While the Biden administration has been working tirelessly to maintain public focus on their ongoing COVID-19 response efforts, the growing immigration crisis at the Southern border cannot be understated. On March 15, more than 4,000 migrant children were being housed in Border Patrol facilities. As of yesterday, more than 15,000 migrant children are now in U.S. Custody. And now, per a Department of Homeland Security document obtained by Axios, 823 unaccompanied minors have been in Border Patrol Custody for more than 10 days, well past the three-day legal limit.

President Biden has come under fire in recent weeks for the government’s inability to adequately respond to a surge of migrants seeking refuge at the U.S.-Mexico border. From reopening a migrant children detention center in Carrizo Springs, TX known as the “Cadillac of migrant children centers” — with additional plans to open another for-profit child detention center in Florida — to recently restricting information Border Patrol agents and section chiefs can share with members of the media, Biden’s promise to “restore humanity and American values to our immigration system” appears to be nothing more than a failed campaign promise. 

According to reporting from The Daily Beast, 3,314 unaccompanied children have been held for longer than three days, and 2,226 have been held for more than five days.

“Just left the border processing facility. 100s of kids packed into big open rooms,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) tweeted on March 19 after visiting the border. “In a corner, I fought back tears as a 13 yr old girl sobbbed [sic] uncontrollably explaining thru a translator how terrified she was, having been separated from her grandmother and without her parents.” Sen. Murphy went on to clarify that the child had not been forcibly separated from her parents — in this child’s case, her parents were already in the United States — but went on to write: “But even though kids can now stay and apply for asylum, if they are traveling w relatives who aren’t parents, the relative can’t stay.”

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told CNN’s Dana Bash that they had established three new facilities last week and are “implementing new efficiencies in the HHS process so that we can unite these children with their relatives here in the United States.” He went on to say: “This is what we do. We know how to do it. We have dealt with surges in the past, and the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security will succeed.”

Mayorkas did say the current crisis is a result of the largest surge of migrants at the border in two decades, but could not give a clear date outside of “as soon as possible” on when the HHS would be able to provide more humane facilities for unaccompanied migrant children. 

Mayorkas cited COVID-19 as a reason why things at the border have grown significantly more “challenging,” as well as the previous administration’s policies or, in some cases, lack thereof. “Not just because the Trump administration tore down our systems and we have to rebuild them from scratch, but also because of the fact that we’re in the midst of a pandemic,” he said.

More than 5,400 children were forcibly separated from their parents under the Trump administration’s family separation policy — as of December 2020, more than 600 parents of those children were still missing. In four years, there were over 5,000 complaints of sexual abuse and harassment of migrant children in US custody.

Experts believe the crisis at the Southern border will only grow more dire in the coming weeks and months. And clearly, Biden refusing to openly discuss it and silencing those on the ground is not helping.

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The ongoing crisis at the southern border of the United States is intensifying, as CNN reports more than 4,000 migrant children are being held in Border Patrol Custody. This highlights a continued influx of children housed in border facilities — on March 10, more than 3,700 unaccompanied migrant children were being detained by Border Patrol. The increase has put an already strained system in disarray as officials work to find safe housing accommodations in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, leaving many children in what CNN describes as “jail-like facilities” for extended periods of time. 

But what is perhaps more jarring is the decision to continue to detain migrant children in the first place. Although President Joe Biden ran on the promise that he would undo many of the previous administration’s inhumane immigration policies, he has come under some scrutiny for his handling of the U.S. border.

Since taking office, Biden has restored the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, created a task force to reunite the migrant families forcibly separated as a result of President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, and ordered a review of asylum processing at the U.S.-Mexico border. However, Biden’s immigration-related executive orders did not include a repeal of Title 42, which allowed authorities to “expel almost all people caught crossing the border illegally” under the guise of slowing the spread of COVID-19. Currently, authorities are still expelling all children who arrive with their parents at the border under these pandemic-related restrictions.

And less than three months into the Biden-Harris administration, a facility for migrant children reopened in Carrizo Springs, TX — a center known as the “Cadillac of migrant children centers” that first opened under the Trump administration. The Biden administration also plans to reopen a for-profit detention center in Homestead, FL, according to a report from The Miami Herald. In 2019, the same center came under fire after reports of sexual abuse, overcrowding, and failing to properly vet staff for prior child abuse records surfaced.

The Biden administration has continuously argued that they have no choice but to reopen these facilities due to the influx of unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the border. “What we are doing is working as quickly as possible to process these kids into these HHS facilities,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a Feb. 24 press briefing. “This is a difficult situation. It’s a difficult choice.” During an interview with Univision, President Biden said: “Our hope and expectation is that won’t stay open very long, that we will be able to provide for every kid that comes across the border to safely be housed in a facility that is licensed,” referring to the Carrizo Springs facility.

Still, advocates — and some representatives within the Democratic party — argue that the issue isn’t the size of the cage, but the fact that children are being put in cages at all. “This is not okay, never has been okay, never will be okay —  no matter the administration or party,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Feb. 23. “Our immigration system is built on a carceral framework. It’s no accident that challenging how we approach both of these issues are considered ‘controversial’ stances. They require reimagining our relationship to each other and challenging common assumptions we take for granted.” 

Studies have long shown the mental health ramifications of housing migrant children in these detention facilities. Twenty-six studies found that adults and children alike experienced “high levels of mental health problems” as a result of detention, and that “anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder were most commonly reported both during and following detention,” according to a 2009 review published in BMC Psychiatry. The same review found that the longer children, adolescents, and adults spend in a detention center, the more likely it is that they will experience severe mental health effects.

“To create a just and dignified immigration system, we have to abandon cruelty as a deterrent or we’re not going to get very far,” Jacinta Gonzalez of Mijente, an advocacy organization, told Newsweek back in February. “We need a commitment from this administration that they’re moving away from the rhetoric and policies that are so harmful.”

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In July 2020, a mother of a Victory Vipers cheerleader in Bucks County, PA approached police with a disturbing report: Someone was harassing her teenage daughter and sending doctored images of the underage girl to make it appear as if she was naked, vaping, and drinking. Shortly after, two more families came forward with similar stories: Their daughters, all members of the same cheerleading squad, were being targeted by an unknown person with doctored photos and videos. 

But it was the eventual suspect that caused concern and confusion among the three girls’ families. On March 4, authorities arrested who they believe to be the person behind the coordinated harassment campaign. Raffaela Spone, 50, allegedly harassed members of her own daughter’s cheerleading squad for months. Spone, who now faces three misdemeanor counts of cyber harassment of a child, among other related offenses, allegedly began targeting the girls after they had a reported “falling out” with her daughter.

In addition to harassing those three members of the Vipers cheerleading squad for months, Spone is being accused of lifting photos from their social media accounts and altering them to make it look like the girls were drinking and vaping, sometimes while naked or while wearing bikinis.

In one instance, the Spone allegedly urged a 17-year-old girl to kill herself. “I do get hate comments — nothing to this extreme, but I was really upset,” the girl told a local ABC affiliate. “I was like, ‘Who says this to someone? Who thinks it’s OK?’ It made me more mad than upset.”

Spone is said to have sent doctored videos and pictures of the girls to the cheerleading squad’s coaches and gym owners. The intent, per an affidavit of probable cause, was to get the girls kicked off the squad — a known consequence for vaping or drinking while underage. Spone also allegedly sent text messages and made phone calls to the gym from multiple phone numbers, according to authorities.

“I felt like if I said to someone… I… like… no one, no one would trust me. They had the video on proof, even though the video wasn’t real,” Madi Hime, a Victor Vipers cheerleader, told the TODAY Show. “I didn’t know how to protect her from that. I didn’t know who to protect her from. There were a lot of sleepless nights,” Madi’s mother added. 

So, how exactly did Raffaela Spone finally get caught in her cheer tower of lies? Police were able to track an IP address and phone numbers back to Spone’s home, and allege she used her smartphone to send messages, doctored photos, and deepfake videos via an app that enabled her to hide her number. “We’ve always taken for granted that a photo is a photo, a video is a video,” Bucks Country District Attorney Matt Weintraub told TODAY. “We can’t take that for granted anymore.”

There is no indication that Spone’s daughter was aware of her mother’s actions, and Weintraub said “the daughter is completely blameless in this” during a Monday news conference. Spone herself has denied the allegations and the charges, and her lawyer told TODAY: “We are going to aggressively fight this.”

Weintraub says that if convicted, it’s unlikely that Spone will face the maximum penalty of six years in prison, given that she has no prior criminal history.

In a statement obtained by TODAY, the Victory Vipers said, in part, that their “group has always promoted a family environment and we are sorry for all individuals involved.”

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On Monday morning, the Vatican’s orthodoxy office kicked off the week by issuing a formal response to the question of whether or not the Catholic Church could and should bless gay unions. The response, which was approved by Pope Francis, said that while gay people should be treated with respect, God “does not and cannot bless sin: He blesses sinful man, so that he may recognize that he is part of his plan to love and allow himself to be changed by him.” The notice went on to say that gay sex is “intrinsically disordered” and that the “presence in such relationships of positive elements, which are in themselves to be valued and appreciated, cannot justify these relationships and render them legitimate objects of an ecclesial blessing.” 

The comments from the Vatican feel like a step backward after Pope Francis made affirming comments about gay unions in October of last year during a documentary interview. “Homosexual people have a right to be in a family,” he said in the film. “They are children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or made miserable over it. What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered.” 

Then again, this is the Catholic Church we’re talking about. And even the Pope’s seemingly positive comments about the existence, rights, and happiness of LGBTQ+ people were nowhere near progressive or, more importantly, indicative of the Catholic Church’s stance.

It’s also ironic and, at best, wildly hypocritical that a religious institution that has known about clergy members engaging in child rape and pedophilia since at least the 1950s — one that sent abusive clergy members to Church-run medical centers so they could “receive treatment” without alerting medical professionals of their crimes — would continue to deny LGBTQ+ Catholics a blessed marriage.

In 2018, a grand jury investigation revealed that over 300 priests in Pennsylvania abused over 1,000 children. Just last year, Pope Francis urged the leader of the Catholic church in England and Wales, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, to stay in his post and not resign after a report concluded that his leadership repeatedly “prioritized its reputation over the welfare of child sex abuse victims.” 

That same year, the Pope said homosexuality in the clergy was a “serious matter” that “worried” him, going on to say that “the Church urges that persons with this rooted tendency not to be accepted into ministry or consecrated life.”

Many in the Catholic right have attempted to link the horrific sex abuse scandal of 2002 to the existence of LGBTQ+ people. As Intelligencer writer Andrew Sullivan wrote in a 2019 piece, these people claim that “the root of the scandal was not abuse of power, or pedophilia, or clericalism, or the distortive psychological effects of celibacy and institutional homophobia, but gayness itself.”

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During their heartbreaking and candid interview with Oprah Winfrey, the former Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, revealed that the monarchy had done nothing to protect Markle from constant tabloid harassment and racist attacks. After Markle shared that members of the royal family had voiced “concerns” about her son Archie’s skin tone, refused to help her obtain treatment when she was pregnant and experiencing suicidal ideation, and didn’t want to protect Archie via the title of “prince,” a growing sentiment lingered on Twitter: relief that Meghan and her family left the clutches of royalty before it was too late. 

But not everyone was horrified by the couple’s allegations — or thankful they had found a way to leave the trappings of British autocracy. Andre Walker, a British political commentator in desperate need of a history book, tweeted that Harry had burned his relationship with Britain and “everyone who declares war on the United Kingdom loses, you’re about to join the list.” Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt said of the couple’s royal departure: “If I got a castle, and I got the jewels and a crown, I wouldn’t be leaving! I would not leave!” 

And, of course, the two most insufferable conservative journalists entered the Royals chat, too. Known transphobe Piers Morgan sent out a stream of tweets attacking Markle, calling her the “Pinocchio Princess” and describing the interview as “a disgraceful diatribe of cynical race-baiting propaganda designed to damage the Queen as her husband lies in the hospital and destroy the Monarchy.” After #AbolishTheMonarchy started trending on Twitter, Morgan tweeted, “Congrats Meghan and Harry —  your mission is complete.”

Of course, Megyn Kelly, known for weaponizing her white woman tears, also got in on the anti-Harry and Meghan dialogue. “Give me a break,” the former Fox News host tweeted. “Have you ever seen such privileged people wallowing in their own (perceived) victimhood like this?” Kelly also criticized Oprah’s interview prowess, tweeting, “Oprah stayed too broad-I wanted more: ‘who?…Be specific…what exactly did they say? Who was jealous of M after Australia? How did u know that? What do you mean ur family hasn’t ‘educated themselves’ the way you have? They’re racist? WHO?’ Eventually they’d have to get specific.”

(It should be noted, for perhaps no reason at all, that Kelly is currently unemployed — NBC canceled her show Megyn Kelly Today after she defended white people dressing up in Blackface.)

The fact that Kelly, who spends her time lamenting the consequences of so-called “cancel culture” and who has a history of making racist claims, took issue with Meghan and Harry’s allegations against the royal family is hardly surprising. The fact that Morgan, a proud misogynist who claims he — not Markle — is the real victim of “racist bullying” spent his time painting the first princess of color as a vindictive wife hellbent on toppling a monarchy with a long history of perpetuating racism and sexism is about as on-the-nose as you can get.

The backlash they received online and on-air — Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu and Trisha Goddard took Morgan to task the following morning on Good Morning Britain — was just as expected. But it doesn’t make their comments any less dangerous, especially as the royal family continues to attack Markle in an attempt to distract from the horrific allegations brought against them.

The Palace is currently trying to discredit Meghan, claiming she was bullying Palace staff. And given that Markle is pregnant with the couple’s second child just months after she shared that she had suffered a miscarriage in the summer of 2020, these claims coupled with Kelly, Morgan, and their ilk’s attacks could cause serious mental and emotional harm.

At some point, one has to wonder when Kelly and Morgan will prioritize another person’s life over their self-serving, predictable provocation.

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In their first public interview since leaving the royal family, the former Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, revealed the myriad of ways the monarchy either caused them — or failed to protect them from — outright harm. From sharing that certain members of the royal family were “concerned” about their son Archie’s skin tone, to refusing to help Meghan seek inpatient mental health treatment during a period of suicidal ideation, to Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, making Meghan cry before her wedding, people got an inside look into just how horrific, racist, and backstabbing the British Monarchy is — if they didn’t know it already. 

Shortly after the candid interview with Oprah Winfrey started airing, #AbolishTheMonarchy began trending on Twitter. “The whole idea of a ‘superior bloodline’ is inherently racist,” one person tweeted. “The way people are programmed to worship the monarchy is one of the things that’s kept working class people from believing in their own worth, fueling a tug the forelock mentality. It’s deeply unhealthy, as is the institution itself,” another posted. 

But revelations that the Royal Family is inherently problematic is nothing new. The monarchy went out of its way to protect Prince Andrew, a friend to known rapist and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, among allegations that he was a frequent client of Epstein’s. Andrew’s name appears in a number of depositions investigating Epstein and his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Virginia Giuffre said she was forced to have sex with Andrew when she was a minor on more than one occasion. 

However, this behavior of protecting their own and throwing down outsiders predates even Andrew and Markle. When she was alive, Princess Diana spoke out about the ways the family attacked her for being a “strong woman” and after the breakdown of her marriage to Prince Charles as a result of numerous extra-marital affairs. “Actually, when I say many people I mean the establishment that I married into, because they have decided that I’m a non-starter,” she said in an interview with BBC. “Because I do things differently, because I don’t go by a rule book, because I lead from the heart, not the head.” Diana went on to say: “I don’t think I have many supporters in that environment” and that the royals “see me as a threat of some kind.” 

“I think every strong woman in history has had to walk down a similar path, and I think it’s the strength that causes the confusion and the fear,” she continued.

From instances of subtle and overt racism, to the palace hosting “tabloid parties” to stay in the good graces of the U.K. media, to the whole, you know, gaining and maintaining power as the result of thousands of years spent colonizing Black and brown countries, that the British Monarchy was anything other than cruel to the first princess of color is hardly surprising. Perhaps that’s why the palace took a policy stance of not commenting on Meghan and Harry’s Oprah interview, and have made no public post-interview statements at this time — rarely have they had to explain themselves.

But that doesn’t make what Meghan endured any less horrifying. Let’s recap what Markle endured: The Royal family actively refused to help a suicidal pregnant woman, they. cut off the new family financially, they chose not to protect Meghan from racist tabloid vilification, and they didn’t want Archie to have the title of “prince” and the protection that comes with it. The monarchy is continuing arguably two of its most cherished traditions of all: attacking strong women and perpetuating racism.

