After making history as the first U.S. president to be impeached twice, it seems that Donald Trump is cutting ties with his most fervent ally: his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. The president is now refusing to pay Giuliani’s legal bills, even after he played a crucial role in Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. From his strange post-election press conference outside the Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Pennsylvania, to inciting the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol, Giuliani has been Trump’s guy. Until right about now.

As the president feels increasingly abandoned by his inner circle, Trump reportedly told his aides not to pay Giuliani’s legal fees, the Washington Post reports. The president also demanded that he be the one to sign off on any reimbursement requests for Giuliani’s travel while the lawyer challenged election results across the country over the last two and a half months. According to the report, Trump is concerned by some of Giuliani’s recent stints, and is offended by his request for $20,000 a day in legal fees. 

Giuliani spent the months since the election making a mockery of himself, only to be ghosted by Trump, as the rift between the two has grown so deep that Trump told White House officials not to put through any of Giuliani’s calls. Nevertheless, even as Trump refuses to pay Giuliani’s legal fees, he was reportedly still considering having the lawyer join his defense team in an impeachment trial. 

All this comes after the lawyer became a meme of the president’s drawn-out campaign to basically steal the election from the millions of people who voted for President-elect Joe Biden. Giuliani took this battle to court in key states across the country, and brought with him some very questionable witnesses, like the woman who testified in Michigan that she saw poll workers run the same ballots through the machines “thousands of times.” 

The lawyer held a series of bizarre press conferences, where he ranted about Mickey Mouse, and made a case for Trump’s presidency as his hair dye melted down his face during another. Giuliani also brought out his best Joe Pesci impression, while quoting a scene from My Cousin Vinny, all in an effort to keep Trump in the White House, allegedly.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough for the president, whose split with Giuliani is supposedly due to the growing support for his conviction in the Senate, and with very little public defense from members of his own administration. Instead, several officials have resigned from their positions since the January 6 attack, including Trump’s most loyal and longest-serving aide, Hope Hicks. 

As the reality star presidency hopefully comes to its end, Giuliani’s former press secretary had one thing to say on the matter: “Lay down with dogs. Wake up with fleas and without $20,000 a day.”

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Why Isn't The Senate Voting To Convict Trump Now?

Which Republicans Who Voted To Impeach Trump?

Donald Trump Has Officially Been Impeached — Again

Despite being one of President Donald Trump’s most loyal backers, Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham was heckled by the president’s supporters at Reagan International Airport on Friday. Trump supporters had choice words for the Republican Senator who finally broke with Trump earlier this week after a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol led by white nationalists and MAGA loyalists. 

After spending the months since the election hyping up Trump’s base with conspiracy theories about the election being stolen, Graham is facing the consequences of his actions. In videos posted to Twitter, several people can be heard calling Graham a “traitor,” with one woman threatening, “You know it was rigged! It’s gonna be like this wherever you go for the rest of your life. Audit the vote!” The same woman later called him a “garbage human being.”

Another person called Graham a “sex trafficker,” an apparent nod to the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory that Democrats are involved in an underground child sex trafficking ring. The mob of Trump supporters — many of them maskless after attending a super-spreader insurrection in the middle of a global pandemic — followed Graham to his gate, and repeatedly hurled insults at him. 

During Wednesday’s Congressional vote to certify the Electoral College results, Graham finally voted in favor of certifying incoming president Joe Biden. 

“All I can say is, count me out. Enough is enough… It is over,” he said on the Senate floor, following the siege earlier that day. “I prayed Joe Biden would lose. He won. He’s the legitimate president of the United States. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are lawfully elected and will become the president and vice president of the United States on January 20th.” He added, “Trump, we’ve had a hell of a journey. I hate it to end this way. Oh my God, I hate it. From my point of view, he’s been a consequential president. But today… all I can say is, count me out.”

At a press conference on Thursday, Graham denounced the attack on the Capitol and implicated Trump in the violence. “When it comes to accountability the president needs to understand that his actions were the problem not the solution,” he said.

Perhaps Graham is getting exactly what he deserves after pushing lies about the election that put peoples lives in danger. Unfortunately, the mob of angry Trump supporters who were obviously in D.C. for some kind of political event — an attempted coup, perhaps? — also pose a public health risk to anyone around them at the airport, and especially to people boarding the same flights. The fact that any of these insurrectionists are even allowed to get on a flight home two days after storming the Capitol speaks volumes.

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What We Know About The Capitol Riot Deaths

Let's Not Forget That Nazi's Stormed The Capitol

Police Treat White Rioters Like Their Lives Matter

In the aftermath of the violent siege of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, the FBI and D.C. Police are asking the public to help identify people who planned and participated in the attack.

Like clockwork, many people have been quick to assume that those involved in the attack were either rural white working class people, or antifascists pretending to be Trump supporters. Of course, neither of these assumptions could be farther from the truth, and the actual rioters were a varied group of people — all galvanized by President Donald Trump. While some liberals have either ridiculed the rioters they call “blue collar MAGA” — blaming the white working class, without ever contending with the fact that the majority of Trump voters were actually wealthy — the truth is that the siege was more than costumes and Proud Boys: it was lawyers, businesspeople, parents, and even off-duty officers.

Republican lawmakers and far right activists may continue blaming “Antifa” for the insurrection, despite the fact that white nationalist groups, QAnon supporters, and other far rightists openly posted about the invasion online for weeks. But in truth, state repression will always come down hardest on those who pose a threat to the political and economic status quo, and “Antifa” has been the Trump administration’s preferred boogeyman. 

