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The Weekly Readlines January 26
The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) offers news you can use every Wednesday morning. Subscribe here.
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIES First the good news: the Supreme Court, which doesn’t often make it into the ‘good news’ section, bit the hand that fed it and rejected former president Trump’s claim of executive privilege. Ingrates!
The stock market took its worst tumble since the pandemic began. Virginia lurched jarringly to the right under the sheep-clothed wolf named Governor Youngkin, while Florida made further inroads into simply erasing Black people. Putin made it clear he wants Ukraine for breakfast, and the world generally accelerated its handbasket ride to hell.
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The Weekly Readlines January 19
The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) offers news you can use every Wednesday morning.
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIES First the good news: New Jersey codified marriage equality into law with the governor’s signature January 10, in the event Their Royal Highnesses on the Supreme Court overturn Obergfell.
Conservative gadfly Ann Coulter declared Trump over, she’s got a C-note on DeSantis in the Crazy Stakes. Putin moved forward with the Ukraine invasion everyone knows is coming. And Democratic woes increasingly spell doom for the road ahead. Don’t worry, be happy!
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The Weekly Readlines January 12
The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) offers news you can use every Wednesday morning.
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIESFirst the good news: President Biden gave the most important speech of his political career on the anniversary of the January 6 attempted coup. And health experts say the COVID pandemic could soon become endemic and we could get on with our lives at last.
Speaking of COVID, millions of workers are calling out sick, straining the economic recovery. The Biden administration pivots to voting rights after Joe Manchin killed the Build Back Better Act in a fit of pique. And the Omicron variant sees hospitalizations at their highest levels yet. And it’s still January.
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The Weekly Readlines January 5
The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) offers news you can use every Wednesday morning. Subscribe for delivery.
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIESFirst the good news: 2022 will see a record number of minimum wage increases across the country. Wall Street started the new year with more record highs, and partisan gerrymandering was not the disaster Democrats had feared.
The once ubiquitous BlackBerry, seen occupying thumbs across the globe, is no more. The nation prepares to mark the one year anniversary of the January 6 attempted coup. And the late Senator Harry Reid will lie in state at the Capitol Rotunda. So long, Harry, those were the days.
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The Weekly Readlines December 29
The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) is a feature at LGBTSr.com, offering news you can use every Wednesday morning. Subscribe here for virtual delivery.
BIG CUP: THE YEAR’S TOP STORIESIn keeping with the spirit of renewal and hope for the new year, I’ll only be mentioning the good news of the past year in this introduction. There will be plenty of time for the pulling of hair and gnashing of teeth in 2022.
If you tuned into the mainstream media this past year, you may think all is doom and gloom, that the Biden presidency has failed, that Covid is a permanent state of being, and a dozen other reasons to end your life. Hogwash! Here are some of the great things that happened this year.
Holiday sales rose 8.5 percent despite the naysayers. Americans’ wages rose, too, with the biggest increase in 20 years. More than 200 million Americans are now vaccinated, with the pandemic transitioning to an endemic stage on its way to ending. Supply chains are easing and gas prices are falling.
Meanwhile, the FDA approved the first injectable drug for HIV prevention. Utah billionaire Jeff Green resigned from the Mormon Church and donated $600,000 to an LGBT group. And Channing Tatum announced a third and final installment of the Magic Mike franchise. Line starts here! Let’s make 2022 a great year. It’s our choice.
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The Weekly Readlines December 3
The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) is a feature at LGBTSr.com, offering news you can use every Friday morning. Subscribe here for virtual delivery.
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIESFirst the good news: The American Library Association pushed back against the dark money-funded book banning craze intended to keep the Republican base in a state of ecstatic rage (Critical Rage Theory?). And the White House looks like Christmas again instead of the Red Wedding from Game of Thrones.
Another day, another COVID variant, as Omicron starts its spread across the globe. Poised to eviscerate women’s reproductive rights, a radicalized Supreme Court showed its hand during oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Expect the obliteration of more freedoms and the Court’s legitimacy in the coming years.
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The Weekly Readlines November 26
The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) is a feature at LGBTSr.com, offering news you can use every Friday morning. Subscribe here for virtual delivery.