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Still reeling from their 2020 presidential election loss, conservative Republicans met for their annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida late last week. And oh, did this year’s CPAC have everything: a golden statue of Donald Trump reminiscent of the biblical golden calf, Nazi insignia displayed center-stage, and an appearance by the former president in which he continued to espouse election fraud and other 2020 election lies and conspiracy theories. In fact, a number of CPAC speakers continued to scream “voter fraud!” and claimed the system is so broken it’s near-pointless to vote. So, is this how Republicans plan to win in 2022? By basically encouraging people not to participate?

The consistent voter fraud lies peddled by prominent members of the Republican party have done significant damage to their voter bases’ trust in the voting process. According to a January 22-25 survey of 1,990 registered voters nationwide, only 32% of Republican voters believe the election was free and fair. While grassroots organizers, most of whom were Black women, turned out a record number of voters to give Democrats control of the Senate in two Georgia run-off elections, Republican-leaning counties saw a lower voter turnout — a byproduct of Trump’s continued assertion that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and “stolen.”

Simply put, it’s nearly impossible to encourage Republicans to vote when the GOP continues to hang its proverbial hat on a lie that undermines voters’ faith in the power of their vote. And that’s intentional.

Rather than encouraging conservatives to vote, the GOP plans on making it even harder for Democrat voters — specifically Black people, who undeniably won the presidency for the Biden-Harris administration — to do so. Republican lawmakers in Georgia are pushing a slew of new voting laws that would make it harder for people to vote, including banning automatic voter registration, restricting the use of drop boxes for returning absentee ballots, and requiring an excuse to allow voters to cast absentee ballots.

In Arizona, GOP officials are also wanting to do away with no-excuse absentee voting and are seeking to require that signatures on all mail-in ballots be notarized. In Wisconsin, Republicans are trying to prohibit retirement homes or residential care facilities from encouraging their residents to vote and are attempting to require every absentee voter to request an absentee ballot for every election instead of simply receiving their ballots automatically. 

But the fact that voter suppression remains the GOP’s bread-and-butter election tactic is hardly surprising. The party has a long history of targeting marginalized communities with erroneous registration processes, voter purgers, poll closures and long lines, ballot restrictions, and discriminatory rigged district maps in an effort to curtail the vote. And it works: In the 2018 midterm elections, nearly 120 million eligible Americans did not vote. Last year, then-president Trump said the quiet part out loud during an appearance on Fox & Friends, where Trump discussed the $2.2 trillion COVID-19 relief package, and Democrat-led efforts to make it easier for people to vote during the ongoing pandemic. 

“The things they had in there were crazy. They had things, levels of voting that if you’d ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again,” Trump said. “They had things in there about election days and what you do and all sorts of clawbacks. They had things that were just totally crazy and had nothing to do with workers that lost their jobs and companies that we have to save.” 

It is the political party constantly accusing their rivals of cheating that is hinging their future election wins on their ability to cheat as many people as possible out of voting. A “the boy cried wolf” reference would be appropriate here if that boy was also a low-key wolf-breeder.

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It’s safe to say the Republican party has become synonymous with lying. Their former leader, Donald Trump, lied more than 30,000 times during his four years as president, and 147 Republicans voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election based on lies and conspiracy theories about election integrity. But no one embodies the deception of the GOP quite like freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who lies about everything, including the accident that left him partially paralyzed. 

According to a Washington Post report from this weekend, while giving a speech at Patrick Henry College in 2017, Cawthorn lied multiple times about the 2014 car crash that left him reliant on a wheelchair. The Post says that Cawthorn claimed his friend who was driving the vehicle at the time, Bradley Ledford, had left him for dead.

“He was my brother, my best friend. And he leaves me in a car to die in a fiery tomb,” Cawthorn said of the accident. “He runs to safety deep in the woods and just leaves me in a burning car as the flames start to lick my legs and curl up and burn my left side.” Cawthorn also claimed he was pronounced dead at the scene, but thanks to “adrenaline or divine intervention, I definitely believe it’s the latter, I had a deep inhale of breath.”

The problem, of course, is that none of it was true. According to Ledford, he saved Cawthorn’s life. “That statement he made was false,” Ledford told The Washington Post. “It hurt very badly that he would say something as false as that. That is not at all what happened. I pulled him out of the car the second that I was able to get out of the car.” And, according to a court deposition, Cawthorn claims he has no memory from the accident. And per a police accident report and Florida Highway Patrol records, Cawthorn was “incapacitated and in critical condition” but was not declared dead.

Cawthorn launched his congressional campaign and has long-relied on the fictional version of the car accident to reach his political goals. He has also claimed that the crash derailed his dreams of attending the Naval Academy — another outright lie. Cawthorn was friends with former Rep. Mark Meadows’ son, Blake, and in December 2013, he convinced Meadows to nominate Cawthorn to the Naval Academy via a “process that enables a local member of Congress to recommend candidates,” The Post reports. But Cawthorn’s acceptance also hinged on his grades and other benchmarks, and prior to the car accident, he was rejected from the Naval Academy. Cawthorn said in a court deposition that “he went on a spring break trip in Florida with his friend Ledford” after his application was denied. 

Cawthorn has championed himself as a Trump-like candidate, and in just two months as a congressman, he has certainly lived up to the hype. More than 30 former classmates of Cawthorn’s told BuzzFeed they “witnessed, experienced, or knew of sexual harassment and misconduct” by Cawthorn on his Christian college’s campus. In October, more than 160 former students of the same college signed an open letter describing Cawthorn’s predatory behavior. He visited Adolf Hitler’s vacation home and in an Instagram post marking the occasion, described Hitler as “the Fuhrer.”

