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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Trump May Be Gone, But Trumpism Isn’t</strong> - Even to the disgraceful end of his Presidency, Trump managed to persuade other conservative opportunists that his brand of right-wing populism represents the future of the G.O.P. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/trump-may-be-gone-but-trumpism-isnt">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Can the COVID-19 Vaccine Beat the Proliferation of New Virus Mutations?</strong> - Stopping transmission blocks the opportunity for viral mutation. Vaccination is the only means we have of standing in the virus’s way. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/can-the-covid-19-vaccine-beat-the-proliferation-of-new-virus-mutations">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Awe and Anguish of Being an American Today</strong> - For all the rousing joy of the political transition, our democracy remains deeply imperilled. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-awe-and-anguish-of-being-an-american-today">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Navalny’s Long-Running Battle with Putin Enters a New Phase</strong> - The jailed opposition leader is creating a model of guerrilla political warfare for the digital age. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/navalnys-long-running-battle-with-putin-enters-a-new-phase">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Takedown of a Dark-Web Marketplace</strong> - One of the world’s largest illicit bazaars was shuttered using data seized from a fortified bunker in Germany. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-takedown-of-a-dark-web-marketplace">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>9 questions about budget reconciliation you were too afraid to ask</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nhhmQwZA0T06_OgTSL7NQSy3y3s=/0x0:4000x3000/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68716140/AP_21021722656466.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer meets with new members of his caucus on January 21. Schumer will have to decide how to use budget reconciliation to pass President Biden’s agenda. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP
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</figcaption>
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</figure></li>
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</ul>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Democrats can pass a big bill through the Senate without any Republican votes. Here’s how.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vUmbd8">
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pNEqJv">
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If <a href="https://www.vox.com/joe-biden">President Joe Biden</a> and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/1/6/21534292/senate-2020-results-democrats-win-schumer-biden">Democrats in Congress</a> want to get anything done, they will likely depend on an obscure but powerful procedural tool.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YVuPvW">
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This tool is called <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/23/13709518/budget-reconciliation-explained">“budget reconciliation,”</a> and it’s something you’re bound to hear a lot about in the coming weeks. This complicated Senate process is the vehicle by which important Democratic priorities could actually pass Congress and reach President Joe Biden’s desk.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Q1on8w">
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Democrats hold 50 seats Senate. To pass bills, they will have to contend with the Senate’s unusual rules like <a href="https://www.vox.com/21424582/filibuster-joe-biden-2020-senate-democrats-abolish-trump">the filibuster</a>, a procedural requirement that bills receive 60 votes in the Senate to come up for a floor vote. The filibuster would force Democrats to get support from at least 10 Republicans to pass most legislation.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pMuR9X">
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There is already debate about whether Democrats should just <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/3/5/18241447/filibuster-reform-explained-warren-booker-sanders">eliminate the filibuster altogether</a> and pass whatever they want with a simple majority. But absent such a big step, they are left with budget reconciliation.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="RA4Wiv">
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They can pass a reconciliation bill with just 50 votes. But reconciliation also comes with certain conditions, limiting what policies can pass through this special process, and that makes legislating a lot more complicated.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="W2XJJK">
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Here’s what you need to know.
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</p>
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<h3 id="syqrj5">
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<ol style="list-style-type: decimal">
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">What is “budget reconciliation,” and why should I care?
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</li></ol></h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bvsLKy">
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In order for a bill to become a law, it needs to pass the United States Senate.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3qrRbu">
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Democrats control the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the White House, which in theory gives them the power to make laws. But while bills can pass out of the House on a simple majority, almost all bills in the Senate are subject to the “filibuster,” a Senate rule (<a href="https://www.vox.com/videos/2019/6/17/18681798/filibuster-senate-broke-video">but not a law</a>) that requires legislation to receive 60 votes to be brought up for a final vote.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UndAqr">
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Almost all bills, but not those passed via the process called budget reconciliation. Under this special procedure, a bill can be brought up for a vote and pass with a simple majority.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IB6n0E">
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Democrats’ Senate majority is as thin as can be: 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris available to break a tie. For most bills, they’re going to need support from at least 10 Republicans. But using a budget reconciliation bill, they can pass any bill they want, within the limitations that govern the reconciliation process.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ktAZEE">
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Biden and senators from both parties are <a href="https://www.vox.com/22231391/joe-biden-inauguration-uniting-america">talking a good game</a> about bipartisanship in the post-Trump, post-storming of the Capitol era. But partisan politics has a way of taking over any legislative debate.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dlNJoo">
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Democrats may find that in order to pass a Covid-19 relief bill, or other major priorities on taxes, health care, and the environment, they need to muscle through a bill using budget reconciliation. But in exchange for the privilege of passing legislation with “only” 51 votes, budget reconciliation bills are subject to certain rules.
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</p>
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<h3 id="YVtimV">
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<ol start="2" style="list-style-type: decimal">
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">What can the Senate pass with budget reconciliation?
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</li></ol></h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gxi6qp">
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A lot of things — so long as they affect federal spending and revenue. It’s called <em>budget</em> reconciliation, after all. Reconciliation was established as part of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, driven by lawmakers concerned about the growing federal deficit.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dIRrjc">
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The process begins with a congressional resolution instructing committees in the House and the Senate to draw up legislation. The budget resolution sets the first parameter for what can pass via budget reconciliation: The final bill must reduce or increase the federal deficit by no less or no more than the amount specified in the resolution.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aNp9Jt">
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For example: The budget resolution passed by Senate Republicans in 2017 to set up reconciliation for <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/14/16634200/republican-tax-reform-byrd-rule">their tax plan</a> stipulated that the bill could increase by the deficit by $1.5 trillion over 10 years — but no more. That became the target as Republicans decided which taxes to cut and which to raise.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S29pLi">
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The provisions that are included in the reconciliation bill must then somehow change federal spending or federal revenue. Raising and lowering taxes, expanding subsidies for health insurance, and spending money on new infrastructure projects are some of the obvious, much-discussed ideas that could be included in a reconciliation bill.
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</p>
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<h3 id="lrbMTt">
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<ol start="3" style="list-style-type: decimal">
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">What can’t pass with budget reconciliation?
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</li></ol></h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ffR8g9">
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Reconciliation was used at first in the 1980s to approve Reagan-era spending cuts, but quickly senators started to use reconciliation for policies unrelated to its original purpose. One reconciliation bill was used to reduce the number of board members on the Federal Communications Commission.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tY9GgJ">
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In the eyes of Senate institutionalists like Robert Byrd of West Virginia, these were abuses of the reconciliation process. So Byrd proposed and the Senate codified constraints on what can be passed through budget reconciliation, to make sure the process was actually used for matters affecting the federal budget. Those constraints are now colloquially called <a href="https://www.vox.com/mischiefs-of-faction/2015/10/28/9603518/byrd-rule-planned-parenthood">the Byrd Rule</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9TqbYR">
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Under the rule, reconciliation bills can’t change Social Security. They can’t be projected to increase the federal deficit after 10 years. They must affect federal spending or revenue — and their effect on spending or revenue must be “more than incidental” to their policy impact.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LSYswr">
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In other words, the primary purpose of the provisions in a reconciliation bill must be to affect the federal deficit; those budgetary effects can’t simply be a byproduct of trying to achieve some other policy aim. To borrow an example that came up a lot during the recent health care debates, changing insurance regulations might not comply with the Byrd Rule. While those changes would surely affect federal spending (the government spends money subsidizing health insurance, so changes to its cost would alter federal outlays), their main policy purpose would be to affect what kind of health coverage people receive.
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</p>
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<h3 id="ofSxBW">
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<ol start="4" style="list-style-type: decimal">
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Who decides what can be included in a budget reconciliation bill?
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</li></ol></h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EUJ7aD">
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Unelected bureaucrats. Kidding — sort of. There are two important referees in the reconciliation process: the Congressional Budget Office and the Senate parliamentarian.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="szMEjp">
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The CBO produces projections on how any legislation, including reconciliation bills, will affect the budget. Ordinarily, those projections have been the guidepost for whether a bill is meeting its reconciliation targets. If CBO says your bill costs $1.5 trillion, and the budget resolution passed to set up reconciliation said the bill was supposed to cost no more than $1 trillion, then you need to cut $500 billion out of the bill.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CJ57qS">
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That may not necessarily be an ironclad rule, however: When Senate Republicans were using budget reconciliation to pass the tax bill in 2017, there was <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/14/16634200/republican-tax-reform-byrd-rule">speculation</a> they could use their own estimates if the CBO’s were not to their liking. (They ended up not needing to take such a drastic measure, though they still <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/us/politics/republicans-joint-committee-on-taxation-estimate.html">attacked</a> the Senate’s nonpartisan experts and said the estimates were undervaluing how much their tax bill would spur the economy.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wIiHTn">
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And the CBO can be circumvented in other ways. In their 2017 bill, Senate Republicans <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/28/16684324/senate-republican-tax-bill-loopholes-inequality">allowed</a> some tax breaks for individuals to expire so that their bill wouldn’t increase the federal deficit outside the 10-year budget window. However, no one at the time actually believed Congress would let those tax cuts sunset — i.e., hike taxes on people — when that deadline comes. It was a gimmick, plain and simple.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Axgm7w">
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Aside from CBO, the Senate parliamentarian plays an important role in determining which provisions can be included in a reconciliation bill. The current parliamentarian is Elizabeth MacDonough, who has held that position since 2012 and is the first woman in the job.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UKJJ5S">
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There is usually one recurring gray area when making those calls: Is a policy’s budgetary impact “incidental” or not? If it is, under the Byrd Rule, it must be struck from the bill. Traditionally, the parliamentarian makes the final decision after they have heard arguments from both sides about the provisions in question. (It’s called a “Byrd Bath.”)
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</p>
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<h3 id="g0Unu2">
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<ol start="5" style="list-style-type: decimal">
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Does the Senate have to listen to the parliamentarian?
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</li></ol></h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3VbjHt">
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This is the subject of debate. Traditionally, the parliamentarian’s decision has indeed been final. But that is a norm, not a divine command. Republicans once fired a parliamentarian whose decisions they disagreed with. (The story, in brief: In 2001, Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott was <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-may-08-mn-60735-story.html">reportedly annoyed</a> that Parliamentarian Robert Dove blocked Republicans from passing more than one reconciliation bill in a year, and so Lott ousted Dove.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bBIqb3">
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Some activists and even some lawmakers have also pointed out that the vice president, who presides over the Senate, has the ultimate authority over what is permissible under budget reconciliation. The parliamentarian technically offers only guidance to the presiding officer. But the vice president hasn’t overruled a parliamentarian since 1975, when Nelson Rockefeller <a href="https://www.senate.gov/about/officers-staff/vice-president/VP_Nelson_Rockefeller.htm">pushed through</a> a change to the Senate filibuster rules against the advice of the parliamentarian.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fO3Wpq">
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Some Democratic priorities would seem to be in a Byrd Rule gray area — such as <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/2021/01/22/top-budget-expert-makes-case-for-minimum-wage-in-reconciliation/">a $15 minimum wage</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/StevenTDennis/status/1101574375847927809">DC statehood</a>, to name two — and Senate Democrats may face pressure to overrule the parliamentarian if she is standing in the way of achieving those goals.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VqSuyC">
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But Democrats who are more reluctant to dramatically change Senate procedure might object to that plan. They would argue it sets a precedent that would break the budget reconciliation process forever; any future Senate could simply circumvent the parliamentarian, too, removing the guardrails that are supposed to govern the process.
