Ending federal unemployment did not result in job gains

25 of 26 states that did this are led by a Republican.

26 states — all but one led by a Republican — have moved to stop paying out the extra $300 in unemployment benefits ahead of the September cutoff.

Some also ended special programs that allowed gig workers to receive benefits.https://t.co/hOeWrS4F25
— Axios (@axios) July 31, 2021

U.S. states ending federal unemployment benefit saw no clear job gains https://t.co/2Ost9T3ccs pic.twitter.com/RRbq8R0Zi3
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 20, 2021

The Marxist communist socialists at, um, JP Morgan find no evidence that cutting unemployment benefits creates jobs https://t.co/oahYEUERf3
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) July 10, 2021

Google search trends showing that states ending enhanced unemployment insurance early haven’t seen a pickup in positive job search activity … states not ending benefits early have seen search activity improve ⁦@DataArbor⁩ pic.twitter.com/zXPfAoeqxp
— Liz Ann Sonders (@LizAnnSonders) August 5, 2021

Just as expected, states that cut off unemployment benefits aren’t seeing employment changes any faster than those who kept providing them.

But states did hurt poor people bc they believe in a BS story of the economy for workers & have no problem giving away benefits to big biz.
— Oren Jacobson 🔯 (@Oren_Jacobson) July 31, 2021

Interesting study on the effect of unemployment insurance benefits ending on job finding. https://t.co/BDHreCv5ZX
— Robert Frick (@RobertFrickNFCU) July 30, 2021

Only 19% of Republicans believe climate change is an emergency

Republicans are ruining our country because they don’t believe the truth about climate change, the 2020 election, the virus and vaccine, and their insurrection.

Americans on whether climate change is an emergency via new Quinnipiac poll:

94% Democrats
82% Black
79% under 35 years
69% women
66% Northeast
65% West
62% Midwest
61% all Americans
56% South
54% White
53% men
19% Republicans
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) August 5, 2021

National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day

Friendship begins with a chocolate chip cookie #NationalChocolateChipCookieDay pic.twitter.com/xJxSMdjMIJ
— PEANUTS (@Snoopy) August 4, 2021

It's National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day! #NationalChocolateChipCookieDay #ChocolateChipCookieDay #Cookies pic.twitter.com/LquVLSYoqk
— HeyWhatDay (@HeyWhatDay) August 4, 2021

Why is Trump fighting to block the release of his tax returns to Congress?

Chris Cillizza covers what we could learn.

The 6 BIG questions we may get answered on Trump's taxes:

1) How wealthy is he really?
2) Who does he owe money to?
3) Does he have Russian ties?
4) Is there an organized crime connection?
5)Has he paid taxes?
6) Does he donate to charity?https://t.co/dhVVFfUr8S
— Chris Cillizza (@ChrisCillizza) August 2, 2021

There must be something really bad in Trump’s tax returns if he’s fighting so hard to keep them from Congress. https://t.co/olIcofJJKQ
— Harris Levy (@HarrisL585) August 4, 2021

Lawyers for Donald Trump have asked a judge to block the Treasury Department from giving six years of his tax returns to Congress. https://t.co/Wc7ew5jXQw
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 4, 2021

Trump asks judge to block release of tax returns, blasts Biden Justice Dept. for authorizing release https://t.co/g4FLIHHqzv
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 4, 2021

Florida’s bad Covid response

DeSantis cares more about his Trump-cult base instead of public health.

23% of new COVID hospitalizations in the U.S are in Florida, and their hospitals are being overwhelmed again.

We are doing everything we can to help the people of FL, and they're stepping up by getting vaccinated – we hope @GovRonDeSantis joins us in this fight. https://t.co/53y97ngQ4E
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) August 4, 2021

Andy Slavitt, ex-White House Senior Advisor for COVID response, to CNN on Florida's rules:

"He did this, Ron DeSantis, at a time when it seemed like the cost would be low because he thought COVID was over. He's now learned the hard way, and if he had any sense, he'd backtrack."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 4, 2021

DeSantis's effort to downplay the pandemic in Florida is an effort to deny an obvious reality. https://t.co/Ykjm3QAhrD
— Philip Bump (@pbump) August 4, 2021

95% of patients are unvaccinated according to this. https://t.co/srURo4soJ3
— STORM WATCH- Lake Erie (@Storms_On_Erie) August 3, 2021

BREAKING: The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida rose to an all-time high of 11,515 patients in one day, according to data the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://t.co/EuAjwXD8Lk
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 3, 2021

Ron DeSantis lashes out at media for Covid “hysteria,” argues the situation in Florida is not as bad as last year because the state prioritized getting older residents vaccinated and the senior mortality rate has dropped. https://t.co/S6MmaiowlW
— Christopher Cadelago (@ccadelago) August 3, 2021

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order that threatened to pull funding from schools that implement mask mandates.