He has also promised to use his position of power as a sitting congressman to convert Jews, Muslims, and other non-Christians to Christianity, saying, “If you’re not wanting to lead somebody to Christ, then you’re probably not really a Christian.” He attacked then-candidate Raphael Warnock using racist dog whistles and thinly-veiled white supremacist language. He spoke at the pro-Trump rally on January 6 that led to the deadly insurrection attempt by Trump supporters, spreading lies about the 2020 election results. He later claimed the insurrectionists were “paid by the Democratic machine.”

So, no, it’s not a surprise that Cawthorn is guilty of lying his way into his seat. If anything, Cawthorn is proof that Trump is not simply the leader of the Republican Party. The Republican Party is full of Donald Trumps.

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Once again, The View co-host Meghan McCain has become Twitter’s Main Character of the Day™, and not for another one of her, um, “questionable hairstyles.” While discussing the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination rollout and recent comments made by White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, McCain complained about her inability to obtain a vaccine as someone with an immense platform and privilege. 

“The fact that I, Meghan McCain, co-host of The View, I don’t know when or how I will be able to get a vaccine because the rollout for my age range and my health is so nebulous,” McCain said in her rant, before calling the vaccine rollout a “disaster” and lamenting the fact that next week it will be “a year since we left the studio and I have been so responsible, as many Americans have.” (Fun fact: Conservatives, like McCain, are among the least likely to wear masks during the ongoing pandemic, according to the Pew Research Center, in part because their fellow Republicans have politicized the pandemic, downplayed the severity of the virus, and questioned the legitimacy of scientists and infectious disease experts.) 

McCain, showing a clip of Dr. Fauci speaking to Dana Bash on CNN’s State of the Union, then tore into Dr. Fauci for refusing to make an on-the-spot vaccine-related recommendation. On CNN, Bash shared that both of her parents had received their second dose of the vaccine and are now fully vaccinated. She then asked Dr. Fauci if that means it’s okay for them to spend time with their grandchildren, who are not vaccinated.

“You know, I’m not going to make a recommendation now except to say these are things that we really do, every day, we look at that, we look at the data, we look at what’s evolving, about how many people are getting vaccinated, and there will be recommendations coming out,” Dr. Fauci replied. “I don’t want to be making a recommendation now on public TV — we want to sit down with the team and look at that.” 

That didn’t sit well with McCain, who wanted a more concrete answer as to what she can expect when she does receive her vaccine and whether or not she’ll be able to have dinner with her family or spend mask-free time with older people. “It’s terribly inconsistent messaging,” she said, “and it continues to be inconsistent messaging.” 

McCain did admit that it’s mostly the Trump administration’s fault the vaccination rate in the U.S. has been so low. “I understand, obviously, that president Trump can take much of the blame, but now we’re in the Biden administration and I, for one, would like something to look forward to and hope for,” she said. And at the onset of her long-winded rant, she made it a point to “respect the great tragedy and all the pain that has come from our handling of the coronavirus.” But the backlash was swift, especially to the fact that McCain called for the Biden administration to fire Dr. Fauci. 

“The producers of @TheView need to fire Meghan McCain NOW,” one Twitter user posted. “Her daily tantrums, total disregard for the opinions of others, and willful ignorance is exhausting.” 

“Parents: make sure your children understand they’re not the center of the universe, so they don’t grow up to be Meghan McCain,” another tweeted. 

Here’s a sampling of the responses to McCain, in case hate-reading is your pandemic coping mechanism of choice: 

I hope someone is fanning and perhaps feeding individual grapes to Meghan McCain right now as co-host of The View.

— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) February 22, 2021

Meghan McCain has been wealthy her entire life. She’s actively opposed growing social safety net programs that would benefit low-income and disabled people, out of fear it might marginally impact her massive wealth.

So of course she’s upset to not be first in line for a vaccine. https://t.co/1uiHFlC2Kx

— Kendall Brown (@kendallybrown) February 22, 2021

Meghan McCain is the female version of Ben Shapiro for saying dumb shit just to get attention.

— David Weissman (@davidmweissman) February 22, 2021

REMINDER: Meghan McCain is not essential.

— Cristela Alonzo (@cristela9) February 22, 2021

I think we’re all just sorry that this nightmare for our country has been so hard on Meghan McCain.

— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) February 15, 2021

While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted working women, McCain is not exactly one of them. Unlike the nearly 3 million women who were pushed out of the workforce due to historic job losses and an unequal division of labor inside the home — most of whom are Black women and other women of color — McCain still has a job. And that job does not require her to put herself, or her family, at risk of contracting a virus that has killed over 500,000 people to date. Millions of essential workers, 52% of whom are women, cannot say the same. 

McCain even admitted that due to her age (36) and overall health, she is not high-risk, which means that, like many people, she has to wait an indeterminate amount of time to receive the vaccine. Instead of lamenting about the need to simply wait her turn, McCain could have spent her time and used her enormous platform to advocate for the increased vaccination of Black and Latinx communities, which are disproportionately impacted by the virus but the least likely to receive the vaccination. Out of the first 13 million Americans to receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, 60% were white. 

But no, McCain chose to do what she has done consistently throughout her career instead: be self-serving. “I know what I’m saying is controversial, I really do,” she proclaimed. “But I’m not a phony and I’m not going to come on air and say something different than what I’m saying privately.” 

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After an unparalleled winter storm brought snowfall and frigid temperatures to the state of Texas, leaving more than 3 million people without power, heat, and access to clean water, residents are finally starting to see the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. And after enduring its second coldest week ever, temperatures are finally rising, lights are finally coming back on, and power is returning throughout the state.

But the crisis is far from over: Right now, as many as 10 million people are still unable to access clean drinking water. At least 58 people lost their lives. And now that the power is back on, residents are receiving obscene electric bills — because energy companies have found yet another way to profit off disaster.