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</p>
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<h3 id="yZaYD2">
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<ol start="6" style="list-style-type: decimal">
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Why can’t the Senate use budget reconciliation for every bill?
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</li></ol></h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pqOLTp">
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There is a technical answer and a “real” answer.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Cizhv4">
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Technically, it’s because a budget reconciliation bill starts with a budget resolution, and Congress passes one budget resolution for any given fiscal year.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oLTQ3l">
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The budget resolution can, in theory, set up three separate reconciliation bills: one for taxes, one for spending, and one for the federal debt limit. However, in practice, most reconciliation bills have combined taxes and spending into a single piece of legislation. That’s the reason that, historically, the Senate has usually been limited to passing only one budget reconciliation bill in a given fiscal year.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TW6SYF">
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A side note: Sometimes, they do have wiggle room. In early 2017, Republicans passed one resolution for fiscal year 2017, which was halfway over, and then another for fiscal year 2018, giving them two shots at reconciliation in quick succession. (They used the first bill to try to repeal the ACA and the second for their tax bill.) The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/introduction-to-budget-reconciliation">points out</a> Democrats could conceivably pull the same trick this year.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="T45ia6">
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Regardless, the real issue is some senators are <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2016/11/why-senate-republicans-need-the-filibuster-too.html">very skittish</a> about getting rid of the filibuster — that 60-vote requirement for bringing up most bills for a final vote on the Senate floor — and having reconciliation allows them to avoid it. They can pass <em>some</em> policies with a simple majority without opening the door for any and all bills to be subject to a mere 50-vote threshold.
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</p>
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<h3 id="hI967t">
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<ol start="7" style="list-style-type: decimal">
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">This sounds complicated. Wouldn’t it be easier for Democrats to just get rid of the filibuster?
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</li></ol></h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NhXCMN">
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The problem is political. Eliminating the filibuster requires 50 votes. Democratic senators from conservative states don’t necessarily want to be asked to take the tough votes again and again. The filibuster gives them protection, by all but mandating that a bill must get at least some bipartisan support before it comes up for a vote.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="cABUMO">
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Senators who support keeping the filibuster <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/30/us/politics/joe-manchin-interview.html">would also say</a> it also helps encourage deliberation and compromise, which are supposed to be the cardinal virtues of the Senate.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lHYydi">
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In practice, the filibuster has largely served as an obstructionist tool for the minority. That’s why now-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been <a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-mitch-mcconnell-kamala-harris-filibusters-f8b51c0cdded4324f2e78cb74c936c88">insisting</a> on keeping it while negotiating a power-sharing agreement with incoming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. But Democrats are holding off on making such a promise. Even Democrats from red states, like Jon Tester of Montana, have <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/21/democrats-mcconnell-filibuster-460967">said</a> they don’t want to give up the leverage of possibly eliminating the filibuster down the road if Republicans prove unwilling to work with the new majority.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1DOlJv">
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Whether Senate Democrats would actually be willing to end the filibuster for legislation is one of the big questions looming over the next two years. The threat to do so could bring Republicans to the negotiating table.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="i21lf1">
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But whatever they decide on the larger filibuster question, they will get a chance to pass a major bill without any Republican votes, through reconciliation.
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</p>
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<h3 id="RfM0yU">
|
||
<ol start="8" style="list-style-type: decimal">
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">What are some previous examples of budget reconciliation bills?
|
||
</li></ol></h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tcTNdM">
|
||
President Bill Clinton’s welfare reform bill was passed via reconciliation, as were George W. Bush’s tax cuts. Since 1980, <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/introduction-to-budget-reconciliation">21 reconciliation bills</a> have become law, most of them of the tax and spend variety.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YrTL9U">
|
||
Reconciliation was critical to the Affordable Care Act’s passage. The House and Senate, both controlled by Democrats in 2009, had passed separate bills for health care reform but not yet come up with a final compromise when Republicans won a special Senate election in Massachusetts to replace the late Ted Kennedy. Democrats lost a 60-vote supermajority, and suddenly it looked impossible to finish health care reform through regular order.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mgZxP9">
|
||
To get their plan to President Obama’s desk, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi passed the Senate version of health care reform (the ACA), and Congress then used a reconciliation bill to make some technical changes to the plan, which otherwise would have been made in the conference negotiations between the House and Senate.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CFMxev">
|
||
After Donald Trump’s election, Republicans tried to repeal and replace Obamacare via reconciliation but couldn’t find 50 votes for their proposals. They did succeed in passing their tax bill through the process in the next fiscal year.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="vBZrFs">
|
||
<ol start="9" style="list-style-type: decimal">
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">Are Democrats going to use reconciliation now? And if so, to do what?
|
||
</li></ol></h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oslvAr">
|
||
We don’t know! Senate Democrats had begun to write a new Covid-19 relief plan that would pass reconciliation muster, but President Biden is urging them to at least try to reach a deal that would win some Republican support.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UnHhDp">
|
||
Still, they may end up finding that the GOP isn’t willing to play ball. If Democrats fail to reach a deal with Republicans on Covid-19 relief, it sounds like they will first use reconciliation to pass a pandemic-focused bill.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZwPSE6">
|
||
“The objective of both House Democrats and the administration is to get this done as quickly as possible in whatever we need to do,” Rep. John Yarmuth, chair of the House Budget Committee, told reporters. “We haven’t made a decision yet to use reconciliation, but we are prepared to move very quickly if it looks like we can’t do it any other way.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fKxL1T">
|
||
Then the question would be whether Democrats try to pass a second reconciliation bill, following the Republican playbook from 2017. <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/2021/01/20/democrats-planning-budget-blitzkrieg-to-pass-biden-agenda/">Other candidates</a> could include a package featuring tax reform and health care provisions. They may try to pass an infrastructure plan through reconciliation if they can’t win any Republican support on that issue.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kULv0o">
|
||
This will be among the most important decisions the new Democratic majority makes. Unless they decide they are willing to eliminate the filibuster, budget reconciliation would represent their best chance to achieve some of their big legislative goals.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j5ssVv">
|
||
But they will have to navigate this byzantine set of rules and norms to make it happen.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TunIcP">
|
||
</p>
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Joe Biden is president, but Rand Paul still won’t admit the election wasn’t stolen</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZZsf7_qQuSxDDhr0ezp6pqZwHlQ=/963x0:4238x2456/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68714271/1268595666.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Sen. Rand Paul speaks at the virtual Republican National Convention in August 2020. | Committee on Arrangements for the 2020 Republican National Committee/Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
“Can’t you just say the words, ‘This election was not stolen?’”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BjM3q9">
|
||
Four days after the inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States, Sen. Rand Paul found himself unable to admit that the election that sent Biden to the White House was legitimate.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QUjVlV">
|
||
In a Sunday morning appearance on ABC’s <em>This Week</em>, the Kentucky Republican senator, who has <a href="https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/election/article247010512.html">repeatedly</a> <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/530492-rand-paul-claims-election-in-many-ways-was-stolen-during-krebs-hearing">affirmed</a> former President Donald Trump’s discredited claims of fraud in the November 3 election, declined to say that that election was not stolen.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S4JQee">
|
||
“The debate over ‘whether or not there was fraud’ should occur,” Paul said. “We never had any presentation in court where we actually looked at the evidence. Most of the cases were thrown out for lack of standing, which is a procedural way of not actually hearing the question.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="4pQ0ET">
|
||
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
||
Pressed repeatedly by <a href="https://twitter.com/GStephanopoulos?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span class="citation">@GStephanopoulos</span></a>, Sen. Rand Paul won’t say the 2020 election wasn’t stolen, calls for investigation of fraud, but doesn’t provide evidence.<br/><br/>GS: “There are not two sides to this story. This has been looked at in every single state.” <a href="https://t.co/P6iz1jjwYE">https://t.co/P6iz1jjwYE</a> <a href="https://t.co/GeWSYe0Bs0">pic.twitter.com/GeWSYe0Bs0</a>
|
||
</p>
|
||
— This Week (<span class="citation">@ThisWeekABC</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1353345810327625728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2021</a>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gH8WZ3">
|
||
In fact, while some of the Trump campaign’s several dozen lawsuits in battleground states were dismissed or voluntarily withdrawn, many were heard and found to have no merit, a fact that host George Stephanopoulos raised in response.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Heq0rI">
|
||
“After investigations, counts and recounts, the Department of Justice, led by William Barr, said there’s no widespread evidence of fraud,” Stephanopoulos said, referring to the former US attorney general, who had been a staunch ally of Trump’s until he publicly stated that there was no evidence of widespread election fraud.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="haOnHg">
|
||
<a href="https://www.vox.com/22168109/trump-coup-steal-election-judges-judiciary-supreme-court-gorsuch-kavanaugh-barrett">As Vox’s Ian Millhiser explained</a>, “Trump’s post-election lawsuits failed for a variety of interlocking reasons,” but one of them was simply that “Trump and his allies just didn’t have very good legal arguments”:
|
||
</p>
|
||
<blockquote>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2XzuZD">
|
||
In some cases, they <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/11/5/21550772/trump-lawsuits-vote-counting-pennsylvania-georgia-michigan">brought penny-ante claims</a> that couldn’t have changed the result of the election even if they prevailed. In others, they made factual claims that relied entirely on speculation — or even <a href="https://www.vox.com/21575301/trump-lawsuits-election-rudy-giuliani-pennsylvania-georgia-michigan">relied on conspiracy theories incubated on social media</a>. In some cases, Trump or his allies made legal arguments that were the <a href="https://electionlawblog.org/?p=119196">exact opposite of the arguments they made in other cases</a>. There are no good legal arguments that could have justified tossing out the election results, and the clownishness of Trump’s legal strategy only drew attention to the weakness of his claims.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yG5vXp">
|
||
Stephanopoulos kept pressing Paul: “Can’t you just say the words, ‘This election was not stolen?’”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DysJ3d">
|
||
