PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.
Blow to Republicans as Supreme Court Denies Bid to Overturn Electoral Maps (Maria)
The author writes, “The US Supreme Court has rejected requests from Republicans in North Carolina and Pennsylvania to overturn electoral maps imposed by the state Supreme Court in both places that make elections more competitive. The justices ruled 6-3 on Monday not to block the new North Carolina maps from going into effect, with justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas saying they would have paused the state Supreme Court’s ruling. … Both decisions are a win for Democrats politically, as well as voting rights groups that have turned to state Supreme Courts recently to try and police partisan gerrymandering.”
This War Will Be a Total Failure, FSB Whistleblower Says (Sean)
The author writes, “Spies in Russia’s infamous security apparatus were kept in the dark about President Putin’s plan to invade Ukraine, according to a whistleblower who described the war as a ‘total failure’ that could be compared only to the collapse of Nazi Germany.”
Billionaire-Backed Group Enlists Trump-Supporting Citizens to Hunt for Voter Fraud Using Discredited Techniques (Reader Steve)
From ProPublica: “‘Voter rolls are very, very important to the process,’ Florida software and database engineer Jeff O’Donnell told the gathering of 300 in late January in Chippewa Falls, deeming the rolls ‘the ground zero’ of what he called Democratic plots to steal elections. The only way former President Donald Trump could have lost his reelection campaign in 2020, O’Donnell said in an interview, was if voter rolls had been inflated with people who shouldn’t have been able to cast ballots. Ever since Trump failed to convince the world that he lost the 2020 election because of fraud, like-minded people across the country have been taking up the same rallying cry, revisiting that vote with an eye toward what will happen in 2022.”
Former Rand Paul Aide, Pardoned by Trump, Charged With Funneling Russian Money Into 2016 Election (DonkeyHotey)
The author writes, “A former campaign staffer for US Sen. Rand Paul has been charged with channeling money from Russia into the 2016 presidential election, the US Department of Justice said Monday. In an unsealed indictment, dated September 9, prosecutors allege Jesse Benton ‘conspired to illegally funnel thousands of dollars of foreign money from a Russian foreign national’ into the campaign. In October 2016, Benton received a $100,000 wire transfer from the unnamed Russian national, the indictment states, promising him that he would get to ‘meet a celebrity’ at a fundraiser in Philadelphia on September 22, 2016.”
Ukrainians Find That Relatives in Russia Don’t Believe They Are at War (Reader Jim)
The author writes, “Four days after Russia began dropping artillery shells on Kyiv, Misha Katsiurin, a Ukrainian restaurateur, was wondering why his father, a church custodian living in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod, hadn’t called to check on him. ‘There is a war, I’m his son, and he just doesn’t call,’ Mr. Katsiurin, who is 33, said in an interview. So, Mr. Katsiurin picked up the phone and let his father know that Ukraine was under attack by Russia. He did not get the response he expected. His father, Andrei, didn’t believe him. ‘He started to tell me how the things in my country are going,’ said Mr. Katsiurin, who converted his restaurants into volunteer centers and is temporarily staying near the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil. ‘He started to yell at me and told me, ‘Look, everything is going like this. They are Nazis.’”
International Women’s Day: Years of Work Undone by Covid-19 Pandemic (Carina)
From France 24: “But with the world ravaged by a pandemic, the past 12 months have been like no other in modern history. So what has Covid-19 meant for the women’s rights movement? Has progress been reversed? And has the crisis created any new opportunities?”
