Mitch McConnell, Married to an Asian Woman, Voted against Codifying Interracial Marriage Nationwide

Pensito Editors
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and former Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao

The Cut: “Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, voted against the bill despite the fact that he himself is in an interracial marriage. McConnell has been married to Elaine Chao, the former U.S. secretary of Transportation (and the first Asian American woman to have the job), since 1993. She was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and moved to the United States as a child.

“The bill McConnell voted against would codify same-sex and interracial marriage. It would also repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as existing only between a man and a woman, and it would protect interracial marriages by mandating that states recognize marriages regardless of sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.”

Sick of Politics? Take a Quick Quiz!

Buck Banks

PHOTOFEST (BURNS);GETTY (MUSK)

The New Republic (not necessarily known for its sense of humor) has published a pretty fun quiz that poses the question, “Who Said It: Elon Musk or Mr. Burns?”

The quiz offers a series of quotes and you have to choose whether the snarky, obnoxious or cruel comment was made by Twitter’s new owner (whom Keith Olbermann calls “Elmo Muskrat”) or the reliably horrid businessman character from “The Simpsons.”

It’s entertaining, but it’s not easy. I missed two and scored an 83%.

MAGA Lies About Pelosi Attack Are Cynical Assertions of Power

Pensito Editors

Art by imgflip

Republicans’ and MAGA right-wingers’ lies about and mockery of the attack on Paul Pelosi in the face of contradictory facts are an assertion of power and the first step toward autocracy. So argues Greg Sargent in an op-ed piece in the Washington Post.

It’s a compelling argument:

In 2020, Donald Trump’s lies about voter fraud provided a fake pretext to overturn his presidential election loss. Now that has metastasized: Many Republicans in the MAGA vein are employing “big lies” on numerous fronts, but their purpose has taken a dark new turn: It’s as if all the lying is becoming an assertion of power in its own right, a kind of end in itself.

The embrace of political lying as a declaration of power — of the power to say what reality is — has long been studied by academics. Some see it as a harbinger of autocratic political tendencies.

Read the rest in this gift article here.

Trump Didn’t Make the Violence Stop on Jan. 6 and He Won’t Now

Trish

AP StoryIt’s another one of those days. Like Jan. 6, only this time it’s the day that one of Trump’s goon fans took a hammer to Paul Pelosi, husband of the Speaker of the House.

Like Jan. 6, we didn’t see this coming. Also like Jan. 6, those who are waiting for the former president to call for an end to the violence will count the time in years until he does.

Much was made of how Trump never condemned the violence and destruction on Jan. 6, 2021, never asked his supporters to stop it. The members of the Jan. 6 committee have made this point repeatedly, as witnesses described how they begged him to do so.

In Mark Leibovitch’s unparalleled new book, Thank You for Your Servitude, he lists person after person who pleaded with Trump to intervene, from Ivanka Trump to Sean Hannity to Chris Christie to every leader in Congress including Kevin McCarthy. But Trump let it roll right along. He sat and watched it live on TV and said and did nothing to bring the killing and marauding to an end.

And here’s the thing. He still hasn’t. […]