But experts say it doesn't actually ban mask mandates in schools and is more political speech than legal directive. https://t.co/Zl5yZweNUn
— CNN (@CNN) August 4, 2021

Florida's second-largest school district reverses its mask mandate after funding threat from Gov. Ron DeSantis https://t.co/fvqsIcvrWa pic.twitter.com/XlPI2u33Ts
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 3, 2021

They call this DeSantis-ized in the Villages. They should if they don’t. These jobs come with life and death responsibilities and tragically for Florida @RonDeSantisFL is reckless, lost, angry and feeling sorry for himself. Just what you hope-not https://t.co/CJzPbTXEvC
— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) August 4, 2021

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is blaming the Covid spike in Florida on migrants crossing the southern border.

Maps, people. pic.twitter.com/E06max7vIh
— Tim O'Brien (@TimOBrien) August 4, 2021

The Gateway Arch in St. Louis

The Gateway Arch was completed in 1965 and opened to the public in 1967. I saw it in the summer of 1967. The arch was designed by architect Eero Saarinen and intended to be a monument to westward expansion. It’s really beautiful and would be a lot more well known if you could see someplace more famous such as New York instead of St. Louis.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mick Jagger (@mickjagger)

"Gateway To the West"
A suitable & permanent public memorial to the men who made possible the western territorial expansion of the United States, particularly President Jefferson, his aides Livingston & Monroe, the great explorers, Lewis & Clark, the hardy hunters, trappers,… pic.twitter.com/byF6XNK1OE
— Jim Koenigsberger (@Jimfrombaseball) August 7, 2024

ArchCam – a live webcam

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Spirit of St. Louis, MO (@thespiritofst.louis)

Biden’s infrastructure proposals are popular

You would never know this watching TV. The networks focus on the politicians, not what the public thinks. Sure, we need Congress for these ideas to become law but the networks need to show that these ideas have wide support outside of Washington.

Support for Congressional plans via new Fox poll:

Bipartisan infrastructure plan:
62% favor
30% oppose

$3.5 trillion reconciliation plan:
56% favor
38% oppose
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) August 12, 2021

INFRASTRUCTURE
In our July polling, most Americans approved overall of Biden administration's infrastructure proposal. pic.twitter.com/sQLIatnCti
— CBS News Poll (@CBSNewsPoll) August 10, 2021

You should also state that the public approves of Biden’s infrastructure plan. @CNN needs to cover that, not just Washington. https://t.co/8ddICQC1Wp
— Harris Levy (@HarrisL585) August 4, 2021

Big bright spot for Joe Biden in the new Quinnipiac poll

—His infrastructure proposal is supported by 65% (with 28% opposed)

—His $3.5 trillion package on social programs is supported by 62% (with 32% opposed)
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) August 4, 2021

Support for Congressional bills via Quinnipiac poll:

Bipartisan infrastructure deal:
65% support
28% oppose

Reconciliation package:
62% support
32% oppose
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) August 4, 2021

INFRASTRUCTURE
In our July polling, most Americans approved overall of Biden administration's infrastructure proposal. pic.twitter.com/sQLIatnCti
— CBS News Poll (@CBSNewsPoll) August 10, 2021

Poll: 6 in 10 GOP voters favor new $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan, boosting Biden’s hopes of a big bipartisan win

Update on Texas Republicans – election law and “audit” plan

Texas audit proposed by GOP would miss minor but real errors. https://t.co/XBLle05Jsl
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) August 3, 2021

“‘If Texas is going to focus on the blue counties, that's probably the wrong thing to do,’ said Michael McDonald, …who led the team that found the Texas discrepancies. They should look at all the counties because there's something broken w/ this system.’” https://t.co/HJnll4wW5p
— Jennifer Cohn ✍🏻 📢 (@jennycohn1) August 3, 2021

Republican in a state Trump won now seeking to audit counties where Biden votes were clusteredhttps://t.co/s9KqPn7p9w
— Allan Smith (@akarl_smith) July 21, 2021

A hidden provision regarding mail voting in the Texas Republicans' voting restrictions might disenfranchise more than 100,000 Texas voters. https://t.co/Pppgtqmoxl
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 28, 2021

There's a certain red state turning blue where we @vest_team found numerous discrepancies between local election officials' precinct data and certified election results. The issue appears to be data entry errors into the SoS election reporting system https://t.co/4hlnnsJhfO
— Michael McDonald (@ElectProject) July 22, 2021

Big money behind the Big Lie

Jane Meyer has great insights into how dark money is used in American politics and this write up on how dark money groups are fighting the right to vote is fantastic. https://t.co/z8UTPn8WVY
— Nathan "M"🎈 Maynes (@nathanmaynes) August 2, 2021

Update on the phony Arizona 2020 election “audit”

There’s no fraud but the Trump cult will never give up. This will never end.

This is already getting results: Facebook tells me they have removed all the groups spreading disinformation about the Arizona audit named in the report. https://t.co/IhWQGzseDf
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) August 5, 2021

When audit leader Doug Logan falsely claimed there was no clear record of 74k mail-in ballots going out to voters, he already had records proving those votes were valid https://t.co/X07uWtNYP8
— Jeremy Duda (@jeremyduda) August 3, 2021

.⁦@SykesCharlie⁩ on AZ GOP pol's call for jailing county officials:

"weapons-grade nutbaggery, but something disturbing is happening on the right.

"ideas unthinkable moments ago are being normalized

"drift toward authoritarianism accelerating" https://t.co/vw4XpbNZFf
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) August 4, 2021

It's now par for the course in this authoritarian movement to threaten to imprison officials for doing their official duty and correctly upholding the integrity of Trump's loss. Large swaths of this party have abandoned democracy entirely and are embracing unchecked lawlessness. https://t.co/SiLjvEIMS6
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) August 3, 2021

Politico has fully adopted Republicans' bad-faith language that the sham efforts to undermine the election results in Arizona and other states are "audits," a term that grants legitimacy and credibility to bad actors whose only goal is to convince people the election was fake pic.twitter.com/9wdsL9Wby3
— Matt Negrin, HOST OF HARDBALL AT 7PM ON MSNBC (@MattNegrin) August 3, 2021

GOP Maricopa Co official nails it in this (typically) great story: "It’s not about Arizona. We’re literally pawns in this. This is a national effort to delegitimize the election system.” If “AZ can question this & show that Trump won,” the game will move on to CO, GA, PA, MI, VA" https://t.co/gRRoPbT04L
— Ronald Brownstein (@RonBrownstein) August 2, 2021

Totally normal reaction from a Trump-supporting member of the Arizona Senate. pic.twitter.com/v4i8LYRNAv
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) August 2, 2021

Maricopa County defies latest subpoena request from Arizona state Senate seeking to expand 2020 ballot review https://t.co/BS0XRamYYj
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 3, 2021

JUST IN ⁦@dominionvoting⁩ CEO to Arizona Senate GOP subpoena: Your law doesn’t apply to us. pic.twitter.com/5gc5JVT1Pc
— Brahm Resnik (@brahmresnik) August 2, 2021

I think this sums it up nicely: https://t.co/gHFZAXElVc
— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) August 2, 2021

As ballot counting in Arizona ends, turmoil and revelation of funding by Trump backers cast doubt on conclusions of "forensic audit" of the 2020 election. https://t.co/7Ppnv2IWsh
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 1, 2021

Controversial Arizona ballot review pulls in more than $5.7 million in private donations, organizers say https://t.co/Rqp6EQjikk
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 29, 2021

Debunking here: https://t.co/pUvlwFEhTs. In short, once more, these were in-person early votes the Cyber Ninjas man wrongly described as mystery mail-in votes. https://t.co/RPQlsULUhK
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 24, 2021

The Arizona audit is, theoretically, supposed to be overseen by members of the Arizona Senate. Well, today, the Senate liaison was BLOCKED from entering the fair grounds where the sham exercise is taking place https://t.co/EYIMuV5DbT
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) July 24, 2021

The fairgrounds building where the ballots are being reviewed is leaking. The audit team says the ballots are protected. https://t.co/DTmJMmo6IL
— Jen Fifield (@JenAFifield) July 23, 2021