BY BRIAN BEUTLER, PRIYANKA ARIBINDI & CROOKED MEDIA
Tuesday, April 2, 2019 | —Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on the GOP plan to take health care away from 20 million people | The Trump administration and its Republican allies in Congress are executing a cruel plan to deprive the people of Puerto Rico of desperately needed financial assistance by telling the president’s supporters that Puerto Ricans are greedy, distant moochers trying to steal money from “real” Americans. Senate Republicans have taken up the legislative side of the plan. On Monday Democrats filibustered a Republican bill that would allocate over $13 billion in emergency spending to help disaster-ravaged communities across the country, but would shortchange impoverished victims of Hurricane Maria—effectively pitting flood and fire victims in the U.S. mainland against their fellow citizens in Puerto Rico. The White House’s response has been to lie and portray Americans in Puerto Rico, who are overwhelmingly non-white, as alien, incompetent, and bent on taking advantage of white Americans. You know, textbook racism stuff. “Puerto Rico got 91 Billion Dollars for the hurricane, more money than has ever been gotten [sic] for a hurricane before,” Trump tweeted. “& all their local politicians do is complain & ask for more money. The pols are grossly incompetent, spend the money foolishly or corruptly, & only take from USA.” Puerto Rico is part of the United States, the people who live there are American citizens, and Trump’s claim that Puerto Rico has received $91 billion in disaster relief is false. That figure is the government’s estimate of the cost of the damage Hurricane Maria inflicted on the island, which has only received a tiny fraction of that amount in relief money. White House spokesman Hogan Gidley echoed Trump’s racist comment when he twice referred to Puerto Rico as “that country,” in an appearance on MSNBC. Gidley later insisted he merely misspoke. He is dumb, but he is not that dumb. In fact, none of this is an accident. After leaving thousands of people to die there, Trump reportedly became obsessed with cutting off the island from federal support altogether. What we’re watching this week is another example of Trump’s vindictive bigotry becoming the Republican governing strategy. Remember compassionate conservatism? Neither do we. | Today is 2019’s “Equal Pay Day,” which marks the number of days into each new year American women need to work to earn as much money as men did the previous year. Equal Pay Day is a reminder that women in America earn approximately 80 cents for every dollar men make, but that statistic masks important context about the gender-wage gap and what it will take to close it. That’s because women of color make far less than 80 cents for every dollar that men make. Black women earn 61 cents on the dollar, meaning their “Equal Pay Day” isn’t until mid-August. Latinas earn only 53 cents on the dollar, placing their Equal Pay Day near Thanksgiving. The classic gender-wage gap statistic also obscures the long-term wage gap, which shows that over 15 years, women make an average of 49 cents to the average man’s dollar. This is largely because women drop out of full-time work to care for children or family more often than men, and are penalized more severely when they do. The good news? There are policy solutions—including paid family and medical leave—that would contribute to closing the gap, and many 2020 Democrats have already come out in support of them. | British Prime Minister Theresa May wants the European Union to extend the deadline it set for the United Kingdom to leave the E.U., to avoid a catastrophic no-deal Brexit. The current deadline for Parliament to agree on a deal is April 10, but on Monday, Parliament rejected another four proposed alternatives to May’s Brexit deal. Bet Theresa May wishes she could Brexit herself from her own choices. The House oversight committee has authorized its chairman, Elijah Cummings, to subpoena the White House official who oversaw the Trump administration’s process for issuing security clearances—including to the 25 people whose applications were formally rejected by career staff. It also authorized subpoenas for documents and testimony related to the administration’s efforts to add a citizenship question to the decennial Census. You get a subpoena! And YOU get a subpoena! EVERYBODY GETS A SUBPOENA! President Trump has put Republicans in Congress on the hook for introducing a plan to replace Obamacare before the 2020 election, but wants to hold a vote on the imaginary replacement after the election, all but ensuring that the future of the Affordable Care Act will be a central issue in 2020. Worked out great for him in 2018! Nancy Pelosi will not allow the House to vote on legislation ratifying the changes to NAFTA the Trump administration negotiated with Mexico and Canada. The speaker wants Mexico to implement the labor law reforms it has agreed to, and has called on Trump to reopen negotiations to tighten environmental and labor standards. In the past, Trump has threatened to terminate NAFTA altogether unless Congress adopts the changes in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement. Also in the past, Pelosi outplayed Trump at every turn. The Department of Homeland Security disbanded an intelligence unit focused on domestic terror threats, despite the fact that domestic terrorism, particularly terroism by white nationalists, is on the rise, reflecting Trump’s dangerous indifference to the problem. North Carolina GOP Chairman Robin Hayes has been indicted for trying to bribe the state’s insurance commissioner and making false statements to the FBI. Indicted along with him was North Carolina’s largest political donor, and two others. Someone call Marie Kondo to tidy up the fucking mess that is the NC-GOP. Federal prison time does not spark joy. Los Angeles Police have arrested a suspect in Nipsey Hussle’s murder. Regulators in Massachusetts have concluded that Wynn Resorts lawyers and executives worked to cover up sexual abuse allegations against Steve Wynn, the company’s founder and former GOP Finance Chair. RNC chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel has claimed that she would await the results of investigations of Wynn’s conduct, and would return all of his donations in the event that they substantiated his misconduct. McDaniel lies for a living though, so they’ll probably end up nominating him for Secretary of State or some shit. Chicago will become the largest city in the U.S. to elect a black woman as it’s mayor—a first for the city—pending the results of today’s runoff election between Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinckle. | It feels good to fear less, right? So SimpliSafe home security blankets your home with award-winning 24/7 protection that stands up to the unexpected. From burglars to burst pipes. As more than 3 million customers already know, fear has no place in a place like home. See why SimpliSafe won CNET's Editors' Choice.... twice. Learn more here. | The deadline House committee chairmen set for the Justice Department to turn over Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report is today. The Justice Department has ignored the deadline, which is weird because President Trump and the White House insist that the report (which they haven’t read) completely exonerates Trump and humiliates Democrats and the media. What could the hang-up possibly be? “There will be plenty of unfavorable things about the president in the full report, which we think will eventually come out,” a senior White House official admitted to New York magazine, “so let’s not go overboard saying there’s no wrongdoing. Let’s move on.” YOU DON’T SAY! | Ohio is one step closer to voting this fall on whether or not to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. The compact commits states that join it to cast their electoral votes for the winner of the national popular vote, but will only come into effect when 270 electoral votes worth of states have joined it, thus guaranteeing that the national popular vote winner becomes president every time. Fourteen states comprising 189 electoral votes have already joined the compact or will do so imminently. Ohio would bring the total to 207. | Did someone forward you this email? Sign up to get What A Day in your inbox! Want to advertise with us? What are you waiting for?! | If you prefer not to receive these emails, you may unsubscribe. 7162 Beverly Blvd #212, Los Angeles, CA, 90036 © Crooked Media 2018. All Rights Reserved. | | |