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It’s time for Caroline’s Super Saturday Sign up thread again! Don’t get my Sunday newsletter? Sign up here http://eepurl.com/g-f4jb . Want more Caroline in your life? What’s wrong with you? But still all the links are here https://linktr.ee/thecarolinehunt - now on with the news!
So Trump is no longer President. But the Former Presidents Act 1958 means he gets transition costs, staff costs, lifetime security protection, huge pension + security briefings but will he lose them if impeached? Nobody knows because no President has been successfully impeached.
This article by @ddale8 reflects on fact checking the liar in chief for four years and how strange it was. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/19/politics/fact-check-daniel-dale-reflections-fact-checking-trump/index.html - surely reason enough for Congress to pass whatever it needs to, to keep Trump away from NSA briefings at the very least?
With Kamala Harris becoming Vice President, the Senate is once again without a black woman representative, in fact there has only been one other black woman in the Senate, Carol Moseley Braun between 1993 to 1999. https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/M/MOSELEY-BRAUN,-Carol-(M001025)/
But anyway onto the positives scenes from the inauguration. It was really brilliant (just don’t mention Garth Brooks) https://twitter.com/i/events/1351930934908637184?s=09
Oh and I could literally do an entire thread of just Bernie memes but it’s got out of hand now. I’ll just leave my favourite here. https://i.imgur.com/20jhs3J.gifv
So President Biden gets to his office, newly redecorated with symbols of hope and progressive liberal agendas, to start signing some changes into law. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/20/biden-oval-office/
In fact Joe has so far signed 30 executive actions into law in three days, protecting workers rights, combating the spread of Covid, supporting the global efforts to halt climate change and protecting LGBTQ+ rights https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/22/politics/joe-biden-executive-orders-first-week/index.html
I have to admit I’ve got a little obsessed with new White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. It’s just amazing to have proper press briefings back and to almost imagine there’s someone like CJ Cregg in charge of information from the White House to the press https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1352046115026313226?s=19
In fact, and I know Joe Biden has flaws, this video of him laying out the high standards he expects of everyone in the executive branch of the government was pure Aaron Sorkin schmaltz and something the UK government could do with listening to. https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/1352231724462317569
You know our government that gave part of it’s vaccination roll out contract to a company run by a man who has donated vast sums of money to their party over the last few decades. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/revealed-tory-donor-lord-ashcrofts-outsourcing-firm-given-350m-vaccination-contract/
Our government that says it won’t rip up worker’s rights after Brexit even though they are clearly planning to rip up worker’s rights now they’ve got Brexit done https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tories-admit-theyre-looking-overhauling-23347454
Our government who have deliberately followed a policy that leads to children not having access to medicine https://www.itv.com/news/anglia/2021-01-18/six-year-olds-vital-medication-running-out-because-of-brexit-changes
Our government who want to cut £20 a week from the already pitiful amount of money (c.£410 per month) they give to those who are struggling to stay afloat during this pandemic. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jan/18/boris-johnson-cannot-level-up-if-he-cuts-universal-credit-top-up-says-thinktank
Our government who wants to deport a 22 year old autistic man to Jamaica who has lived in the UK since he was 4 years old. https://www.voice-online.co.uk/opinion/2021/01/20/exclusive-osime-browns-mother-speaks-about-the-pain-of-her-sons-looming-deportation-and-the-need-for-systemic-change/
Or just our country where a former Supreme Court Judge thinks your life is less valuable if you are disabled. https://twitter.com/WEPDisability/status/1350796732351840258?s=19
Sorry got a bit ranty there but anyway other news from last week, exams plans rumble on and I’ll post something about this on Monday https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55675074
The very expensive tuition fees have been frozen for a year https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55735178
The assassinations I’ve mentioned a few times continue in Afghanistan with female judges being murdered https://uk.news.yahoo.com/official-gunmen-kill-two-women-072959118.html?guccounter=1
Reflections on Tunisia ten years after the Arab Spring revolution - https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/tunisia-ten-years-on-hope-for-a-better-future-a-decade-after-the-uprising/vi-BB1cMl27
A discussion in India about paying women for their domestic labour but does that just reinforce the high rates at which women are expected to carry out domestic labour. https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/paying-women-for-domestic-work-recognising-hard-work-or-reinforcing-gender-stereotypes-053239292.html?guccounter=1
And finally, it’s all fun and game laughing at Armie Hammer and his cannibal fetish but the implications of the stories around him are far more indicative of misogyny in general https://twitter.com/Mamamia/status/1351063774980149254?s=19
Until next week