The senator declined to do so, instead pointing to polling that shows that a majority of Republicans do not trust the election’s outcome.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UUyWYs">
|
||
That mistrust is due to a host of factors, not least of which is the baseless assertions, repeated over and over, by lawmakers and other prominent conservatives that fraud took place. Trump himself led this effort, repeating these claims so often that, after a rally dedicated to this theme on January 6, his supporters tried to violently stop the certification of the election results by storming the US Capitol, in an attempted insurrection that ended with five deaths.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TRS3Xc">
|
||
Nevertheless, after dozens of court cases, tense “Stop the Steal” rallies, and violence at the seat of the US government, Paul has pledged to spend his remaining two years in office fighting against alleged voter fraud.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HWZFbm">
|
||
He said as much on <a href="https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/1353358887882280960">Twitter</a>, following the TV appearance in which he refused to grant legitimacy to the same election process that has propelled him into power twice.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Did the New York Times fire an editor over a tweet? The Lauren Wolfe controversy, explained</strong> -
|
||
<figure>
|
||
<img alt="New York Times logo on a smartphone" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RbzfbP2iFyuOZcmG19LSHCF6Xt8=/0x0:4444x3333/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68714175/1230040807.0.jpg"/>
|
||
<figcaption>
|
||
Photo illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
|
||
</figcaption>
|
||
</figure></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
An editor for the New York Times tweeted that she had “chills” watching Joe Biden’s plane land.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oOEaJe">
|
||
On Tuesday, January 19, Lauren Wolfe, an editor working at the New York Times, tweeted that she had “chills” watching President-elect Joe Biden’s plane land outside Washington, DC.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="OnKNGq">
|
||
Some 36 hours and a concerted campaign against the tweet later, Wolfe was no longer working for the paper of record. Her friends and several other journalists allege that this is because of said tweet.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XMvcfH">
|
||
Other members of the media have come to Wolfe’s defense, saying that this could open a door for journalists to be targeted with the threat of unemployment based on perceived or overblown offenses.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="b2BQLr">
|
||
The Times disputes the narrative around Wolfe’s employment, saying in a statement that the paper didn’t “end someone’s employment over a single tweet.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="o0gaeW">
|
||
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
||
</p><ol style="list-style-type: decimal">
|
||
<li>Some news...<br/><br/>Lauren Wolfe, who was an editor on contract for the NYT, has had her contract canceled after she tweeted what's on the left.<br/><br/>Wolfe also tweeted what's on the right, but deleted when she learned Biden chose to take his own plane.<br/><br/>Per two sources. <a href="https://t.co/uaB0INZ1q8">pic.twitter.com/uaB0INZ1q8</a>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"></p>
|
||
— Yashar Ali (<span class="citation">@yashar</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1352471654425743361?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2021</a>
|
||
</li></ol></blockquote>
|
||
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lIEr3c">
|
||
Whatever happened between the paper and Wolfe, the response to her social media post has become the latest flashpoint in an ongoing conversation about how media organizations apply ethical and objectivity standards, and how they should respond to attacks on reporters in a post-Trump era.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uhaU4W">
|
||
That question was pertinent during the administration of former President Donald Trump, of course. He regularly sowed mistrust in credible media sources, referring to the press as “the enemy of the people,” and directed vitriol from his supporters at journalists covering his rallies and other events.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="U4PMg7">
|
||
But even with him out of office, his loyal base remains intent on making known their dissatisfaction with perceived liberal bias in the media, and prominent news organizations are left having to respond to well-orchestrated targeting of the press.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1RH2Mq">
|
||
The fallout also points to the lack of labor protections facing many American workers, including those in so-called prestige fields like journalism, and has also led some to point out disparities between what’s alleged about the circumstances of Wolfe’s firing, and how the Times has responded to other reporters in their employ who have been accused of wrongdoing.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="nR4tH9">
|
||
The controversy over Lauren Wolfe’s possibly tweet-related firing, explained
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sQlpGY">
|
||
Here’s what we know: Wolfe is an <a href="https://laurenmwolfe.com/about/">award-winning</a> journalist and editor whose work has largely focused on women’s rights and <a href="https://cpj.org/reports/2011/06/silencing-crime-sexual-violence-journalists/">sexual violence</a>. She had worked with organizations and outlets like the <a href="https://cpj.org/author/lauren-wolfe-deputy-editor/">Committee to Protect Journalists</a> and <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/author/lauren-wolfe/">Foreign Policy</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SJ9mtz">
|
||
In partnership with the nonprofit Women’s Media Center, she directed Women Under Siege, which documented and mapped instances of sexual violence during conflicts, including the Syrian civil war. A story of hers about war crimes in eastern Congo is <a href="https://www.undispatch.com/journalist-lauren-wolfe-reported-horrendous-war-crime-hours-later-perpetrators-arrested/">credited</a> with leading to the perpetrators’ arrests.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UpipLs">
|
||
More recently, she was editing the “Live” section of the Times, primarily working with breaking news, according to the journalist Yashar Ali. However, a Times spokesperson told Vox that Wolfe was not working there full-time, and did not have a contract.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uy9p1j">
|
||
On Tuesday afternoon, the day before Biden’s inauguration, Wolfe tweeted out a photo of his airplane landing at Joint Base Andrews outside of Washington, DC. “I have chills,” she wrote. (She’s since deleted the tweet).
