Out d’Coup | Ketanji Brown Jackson; Ginni Thomas Texts; Guaranteed Income Pilot in GA; Antarctic Heat; PA Teacher Shortage; Worthington Sues Ehasz; more!

Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, weathered three days of Senate confirmation hearings. Of course that meant she had to endure, QAnon infused conspiracy theories; Sen. Lindsey Graham storming out of the hearings in a hissy fit - twice;  and, as Gabrielle Gurley from the American Prospect put it, “The Ted Cruz CRT Minstrel Show.” 

Jackson is expected to be confirmed by the Senate early next week. But with Mitch McConnell making it public that he will not be voting for her, she may be confirmed without a single Republican vote. 

Ginni Thomas - the right-wing extremist who is married to Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas - was actively pressuring Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and other Trump officials to overturn the 2020 vote. That according to texts recovered from materials Meadows turned over to the January 6 investigation. 

More good news on the guaranteed income front, the Georgia Resilience and Opportunity Fund (GRO) and GiveDirectly are launching the largest guaranteed income program tried in the South. The program will target Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward, providing $850 per month to about 650 women with no questions asked. 

As Chris Hayes laid out on his show last night, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine feels like the first armed conflict of a new era. An era in which authoritarianism is on the rise and liberal democracies have been backsliding. 

And Antarctica is seeing temperatures more than 70 degrees hotter than normal this week. 

Jim Worthington, owner of the Newtown Athletic Club in Bucks County, is at it again. A staunch supporter of Donald Trump and major financial backer of Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, is suing Democratic Congressional candidate Ashley Ehasz for $50,000, because she dared call attention to the fact that Worthington “spent thousands of dollars to organize bus loads of Trump supporters to attend the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally that turned into violent insurrection.” 

Pennsylvania is facing a major teacher and school staffing shortage as teachers are leaving the profession due to COVID, lack of support, and contentious politics, according an excellent article by Marley Parish of the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. In addition, Pennsylvania has seen a 66% decline in Instructional I Teaching Certificates granted - which is the most basic teaching certifications given to new graduates. 

The scuttlebutt is that the President of the Pennridge School Board, Joan Cullen, is floating the narrative that the community is supportive of abandoning all DEI initiatives. 

Pennsylvania remains the only state that does not provide state funding for public defenders.