
What Ted Cruz doesn’t know about Georgetown Day School (and critical race theory)
Watch Ted Cruz grill Supreme Court justice nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson on critical race theory: Just for the record, critical race theory does not teach, as Cruz claims, that all of life is explained best by the clash of the...
Pennsylvania’s GOP Senate primary race is getting ugly
The two leading GOP candidates for retiring Pat Toomey’s U.S. Senate seat are David McCormick and Mehmet Oz. McCormick is a hedge fund CEO who was Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs during the George W. Bush administration....
A database of the 1,715 members of Congress who owned slaves
The Washington Post has published a database of American enslavers. It includes some familiar names: Thomas Hart Benton, John C. Breckinridge, Preston Brooks, Aaron Burr, Pierce Butler, John C. Calhoun, Charles Carroll, Henry Clay, De Witt Clinton, Davy Crockett, Jefferson...
U.S. Senators on the Senate Health Committee who seem to care less about public health
In case you didn’t see it, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease official, testified yesterday before a Senate health committee hearing. Here is his exchange with Kentucky Senator Rand Paul: Here is Fauci last night on CNN: Here...
The Democratic race for Pat Toomey’s Senate seat reveals the divisions in the party
The frontrunner is Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman. His top challenger is western Pennsylvania congressman Conor Lamb. Here is Holly Otterbein at Politico: One candidate promises he won’t be a centrist Democratic senator like Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema. Another...
Dr. Oz is running for a U.S. Senate seat. He’s been there before.
Oz is running for Pat Toomey’s Pennsylvania Senate seat. Get up to speed here. But as Ian Ward reminds us at Politico, he has been there before. Here’s a taste: On a hot summer morning in June of 2014, Mehmet...
Dr. Oz joins the Pennsylvania Senate race
Sean Parnell is out. Dr. Mehmet Oz is in. Here is The Washington Post: Mehmet Oz, who rose to fame as “Dr. Oz” on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” said Tuesday he is launching a Republican campaign for Senate in Pennsylvania,...
Is Sean Parnell’s Senate campaign over?
Pennsylvania Republicans are having a hard time finding someone to run against Conor Lamb or John Fetterman for Pat Toomey’s U.S. Senate seat. Now a judge has decided that GOP frontrunner Sean Parnell‘s kids can only visit him three weekends...
Is Dr. Oz the answer for Pennsylvania Republicans?
The Senate seat currently held by Pat Toomey is up for grabs in 2022 (Toomey is not running for reelection). Pennsylvania Republicans are looking for a candidate that can win next year. The GOP frontrunner right now is Sean Parnell,...
Episode 24: “Let the People Speak”
The Senate debates and then votes on a Federal Marriage Amendment Episode 24: “Let the People Speak” dropped last night. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above receive this narrative history podcast. Here is a teaser: Listen to Episodes 0, 1,...
The anti-Critical Race Theory bills keep coming
Last week we took a close look at Josh Hawley’s “Love America Act.” Now we have the Protect Equality and Civics Education (PEACE) Act. The Senate sponsors are Republicans Marco Rubio, (FL), Kevin Cramer (ND), and Mike Braun (IN). Here...
Senate passes $3.5 trillion dollar budget framework. Hyde Amendment is saved. Anti-Critical Race Theory amendment passes.
It’s a done deal. Elections have consequences. The American people rejected Trumpism in 2020. Now the Democrats, who rode the anti-Trump wave into office last November, have the power to get some things done. National Public Radio explains what is...
Who is J.D. Vance? Apparently a lot of Ohio GOP voters haven’t read Hillbilly Elegy
In his book Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, J.D. Vance interpreted Appalachia for a largely educated, non-populist reading public. He was able to do this because he left Appalachia for Yale Law School. He...
The Democrats announce a $3.5 trillion “go-it-alone” infrastructure plan to supplement the bipartisan deal
While Joe Biden waits for his bipartisan infrastructure plan to get through Congress, Senate Democrats have announced another infrastructure plan that will provide funds for everything that did not make it into the bipartisan plan. This would include funding for...