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4gwnA3">
|
||
She also called the administration of former President Donald Trump “childish” for not sending a plane to bring in the new administration. According to Ali, she deleted that post after learning that Biden had chosen to use his own plane.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XvU4rp">
|
||
The journalist Glenn Greenwald, a prominent warrior against so-called “cancel culture,” responded by screenshotting and criticizing the sentiment.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="Ljnhj1">
|
||
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
||
If you're in the national press and will be on TV at any point today and being to feel the need to weep joyously, just hold it in until you find a private place. Nobody is expecting any adversarial coverage over the next 4 years, but it's just a matter of personal dignity. <a href="https://t.co/FNKcFRPF56">pic.twitter.com/FNKcFRPF56</a>
|
||
</p>
|
||
— Glenn Greenwald (<span class="citation">@ggreenwald</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1351904097482534912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2021</a>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="d2bImA">
|
||
Critics began <a href="https://twitter.com/belize042/status/1351648765271302147?s=20">flooding</a> the Twittersphere with criticism of Wolfe and allegations of wider-spread anti-conservative bias among journalists.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1CRvjw">
|
||
Ali reported on Thursday, January 21, that according to two unnamed sources, Wolfe had lost her work at the Times<em> </em>following a concerted campaign against both her and the Times<em>. </em>
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ccDV2D">
|
||
In a statement, Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades Ha disputed that version of events.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Gq9J66">
|
||
“There’s a lot of inaccurate information circulating on Twitter. For privacy reasons we don’t get into the details of personnel matters but we can say that we didn’t end someone’s employment over a single tweet. Out of respect for the individuals involved we don’t plan to comment further,” Rhoades Ha wrote.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FrCpHg">
|
||
She added that Wolfe was not, as Ali had written, on contract, but declined to respond to a follow-up query about the exact nature of Wolfe’s employment at the Times.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="n6rHex">
|
||
The online campaign against Wolfe also included severe harassment against Wolfe personally. On Twitter, Wolfe has <a href="https://twitter.com/Wolfe321/status/1352826925836873737">shared examples</a> of some of the online harassment she had received, much of which used obscene, misogynistic, and homophobic language.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GscpH6">
|
||
Wolfe did not respond to Vox’s requests for comment. She has not publicly commented on her separation from the Times. Throughout the day on Sunday, she retweeted other journalists’ messages of support, some of which say she was fired over the tweet, before shuttering her account. The account was offline as of Sunday afternoon.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uyHu8Z">
|
||
In a lengthy tweet thread, Wolfe’s friend, Josh Shahryar, said that Wolfe has been stalked outside her home and received death threats. Shahryar also said that Wolfe’s sentiment had not been about Biden specifically, but rather about the successful transition of power just two weeks after a mob of Trump supporters had stormed the US Capitol in an attempt to halt the certification of the election.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="589mx0">
|
||
But on Twitter, Wolfe also defended the Times, saying that people should not cancel their subscriptions in response to the incident:
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="WEUJJo">
|
||
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
||
Hi all. I truly appreciate everyone’s support but I need to ask you a favor: PLEASE don’t unsubscribe from <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span class="citation">@nytimes</span></a>. I have loved this paper and its mission my whole life. Their journalism is some of the most important & best in the world, & they need to be read widely. Thank you
|
||
</p>
|
||
— Lauren Wolfe (<span class="citation">@Wolfe321</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/Wolfe321/status/1353405428638560261?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2021</a>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DBA8Tv">
|
||
On Twitter, a <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23rehireLauren&src=typeahead_click">#RehireLauren hashtag</a> began trending, as other big names in journalism and elsewhere, including <a href="https://twitter.com/wkamaubell/status/1353232818973773824">W. Kamau Bell</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/Alyssa_Milano/status/1353210397856157696">Alyssa Milano</a>, and MSNBC’s <a href="https://twitter.com/AliVelshi/status/1353320285315985410">Ali Velshi</a>, came to Wolfe’s defense.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="PMtMKT">
|
||
Felicia Sonmez, a national political reporter at the Washington Post<em> </em>who’s had her <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/30/felicia-sonmez-affair-was-not-journalism-finest-hour">own brush with her paper’s management over tweets</a>, said that capitulating to online campaigns against reporters would “put ALL journalists at risk.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="a1iW4R">
|
||
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
||
NYT should not have fired Lauren <a href="https://twitter.com/Wolfe321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span class="citation">@Wolfe321</span></a>, especially when other journos at the paper have done far worse recently and kept their jobs.<br/><br/>Knee-jerk firings in response to online harassment campaigns only further embolden harassers — and put ALL journalists at risk. <a href="https://t.co/GB6O1VMMQo">https://t.co/GB6O1VMMQo</a>
|
||
</p>
|
||
— Felicia Sonmez (<span class="citation">@feliciasonmez</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/feliciasonmez/status/1353350981677948928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2021</a>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ml7qto">
|
||
And Jeremy Scahill, Greenwald’s former colleague at the Intercept, pointed out that other journalists have publicly expressed personal reactions to political moments without incident:
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="dkSIsd">
|
||
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
||
I think it’s absurd and wrong that the NYT fired Lauren Wolfe. Also, does anyone remember how MSNBC’s Chris Matthews literally cried over an Obama speech, compared him to Jesus and said he “felt this thrill going up my leg” when Obama spoke? <a href="https://t.co/ZA6iZ6892t">https://t.co/ZA6iZ6892t</a>
|
||
</p>
|
||
— jeremy scahill (<span class="citation">@jeremyscahill</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/jeremyscahill/status/1353350959741755397?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2021</a>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HdI1rB">
|
||
It’s not clear what, exactly, happened between Wolfe and the Times, or why her employment ended. But it’s far from the first time a journalist (particularly a woman) has faced online harassment over a story or a tweet, and far from the last time a news outlet’s handling of it will be subject to scrutiny.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h3 id="Tq24cg">
|
||
Journalists deserve scrutiny — but scrutiny increasingly means online harassment
|
||
</h3>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="On4y0j">
|
||
This incident has shined a spotlight on a question facing media companies as they transition from a White House that was openly antagonistic toward the press to one with a more traditional relationship with journalists. News outlets are sensitive to accusations that they will not hold the Biden administration as accountable as they did the Trump administration.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2DGmiY">
|
||
While Wolfe’s sentiment was relatively benign, some reporters covering Wednesday’s inauguration festivities did <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/01/21/tone-down-biden-inauguration-media-adulation-461122">fawn over the incoming administration</a>, heralding it as a supposed “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/media/the-media-can-be-glad-for-the-biden-white-houses-return-to-normalcy-but-lets-not-be-lulled/2021/01/20/ea444ac6-5b81-11eb-a976-bad6431e03e2_story.html">return to normalcy</a>.”