According to reporting from The New York Times, the increase in cost is a result of the state’s unregulated energy market. Unlike other states, Texas allows customers to “pick their electricity providers among 220 retailers in an entirely market-driven system,” according to the Times. These plans allow providers to increase cost as demands increase in an attempt to supposedly encourage residents to “reduce their usage and power suppliers to create more electricity,” as argued by those who support the system. But when that system failed during the storm, the Texas Public Utilities commission raised the price cap, causing an increase in price and, in some cases, to more than 50 times the regular cost.

As those capable returned to their homes — some facing extensive water damage, collapsed roofs, and tainted water — the bills started to arrive. Many people shared pictures of their bills online, sparking intense backlash and calls for the state government to intervene.

“When your electric company tells you to switch but there has been a hold on switching for over a week now,” one Texas resident tweeted, along with a screenshot of her $3,801.16 electric bill. “Using as little as possible 1300sq ft house and this is my bill. How is this fair. I only paid $1200 for the whole 2020 year.” 

When your electric company tells you to switch but there has been a hold on switching for over a week now. Using as little as possible 1300 sq ft house and this is my bill. . How is this fair. I only paid $1200 for the whole 2020 year @FoxNews @wfaa @tedcruz @GovAbbott pic.twitter.com/AylTS4m0j4

— kat and tony (@katandtonyT) February 18, 2021

And that was just a sampling of the bills sent to Texas residents. Here are a few other examples of the unconscionable prices those who survived the storm are now facing: 

this is my electric bill for the past 5 days. we were without power for most of it. i think i’m ready to leave texas. pic.twitter.com/oUF5XQbDRI

— john spriggs (@johnspriggz) February 19, 2021

RIP to everyone using Griddy here in Houston pic.twitter.com/4GToNlzQmb

— Mike Metzler (@MTZLER) February 19, 2021

It’s nice too see that my old electric company is trending. My Griddy bill for this month is $1,750. I work retail. I can’t afford this. pic.twitter.com/Ew9VpgJ6h2

— WOW🐄NO🐄COW (@nathanpolk) February 20, 2021

.@GoGriddy has hiked my mother’s electric bill from $2,047 up to $6,088. I don’t know how we are going to get through this. Griddy needs to take responsibility for their failure and forgive this bill. They are putting people’s lives in danger. #Griddy #GriddyGreed pic.twitter.com/dRCGkdJk1P

— Eva Allyn Taylor (@evaallyntaylor) February 19, 2021

As a result of the outrage, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he’s working with state legislators to address the rise in energy costs, telling Texans on Sunday that he’s trying to “find ways that the state can help reduce this burden.” But, according to the Associated Press, Abbott did not give any specifics as to what that means or any steps lawmakers are willing to take.

The state has temporarily banned companies from cutting off power to those who cannot afford to pay the increased cost of their electric bills. But the greater financial toll of the winter storm, the power outage, and the clean water crisis still remains to be seen. For those who lost loved ones, the cost is incalculable. And for those receiving high energy bills, the road to full recovery and the chance to rebuild feels insurmountable. Residents in Texas will need support for weeks, months, even years to come.

If you are able to help, here is a list of organizations doing the groundwork to help people come out on the other side of this crisis. 

North Texas Rural Resilience: @ntrr4yall on Venmo

Mutual Aid Houston: GoFundMe

Austin Disaster Relief Fund: Donate here

FeedThePeopleDallas: @feedthepeopledallas on Venmo

Dallas Harm Reduction Aid: @dallashra on Venmo

Texas Jail Project: Donations will go to commissary for people incarcerated across the state so that they can buy food and supplies.

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“It sucks that none of this will matter,” I texted a friend when the second impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump began. “I think the trial matters,” she responded, and I wrote back: “Sure, but he’ll be acquitted. And a whole bunch of people are going to be re-traumatized in the name of accountability that won’t actually come.”

The past few years have felt like an onslaught of traumatic events that took place on a national level. From the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford to the violence against protestors at Standing Rock; the viral videos of police officers killing unarmed Black men to the images of immigrant children locked in cages; the graphic details that emerged from the #MeToo movement to a slew of deadly mass shootings; the ongoing pandemic that has killed over 485,000 Americans to date to a deadly insurrection played out on national television.

Statistics alone suggest that there are few, if any, Americans who have not been impacted in one way or another by at least one, if not many, of these events, which has led to the trauma compounding to a potentially detrimental effect. It’s estimated that as many as one in 11 Americans will be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in their lifetime. And right now, one in four adults report feeling anxious or depressed as a result of the pandemic alone. 

The absence of accountability or of any semblance of justice for these events can, unfortunately, exacerbate the trauma even further, which makes it worth questioning whether the potential for re-traumatization is worth pursuing justice when we know that justice probably won’t prevail.

During Trump’s second impeachment trial, images of the violence that occurred on Jan. 6 were played by House Impeachment Managers. The footage, which mostly came from security cameras inside the Capitol, broke down the day’s events in horrific detail. Senators — and the nation, at large — were shown videos of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer running the halls to find safety, as rioters screamed “WHERE ARE YOU NANCY?” in search of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It became incredibly clear just how close many lawmakers, including former Vice President Mike Pence, potentially came to being murdered during the insurrection.

While the video evidence seemed incontrovertibly to prove Trump’s complicity in the day’s events, the former president’s defense lawyers spent their time blaming the violence on Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and the very lawmakers who were put in harm’s way. Much like a police officer who asks a rape victim how much they had to drink, or what they were wearing the night of their assault, Trump’s defense team relied heavily on victim-blaming tactics that are all too familiar to victims of gender- and race-based violence. Thus, both the images and the response to them were triggering, especially to those who have survived attacks like these, or ever feared their lives were in danger.