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIESFirst the good news: the three men accused of murdering Ahmaud Arbery were found guilty, just in time for a somber but grateful Thanksgiving for his family. Jobless claims hit a 52 year low. Vaccinations remain plentiful and free. We’re out of Afghanistan. The stock market keeps breaking records. US wages had their biggest rise in 20 years. Tweets are just tweets again, not weapons of mass distraction.
All in all, given the state of things a years ago, I’d say it was a very good Thanksgiving indeed. Let’s leave it at that.
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The Weekly Readlines November 19
The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) is a feature at LGBTSr.com, offering news you can use every Friday morning. Subscribe here for virtual delivery.
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BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S BIG STORIESFirst the good news: Confirming my deepest suspicions, President Biden is succeeding. So says conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks, bucking the media’s trendy doom and gloom. If the house weren’t on fire, they’d have no house at all.
Following the spectacular passage of the infrastructure bill (GOP interparty death threats aside), House Democrats are poised to pass the Build Back Better Act as early as Friday, hoping Senators Manchin and Sinema don’t kill it for sport.
And to brighten everyone’s Thanksgiving, pardoned criminal Michael Flynn told a group of extremists that the United States must have one religion. Zero guesses as to which one it is.
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The Weekly Readlines November 5
The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) is a feature at LGBTSr.com, offering news you can use every Friday morning. Subscribe here for virtual delivery.
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIESThe good news first: the Senate confirmed Judge Beth Robinson, the first openly LGBTQ woman to a lifetime seat on the U.S. Appeals Court. That’s all, folks.
Democrats could be heard gnashing their teeth at the defeat of Terry McAuliffe in Virginia – a “stunning upset” that was neither stunning nor particularly upsetting. A bloodletting followed as progressives and moderates knifed each other, while Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema continued shooting a movie destined to bomb with themselves as the stars.
Another week, another theocratic lurch in Texas, as a federal judge cleared the way for for-profit businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ people. Sign us Unsurprised. Bonus: Kinzinger/Cheney 2024? Could be intriguing.
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The Weekly Readlines October 29
The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) is a feature at LGBTSr.com, offering news you can use every Friday morning. Subscribe here for virtual delivery.
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIESThe good news first: President Biden submitted his Build Back Better proposal, skinny edition, to the Democrats, pressuring them for full support. It looks like it may happen in time for a Halloween scare to the haters. “That’s not candy corn, Todd. That’s socialism!”
Information continues to come out about the attempted overthrow of the U.S. government on January 6, with clear indications that the former president was fully aware of the coup planning.
The U.S. issued its first non-binary ‘X’ gender passport. And solidifying the Democrats’ reputation as all but useless, paid family leave has been cut from the spending bill at Manchin’s insistence. Will there be any reason left to vote for them except they’re not Republicans?
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The Weekly Readlines October 22
The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) is a feature at LGBTSr.com, offering news you can use every Friday morning. Subscribe here for virtual delivery.
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIESThe good news first: Dr. Rachel Levine, transgender U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health, has been sworn in as the first transgender four-star officer in the country’s history.
Posing for their portraits in the Hall of Infamy, Senators Manchin and Sinema seal the fate of Democrats with their preening resistance to the Party’s agenda. Expect more treachery.
Texas continues its march to ruthless minority rule, while supply chain problems keep toothpaste off the shelves, and school boards across the country fall to sometimes well-spoken conspiracy theorists. We wish we could say it’s only a movie.
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The Weekly Readlines October 15
The Weekly Readlines (rhymes with headlines!) is a feature at LGBTSr.com, offering news you can use every Friday morning. Subscribe here for virtual delivery.
BIG CUP: THE WEEK’S TOP STORIESThe good news first: President Biden issued a statement for National Coming Out Day. It’s been awhile. Merck sought authorization for a COVID-19 pill, bringing us one step closer to ending the vax-antivax madness. And Social Security is set to get a 5.9 percent cost of living increase next year. Ca-ching!
Nominal Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema threaten to destroy their own party’s agenda and one-term Joe Biden, promising a return to neofascism.
And in a perfect gift reveal, the Saudis gave then-President and Mrs. Trump fake furs, assuring that no animals were harmed during the purchase of his presidency.