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2q1DJ0">
|
||
But targeting a journalist for apparent bias by challenging their employment has become a depressingly successful mob tactic, at a time when reporters face routine threats, both online and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/business/media/media-murder-capitol-building.html">in real life</a>.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tw8BRf">
|
||
The sociologist Katherine Cross, who studies online harassment, compared this strategy used to target Wolfe with harassment campaigns waged during the <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/1/20/20808875/gamergate-lessons-cultural-impact-changes-harassment-laws">height of GamerGate</a>:
|
||
</p>
|
||
<div id="zOItVJ">
|
||
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
||
Wolfe, who was fired from the NYT for a tweet where she said she had "chills" after Biden landed in DC ahead of the inauguration, is the latest victim of a playbook perfected by the likes of GamerGate and similar harassment campaigns. <a href="https://t.co/cVP3psguiG">https://t.co/cVP3psguiG</a>
|
||
</p>
|
||
— Katherine Cross (<span class="citation">@Quinnae_Moon</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/Quinnae_Moon/status/1353189550198149120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 24, 2021</a>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ArL6oX">
|
||
While we do not know the exact reasoning behind Wolfe’s loss of employment, this episode raises questions about the Times’s personnel decisions, and specifically whether it applies a uniform standard to all of its employees.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3gC6cS">
|
||
Just weeks ago, the newspaper weathered a significant crisis after its award-winning podcast, <em>Caliphate</em>, was found to contain substantial inaccuracies. The newspaper <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/12/18/944594193/new-york-times-retracts-hit-podcast-series-caliphate-on-isis-executioner">retracted the core</a> of that show, and returned a Peabody Award that the show had won.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IQTzqo">
|
||
In spite of the fact that the main character of that show was discredited, the journalist behind the project, Rukmini Callimachi, remains at the newspaper, although she was reassigned.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mZSpks">
|
||
Her partner on the project, producer Andy Mills, was not publicly disciplined for his part in that scandal. But Mills <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2018/02/at-wnyc-an-uncertain-path-out-of-scandal.html">has been subject</a> to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/08/collapse-caliphate-podcast-brings-scrutiny-nyt-producer-andy-mills/">numerous allegations</a> of <a href="https://twitter.com/jamisonjyork/status/1344117039837945856">mistreating</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/imontheradio/status/1343598441226792960">women</a>, a fact that his former employers at the WNYC program <em>Radiolab</em> have <a href="https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/note-radiolab-team">acknowledged</a>, but the Times has not.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3CRaOd">
|
||
Elsewhere in the Gray Lady newsroom, the reporter Glenn Thrush was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/business/media/glenn-thrush-sexual-misconduct.html">suspended</a> after Vox first <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/20/16678094/glenn-thrush-new-york-times">reported allegations of predatory behavior</a> toward young reporters. Although he no longer covers the White House, Thrush <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/glenn-thrush">remains</a> employed at the Times.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v0TQO1">
|
||
Moreover, while the exact nature of Wolfe’s relationship to the Times<em> </em>is unclear, the termination of it underscores the shaky system of labor protections facing most American workers — even those in prominent or prestigious positions. Shahryar, Wolfe’s friend, said that this loss of income will immediately harm Wolfe and her longtime pet, a rescue dog.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9LFNwD">
|
||
Wolfe has the benefit of famous friends and allies, and a story tied to a compelling and emotional public moment. While her friends have so far said they will not fundraise on her behalf, her Venmo account has been made public, and editors at other publications have publicly tweeted her with offers of work.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7AYmwI">
|
||
That kind of crowdsourced safety net is not available to most American workers, who also do not have much of a social safety net outside of their employment. And in a country governed by <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/8/21/20826661/bernie-sanders-union-plan-labor-worker-rights-2020">at-will employment laws</a>, and in the midst of a pandemic that has seen tens of millions of Americans out of work, Wolfe’s predicament is taking place across the country — just outside of the public eye.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
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||
<ul>
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||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Nicholas Pooran interview: ‘T10 is very exciting’</strong> - The West Indies batsman talks about fast-format cricket and how he looks back at his breathtaking fielding effort in the IPL</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Premier League | Chelsea fires coach Frank Lampard halfway through 2nd season</strong> - Chelsea has lost five of its last eight Premier League games and dropped to ninth place</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The way Root handled himself throughout his knock was a great learning experience: Sangakkara</strong> - After notching up a double century in the series opener, Root continued his brilliant run by hitting 186 in the second Test to lift his side from a spot of bother.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Bangladesh vs West Indies 3rd ODI | West Indies chasing 298 in bid to avoid sweep by Bangladesh</strong> - Bangladesh laid a platform for a series sweep against the West Indies after posting 297-6 on January 25 in the third and final one-day cricket intern</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Manchester United compounds Liverpool's woes with victory in FA Cup</strong> - United was joined by Chelsea, Everton, Leicester and Burnley on Sunday in advancing to the round of 16 where it will play West Ham next month.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