“In public cases of all kinds of trauma, or ones we experience and go through ourselves individually, having accountability — even acknowledging that something happened — is really what matters,” Dr. Jessi Gold, M.D., a psychiatrist and assistant professor for the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis, tells Refinery29. “And we don’t get that every often. So it sort of seems, for the most part, when you’re dealing with all sorts of trauma, that most of it doesn’t matter, because somebody is going to discount it or not care about it. Obviously, it’s hurtful to be repeatedly told you don’t matter.”

Throughout the entire five-day impeachment trial, I thought of my own sexual assault, and other high-profile cases of gender- and race-based violence that often end with the absence of justice. I thought of Anita Hill, Christine Blasey Ford, Breonna Taylor, Chanel Miller, and Sandra Bland. I also thought about those whose stories are not “high profile”: the alarmingly high rate of missing Indigenous women, the one in four Black girls who’ll be sexually assaulted before they’re 18, the four in five Alaska Native women who will experience violence in their lifetime, and the immigrant women forcefully sterilized in ICE detention centers.  

It’s not a coincidence that many of the insurrectionists had histories of domestic abuse and sexual assault; their calls for House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi were laced with the underlying threat of sexual violence. And it’s not pure happenstance that many of the violent rioters carried Confederate flags, hung nooses, and sported other Nazi and white supremacist paraphernalia; racist violence was a driving force behind this siege, and has been a key aspect of Trump supporters over the years.

As the trial continued, I began to feel numb — a feeling the friend I was texting experienced as well. This is a common reaction to traumatic events, especially when they’re replayed on the news, online, and various other platforms ad nauseam. 

“It’s really hard not to watch, even if you choose not to,” Gold says. “It finds a way though, like on social [media] or through friends. It’s really hard to avoid it, because it’s everywhere and it doesn’t stop. And if you flood people with the things that are really hard for them [to process], usually they just become numb to it or disassociate from it.”

Gold explains that while watching things like Trump’s impeachment trial, with all of these images and videos being presented at once, you’re just not present and processing the information. “It’s easier to not be present,” she says. “And our bodies and minds do that, kind of subconsciously, and go, ‘No, you don’t really need to be doing that to yourself.’” 

Yet there’s an overwhelming call to be present and engaged, especially politically, especially during a historic moment like a second impeachment. As would-be voters, people are encouraged to stay active in the political sphere so that they can remain best informed. This, along with the prevalence of social media, can make it impossible not to “do that to yourself,” but the mental ramifications — especially when there is no closure and no semblance of accountability — can be overwhelming. This is particularly true when cases, like the impeachment trial, have an inevitable conclusion long before they begin. 

The security footage, the detailed accounts, the viral videos and statements from the insurrectionists themselves — it was clear what occurred that day and who was responsible. Yet it was also clear how the trial would end. Forty-four Republicans claimed the trial was unconstitutional to begin with, despite many constitutional scholars saying otherwise. Supposedly impartial jurors Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-NC), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) all met, privately, with Trump’s defense lawyers. In an episode of his podcast Verdict, Cruz shared his “advice” with Trump’s legal team. “I said, look, you’ve gotta remember you’ve already won,” he said. “There are not 67 votes to convict.” He later says, “So my opening advice was, ‘Don’t do anything to screw it up.’” 

In the end, Cruz was right — Trump was acquitted, with a 57-43 vote. (Which is also another reminder that the majority does not rule in this country.) The U.S. Senate refused to hold the former president responsible for the violence he incited, encouraged, reveled in, and refused to stop. And as a sexual assault survivor, it all feels too familiar. 

We’re told to “play by the rules” or “do the right thing.” We’re told if we “come forward,” “speak out,” and “stay the course,” justice will be served. We’re implored to believe that “justice will prevail,” despite all evidence to the contrary. (Out of 1,000 rape cases, 995 perpetrators will not be punished.) We’ve watched women like Blasey Ford mocked for coming forward, her credibility questioned and her intentions scrutinized. We’ve witnessed women of color, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, labeled “manipulative,” “calculated,” and a “liar” for disclosing their own sexual assault and the ways trauma compounds trauma. And time after time, whether it’s during a Supreme Court nomination hearing, an Instagram live, a high-profile rape case, or an impeachment trial, we’re reminded how broken various systems truly are. 

If women are the canary in the coal mine of U.S. democracy, the mine is no longer filled with coal — it’s just a cave filled with dead birds. 

None of this is to say that accountability shouldn’t be pursued — victims of race- and gender-based violence deserve a chance at justice and for their stories to be heard, and so do those who were under attack on Jan. 6. And while it can be disheartening for many victims to see another miscarriage of justice, others can be inspired by it to evoke change. “Somebody could be watching and feel like a call to action,” Gold says. “They see that there are so many things that are wrong with this system and think it’s their duty to fix them. There are definitely people like that and we’re lucky they exist, because there are a lot of systematic problems and if there weren’t people who looked at them and wanted to change them, we would just sit on our laurels with a lot of pretty painful systems.” 

But, it is important to note that these constant quests for justice that just end in frustration can lead to feelings of apathy, of disassociation, and of a reminder of all the different ways there are to be traumatized and retraumatized. For trauma victims, that lack of accountability can do continued harm to our mental, emotional, and physical health. 

“It can cause minor setbacks, when people just feel tired and their body kind of reacts to this kind of stuff because the body holds a lot of trauma,” Gold says. “Or it can cause longer setbacks, like you have to process it more in therapy. It’s really person dependent, and trauma dependent.” 

During Trump’s second impeachment trial, much time was spent discussing what was lost on Jan. 6 — from the five people who lost their lives that day to the vanishing feeling of safety in the workplace to the empty promise of a peaceful transition of power. Then too there is the cost of Trump’s acquittal for the American people at a time when our collective mental health is already in decline. The trauma of seeing a powerful man once again avoid accountability will have consequences that go far beyond the political, as so many of us question whether or not justice is something to be fought for — or forgotten, as an unachievable dream.

