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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

Democrats are moving ahead with one of their top legislative priorities, a sweeping voting rights bill. Republicans call it a power grab, but of course they would, considering they’d prefer that only old white Republicans should be allowed to vote.

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors have established a conspiracy between the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys related to the January 6th Capitol insurrection. Court papers show they expected Donald Trump to declare martial law to stay in power.

And lastly, a federal moratorium on evictions expires next week. Fortunately, the Biden administration is looking at extending it at least through July.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

We’ve told you about Republican schemes to restrict the vote. Well, the New York Times reports that the Senate yesterday convened an opening hearing on a sweeping elections bill that would expand voting rights and blunt Republican state legislators’ efforts to restrict access to the ballot box. Chock-full of liberal priorities, the bill, called the For the People Act, would usher in landmark changes making it easier to vote, enact new campaign finance laws and end partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts. The legislation passed the House along party lines earlier this month. It faces solid opposition from Republicans who are working to clamp down on ballot access, and who argue that the bill is a power grab by Democrats.

Democrats on the Senate Rules Committee hope that testimony from former Attorney General Eric Holder, prominent voting experts and anti-corruption advocates will help build on a rising drumbeat of support from liberals, the Times reports. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that there is a concerted, nationwide effort to limit the rights of citizens to vote. He called the voting rollbacks in the states an existential threat to democracy reminiscent of Jim Crow segregationist laws, chanting Shame! Shame! Shame! at the Republicans promoting them.

So far, not a single Republican supports the nearly eight hundred-page bill, the Times reports. Democrats’ best hope for enacting the legislation increasingly appears to be to try to leverage its voting protections to justify triggering the Senate’s so-called nuclear option: the elimination of the filibuster rule requiring sixty votes, rather than a simple majority, to advance most bills. Increasingly it seems like Democrats will need to end the filibuster to get anything done at all.

Prosecutors find Proud Boys, Oath Keepers conspiracy:

A conspiracy was afoot! Leaders of the Oath Keepers militia and the Proud Boys were in communication in the weeks before the Capitol riot and appear to have coordinated some plans for the day of the attack, prosecutors said in court papers, according to the New York Times. The evidence presented in the papers connects the two most prominent targets of the federal government’s investigation into the storming of the Capitol on January 6th.

The new disclosure about the links between two extremist groups was contained in a motion filed by prosecutors seeking to keep Kelly Meggs, the leader of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers, in jail before his trial, the Times reports. Prosecutors cited several of Meggs’s private Facebook messages in which he told others that as many as one hundred Oath Keepers planned to be in Washington for a rally in January answering a call by Donald Trump. On Christmas Day, court papers say, Meggs wrote that his group of Oath Keepers would be serving as security guards during the days surrounding the pro-Trump event but had "orchestrated a plan with the Proud Boys" at night. On December 26th, the new court papers say, he wrote a message announcing that Trump planned to use the emergency broadcast system to invoke the Insurrection Act, effectively establishing martial law.

Even though the filing in the Meggs case was the first time that investigators have revealed evidence connecting the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, the Times says there is no indication that the government intends to merge the separate inquiries. Fifteen members of the Proud Boys are facing charges including conspiracy to resist law enforcement officers and disrupt the workings of the government. Tough break jabronis!

Evictions moratorium nears expiration:

The clock’s ticking on many renters. And the Washington Post reports that the Biden administration is weighing whether to extend a soon-expiring federal policy that prohibits landlords from evicting their cash-strapped tenants, as the US government seeks to buy more

time for an estimated ten million families who have fallen behind on their rent. The extension under discussion could run at least through July. Without it, the federal eviction ban is set to lapse in six days. The issue has taken on fresh urgency at a time when the federal government is racing to distribute roughly $47 billion in new coronavirus relief to families still struggling to pay off back-due rent and ever-mounting utility bills.

Lawmakers acknowledge the federal eviction moratorium isn’t perfect, the Post reports. Housing advocates fear fast-moving lawsuits could impede its future, and some Biden administration officials have even questioned whether the federal government has the authority to extend it. But there is nonetheless broad agreement that a continuation of the federal eviction ban is essential to prevent millions of people from being forced onto the streets as they await financial assistance. Rhode Island Democratic Senator Jack Reed, who has sponsored legislation protecting renters from eviction, called affordable housing the single most effective form of personal protective equipment one can have. He said, "If we suddenly threw people out of their homes, and onto the streets and into other people’s homes, it would accelerate covid."

The Biden administration is also discussing some additional policy tweaks to the moratorium, the Post reports. That includes a new education campaign to inform renters that the policy exists. The Biden administration also has weighed taking a greater role in enforcing the moratorium against landlords who refuse to honor it. Yeah, seems like a good idea, actually enforcing the policy.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

President Biden has asked Vice President Kamala Harris to lead the administration’s efforts to handle the increase in migrants on the southern border, the Los Angeles Times reports. Her responsibilities will involve diplomatic relations with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, where many of the migrants begin their journey. Time will tell if the US is really prepared to help improve the situation in those countries.

Governor Ralph Northam signed a bill yesterday banning the death penalty, making Virginia the first of the old Confederate states to do so, the Washington Post reports. Over the past four hundred years, Virginia has executed more prisoners than any other state. It is the second-most-prolific death-penalty state of the modern era, behind Texas. But that’s all in the past now.

The Senate yesterday voted fifty two to forty eight to confirm Rachel Levine as the nation’s assistant secretary for health, making her the highest-ranking openly transgender official in US history, according to the Post. The assistant secretary for health oversees a broad portfolio of public-health initiatives, and President Biden has said that Levine will play a key role in the nation’s coronavirus response. Which is sure to drive Republicans insane.

The Guardian reports that hundreds of people imprisoned for protesting last month’s coup in Myanmar have been released in the first apparent gesture by the military to try to placate the protest movement. Witnesses outside Insein (INSANE) Prison in Yangon saw busloads of mostly young people, looking happy with some flashing the three-finger gesture of defiance adopted by the protest movement. State-run TV said a total of six hundred and twenty eight were freed. At least fifty five remain in prison and will face charges. Solidarity.

MAR 25, 2021 - AM QUICKIE

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Corey Pein

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn