Mass shootings are acts of terrorism. I’m not sure most Americans view them that way, but once you’ve tracked and/or covered enough of them, it’s obvious. They don’t generally get covered as terrorism in the media, nor does law enforcement acknowledge this in their investigations. David Neiwert, in an excerpt from his latest book, has an excellent long read about why the 2017 Las Vegas Shooting was an act of right-wing domestic terrorism and why that matters that I highly recommend reading if you want to become more familiar with this.

I’ve long had a checklist for mass shootings, whether…

This week marked a somber anniversary: one week since the Covid pandemic, and the life changes that came along with it, hit America. Buzzfeed has an excellent oral history of March 11 as a particular turning point, but I think back to that entire week as when we collectively realized life was changing and wouldn’t go back to normal anytime soon. It’s things we all remember, like Tom Hanks testing positive, Broadway going dark, and the NBA suspending the rest of the season. …

This week, President Biden announced that America will now have enough of the COVID-19 vaccines for everyone who wants one by the end of May, beating the Administration’s previous goal of the end of July. It’s an exciting development, especially this month as we’re all facing a bunch of collective and personal Covid-related anniversary dates. Personally, the news makes me happy every time I think about it, even if I still have some concerns about distribution. Thinking about a summer where most Americans are vaccinated just fills me with joy.

But of course, having enough vaccines is only half the…

Republicans in Congress have settled on a defense for their party’s role in last month’s violent attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol Building: gaslighting America.

We’ve seen this strategy play out in a few different places in Congress this past week. As David Neiwert writes for DailyKos, at a hearing on Domestic terrorism this week Republican members attempted to equate the violent insurrection at the Capitol with Black Lives Matter protests across the country earlier this year:

Republicans rolled out their narrative response to Democrats intent on a law-enforcement crackdown on the far-right extremist elements who assaulted the U.S. Capitol…

Parler is back online this week after a post-coup hiatus when Amazon stopped allowing the platform to use their web servers and both Apple and Google removed Parler from their app stores. Parler has also announced a new CEO, Mark Meckler, best known for his role co-founding the Tea Party movement.

Per reporting from the New York Times, Parler’s new list of tech providers speaks volumes:

After many large web-hosting firms rejected Parler, the site came back online with the help of a small provider near Los Angeles called SkySilk. Kevin Matossian, SkySilk’s chief executive, said in a statement that…

57 Senators voted to convict Trump. It was probably the best possible outcome we could have asked for. Certainly, it was a bigger number than I was expecting. But despite all of this it was unsatisfying, especially after the witnesses debacle closed the trial on such a sour note. At the end of the day, 43 Senators voted to acquit a man who sent a mob to kill them and their colleagues, because apparently, they value white supremacy even more than their own lives. Trump might be out of office but those who voted to acquit him, and their colleagues…

We’re heading into week two of the Majorie Taylor Greene news cycle. Partly because every day Media Matters or a reporter uncovers even more horrible things Taylor Greene has said or done, but also because the House has been debating what to do about Taylor Greene’s continued presence as a member of Congress. Despite a resolution calling for her expulsion that 67 members support, Democratic Leadership chose to strip Taylor Greene of her committee assignments and voted to do so on Friday. …

This is one of those weeks where there’s so much news, I can’t pin down one dominant theme so I do a roundup. Previously, I called these pieces MAGATrends but in a post-Trump world (yay!), I’m ready to retire that branding. I’m taking suggestions for a new title for these types of posts. In the meantime, here’s what you need to know:

What we’ve learned about the violent attempted coup through video.

This week, three major narrative stories gave us an incredible amount of insight into the violent attempted coup via archived video from the 6th and the days and…