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This year’s Super Bowl commercials can best be summed up in two words: emotional terrorism. From Oatly’s CEO singing to us about milk, to Timothée Chalamet as Edward Scissorhands driving a car, we laughed, we cried, we were kind of sometimes scared. But numerous companies seemed to shamelessly embrace the tumult of a year rocked by a global pandemic, overt racism and police brutality, and a contentious election. Among such companies was Jeep, who called upon Bruce Springsteen, of all people, to promote a message of “unity.”

Jeep’s commercial opens with a drone-eye’s view of a snow-covered road before cutting to the inside of a truck, where the camera closes in on weathered cowboy boots and shimmering grain silos — the perfect encapsulation of every politician’s wet dream: “middle America.” As solemn music plays in the background, Bruce Springsteen, the human equivalent of the American flag, begins to speak about a small chapel in Kansas.

“All are more than welcome to come meet here in the middle,” he says. “It’s no secret: the middle has been a hard place to get to lately. Between red and blue; between servant and citizen; between our freedom and our fear.” Springsteen then pontificates on the downfalls of fear and the properties of freedom before declaring that “we need the middle. We just have to remember the very soil we stand on is common ground.” (Hint: the very soil we stand on is actually stolen Indigenous ground, but I digress.) 

You can watch Jeep and Springsteen’s endorsement of the political middle here: 

But the ad, to no surprise, was met with some backlash. As was it’s star. Springsteen was openly critical of former President Donald Trump, which no doubt played a significant part in the decision to cast the 71-year-old musician in the 30-second ad. On Oct. 8, 2020, Springsteen tweeted an audio clip of the singer reciting a poem by Elayne Griffin Baker on an episode of his SiriusXM show, “From My Home To Yours.”

“We are rudderless and joyless. We have lost the cultural aspects of society that make America great,” Springsteen said. “We have lost our mojo, our fun, our happiness, our cheering on of others. We are lost. We’ve lost so much in so short a time. On Nov. 3, vote them out.” He also told a reporter from Australia’s The Daily Telegraph that he’d “be on the next plane” to Australia if Trump had won re-election. 

But apparently the promise of a hefty paycheck, courtesy of Jeep, is enough to persuade The Boss to change his tune. And that’s where Sprinsteen was met with a scorned internet. “I believe what the Jeep ad was telling us is that if we just set aside our differences with the fascists who want us silenced or dead, Bruce Springsteen will bring us each a Jeep we can use when we eventually have to flee to Canada,” Rex Huppke, a syndicated humor columnist for the Chicago Tribune, tweeted. “You would think Jeep would know that if you drive in the precise middle of the road you will die,” Jennifer Wright, author and freelance writer, posted. And of course, they were not alone. Here is just a sampling of the instant backlash: 

I believe what the Jeep ad was telling us is that if we just set aside our differences with the fascists who want us silenced or dead, Bruce Springsteen will bring us each a Jeep we can use when we eventually have to flee to Canada.

— Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) February 8, 2021

You would think Jeep would know that if you drive in the precise middle of the road you will die.

— Jennifer Wright (@JenAshleyWright) February 8, 2021

Honoring the “geographical” middle of the (contiguous 48) United States is as dumb as 2 senators per arbitrary outline of a state. I love my Jeep, and I love you Bruce, but nope. Even if “the middle” is a legit virtue, a Christian chapel in Kansas is not where it is.

— John Hodgman (@hodgman) February 8, 2021

As someone who deeply admires Bruce Springsteen, I just have to say that Jeep commercial was sad.

A great artist paid to further a deeply misguided idea (the problem in America is “red vs. blue”) in order to sell cars.

— Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) February 8, 2021

This is Jeep right now. pic.twitter.com/d5cDQrnCPR

— Emma Miller (@EmGraceMil) February 8, 2021

To be fair, Springsteen and the marketing team at Jeep are not the only ones calling for unity in the wake of a contentious election and a deadly insurrection. President Joe Biden ran on the promise of unifying the nation, and Republicans -— many of whom peddled the former president’s election fraud lies and conspiracy theories — are now anxious for the country to “move on” from the January 6 coup attempt that left five people dead. 

The problem, of course, is that straddling the political fence means legitimizing racist, sexist, bigoted views that harm the most marginalized among us. A number of white supremacist groups were present at the Capitol Building riot, for example, and a recent report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies found far-right groups to be responsible most U.S. terrorist attacks.

Former president Donald Trump’s racist, violent, and incendiary rhetoric was responsible for a 226 percent rise in hate crimes in counties that hosted his 2016 campaign rallies, as well as a rise in harassment and threats aimed at clinics that provide abortions and hate crimes against Asian Americans. One-hundred and forty-seven Republican politicians objected to certifying the 2020 presidential election after the January 6 riot, and three-quarters of Republican voters still believe the outright lie that the election was stolen by President Biden and the Democrats. 

Also, let’s not forget: The Republican party openly embraced a presidential candidate who ran an anti-LGBTQ, anti-Muslim, anti-Immigrant campaign while he attacked women, Black people, and openly boasted about committing sexual assault. 

To sit in the middle of a political aisle in the name of “unity” is to not only legitimize but openly condone a party that has embraced QAnon conspiracy theorists — the very people who now claim the Republican party “belongs to Trump.”

So while the possibility of a brand new Jeep hand-delivered by Springsteen is tempting, the country would be much better off if instead of sitting in the middle, we all worked to de-legitimize and extinguish the ideologies that have caused and perpetuated so much hate and violence. Because when you fail to pick a side, you endorse the wrong one.

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