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||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Special medical team examines M.V. Jayarajan</strong> - CPI(M) Kannur district secretary suffering from COVID-19</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Two held in Manipur for throwing grenade at Raj Bhavan</strong> - Police say the plan was to sabotage official functions on Republic Day.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Farmers’ protest | Punjab CM urges farmers for peaceful R-Day event</strong> - Calls upon Centre to heed the troubled voice of farming community in the true spirit of Indian Republic</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Coronavirus | India records 131 more COVID-19 deaths, 13,203 cases</strong> - India recorded the lowest number of coronavirus fatalities in over eight months with 131 more deaths being recorded, the Health Ministry said on Janu</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Hold elections to Sunni Central Waqf Board, Allahabad HC tells U.P.</strong> - Appoints Minority Welfare Dept. official as administrator for holding polls and forming new body</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Covid: Dutch PM Mark Rutte condemns curfew riots as 'criminal violence'</strong> - Rioters attacked police and set fires to protest against a night-time curfew introduced on Saturday.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Covid-19: Top adviser warns France at 'emergency' virus moment</strong> - The head of France's scientific council suggests a third lockdown is needed amid spread of variants.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Russia Navalny protests: Kremlin hits out at West as it downplays rallies</strong> - EU foreign ministers meet to discuss Russia's treatment of Alexei Navalny and his supporters.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Earnings of wealthiest 10 men during pandemic 'could buy vaccines for all'</strong> - Billionaires' wealth has soared while the pandemic has plunged millions into poverty, Oxfam says.</p></li>
|
||
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Mastercard to push up fees for UK purchases from EU</strong> - The move sparks concerns that customers could see prices rise if merchants pass on the higher cost.</p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Godzilla vs. Kong trailer is a rock ‘em, sock ’em monster mashup</strong> - Directed by Adam Wingard, it's the fourth installment in the "MonsterVerse" franchise - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1737053">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A curious observer’s guide to quantum mechanics, pt. 3: Rose colored glasses</strong> - “How big is a particle?” Well, that's a subtle (and, unsurprisingly, complex) question. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1666644">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Review: Lupin updates classic French gentleman thief for the 21st century</strong> - Omar Sy heads stellar cast in clever series inspired by the works of Maurice Leblanc - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1735258">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>SpaceX launches 143 satellites into orbit, most ever [Updated]</strong> - Party in the payload bay: 143 total satellites deployed in a dozen waves. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1736829">link</a></p></li>
|
||
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Is this a fossilized lair of the dreaded bobbit worm?</strong> - The giant worms hunted in pretty much the most nightmarish way possible. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1736953">link</a></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><strong>A rude man walks into the bank and tells the teller: "I want to open a fucking checking account." (nsfw)</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The teller, upset, says "We don't tolerate language like that here."
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The man asks "What's the fucking problem? It's not like anyone really gives a shit!"
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The teller then leaves without a word, to go and speak to the manager about how to deal with this man. The manager, hearing the story, goes back to the man to see what the problem is.
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
After asking the man, he responds with " There is no fucking problem. All I wanna do is cash my 10 million dollar check from winning the lottery and then put it in this goddamn bank!"
|
||
</p>
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
The manager responds with "Oh, and is this bitch over here giving you any problems, sir?"
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/AbyssMogul"> /u/AbyssMogul </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l4djsk/a_rude_man_walks_into_the_bank_and_tells_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l4djsk/a_rude_man_walks_into_the_bank_and_tells_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>Just caught a disgusting pervert on the bus.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
He was watching pornography over my shoulder.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/RayInRed"> /u/RayInRed </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l499lf/just_caught_a_disgusting_pervert_on_the_bus/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l499lf/just_caught_a_disgusting_pervert_on_the_bus/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>A guy asks his wife, "Honey, why do I always get a boner when I'm looking in the mirror?"</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
She replies, "because your cock thinks you're a pussy too.
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/MudakMudakov"> /u/MudakMudakov </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l43rae/a_guy_asks_his_wife_honey_why_do_i_always_get_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l43rae/a_guy_asks_his_wife_honey_why_do_i_always_get_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>A pregnant woman boards a bus. After taking a seat, she notices a man smiling at her. She feels self-conscious and changes her seat, but he seems even more amused. She moves a third time, and he starts to giggle. On her fourth move, he bursts out laughing.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
They both get off the bus at the next stop. The pregnant woman is furious and demands an explanation. "What exactly is so damn funny?" "I'm sorry, ma'am," replies the giggling man. "But I couldn't help noticing you're pregnant, and when you first sat down, you sat under an advertisement which read 'Coming Soon: The Gold Dust Twins.' Then you sat under an ad that read 'Sloan's Liniments Remove Swelling.' Then you moved under a deodorant advertisement which read 'William's Stick Did the Trick.' And I just couldn't hold it in any longer when you moved a fourth time and sat under a tire advertisement which read 'Dunlop Rubber Would Have Prevented This Accident.'"
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/YZXFILE"> /u/YZXFILE </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l3xvyn/a_pregnant_woman_boards_a_bus_after_taking_a_seat/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l3xvyn/a_pregnant_woman_boards_a_bus_after_taking_a_seat/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
<li><strong>My uncle's joke he just came up with: What are chocolate's preferred pronouns?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
|
||
<div class="md">
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
||
Her, She
|
||
</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
||
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Dom_Ross-o"> /u/Dom_Ross-o </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l4c2nc/my_uncles_joke_he_just_came_up_with_what_are/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/l4c2nc/my_uncles_joke_he_just_came_up_with_what_are/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
|
||
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