On top of that, many of the people who stormed the Capitol have been identified already, with several off-duty cops and military members playing key roles. One attendee was even identified as the son of a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge. And the proof isn’t too hard to find either. People who planned and attended the event posted about it on far right forums like Parler and MyMilitia.com where one poster last month advocated for violence if senators moved to certify Joe Biden as the next president, ProPublica reports. “If this does not change, then I advocate, Revolution and adherence to the rules of war,” one person wrote. “I say, take the hill or die trying.”

Off-duty and former law enforcement officers from New Hampshire, Oakland, Texas, and elsewhere all participated in the armed siege. One Metro D.C. police officer wrote on Facebook that off-duty police and members of the military who joined the riot were able to gain access to the Capitol after flashing their badges and ID cards, Politico reported. “If these people can storm the Capitol building with no regard to punishment, you have to wonder how much they abuse their powers when they put on their uniforms,” the officer wrote.

Meanwhile, the CEO of a tech company based in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg was arrested at the Capitol. The Rule of Law Defense Fund, the policy branch of the Republican Attorneys General Association, also helped organize the march to the Capitol. Countless other CEOs, like Jim Worthington, who owns Newtown Athletic Club, coordinated busses to the Capitol, while even noted attorneys were seen posting live videos of themselves during the violent mob.

The storied posts — and now photos — prove unequivocally that the attack on the Capitol was not planned by rural white workers or antifascists. Millions of working class people across the country are facing financial hardship, especially in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic. Likewise, millions of working class people also joined the movement for Black liberation over the summer with demands to defund and abolish the police and fund communities instead.  

It’s entirely possible, if not probable, that the assumed “blue collar MAGA” crowd was there, too. But it doesn’t negate the presence of literal armed officers, or attorneys, who are supposed to protect people and install law and order and instead were acting as instruments of violence. Because the political monarchy that Trump has attempted to construct during his four years in office benefits these people, and that’s exactly why they were there.

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Let's Not Forget That Nazi's Stormed The Capitol

Police Treat White Rioters Like Their Lives Matter

Right Wing Extremists Planned This Siege For Weeks

In a bizarre speech posted on Twitter Thursday night, President Donald Trump disavowed his supporters’ attack on the U.S. Capitol earlier this week. Trump said he was “outraged by the violence, lawlessness, and mayhem” and claimed that he tried to promptly stop the assault by “immediately” deploying the National Guard. He conveniently left out the fact that he encouraged that same attack both before it started and while it was happening.

“We have just been through an intense election and emotions are high,” Trump continued. “But now tempers must be cooled, and calm restored.” The president continued with this vague concession of his presidency, saying “a new administration will be inaugurated on January 20. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power.” 

While this is likely the closest Trump will ever come both to formally conceding and to condemning the far right actors who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, his speech appears less to be motivated by wanting to finally do the right thing, but rather by a desire to circumvent any criminal investigations he will face once he leaves office. Trump reportedly resisted recording the video at first, agreeing to do so only after his aides warned that he could face legal consequences for having encouraged the attack, The New York Times reports. Because, not only did Trump encourage his supporters to head to the Capitol on Wednesday, he also did very little to stop their attack. Officials who spoke with The Times said Trump was “initially pleased” with his supporters breaching the Capitol, “and disregarded aides pleading with him to intercede.” 

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — a Trump ally who has, however, accepted the legitimate results of the election — also reportedly attempted to call the president during the attack, but was unable to reach him. This makes sense as it’s clear the president didn’t make the video for any reason other than to save himself. After all, the president has still not addressed his role in encouraging the “Stop The Steal” rallies that culminated in the violent attack, after spending the last two months attempting to reverse the election results in his favor by any means necessary. 

The video also did appear to send at least one coded message, akin to when he told the Proud Boys to “stand by” during the presidential debates. While he claims he is preparing for a peaceful transition of power to the Biden administration in less than two weeks, Trump also told his supporters: “I know you are disappointed, but I also want you to know that our incredible journey is only just beginning.” 

While Trump’s time is almost up, As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned, even though Trump’s time as president may be almost up, “any day can be a horror show for America.”

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Right Wing Extremists Planned This Siege For Weeks

Facebook & Twitter Are Finally Banning Trump

What We Know About The Capitol Attack So Far

As people nationwide are still coming to terms with the fact that thousands of Trump supporters on Wednesday attempted to stage a violent coup to overthrow the 2020 presidential election results, Republicans are now playing a game of who can denounce President Donald Trump the fastest. It’s more than a little bit hypocritical, considering the role GOP leaders have played even in just the months since the election to incite the kind of white supremacist mob violence we witnessed this week at the U.S. Capitol. But here we are in 2021.

As the Trump administration nears its end, some Republicans will do anything to salvage their reputation. Trump loyalist, Vice President Mike Pence, announced he would not intervene in the process to certify Joe Biden’s presidency. A top adviser to Trump’s reelection campaign told BuzzFeed News the president “fucked the party.” Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has for months enabled the president’s lies about the election being stolen, finally dismissed these claims. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a long-time ally of the president, said “it’s past time for the president to accept the results of the election, quit misleading the American people, and repudiate mob violence.” Other Republican lawmakers echoed the same, while taking no responsibility for their collective role in enabling the violent attack on the Hill. 

Now, as the fractured party attempts to clean up this hot mess, members of Trump’s team have started dropping like flies in an attempt to save face after the president basically encouraged his supporters to overthrow the government on Wednesday. On Thursday, U.S. transportation secretary, Elaine Chao became the first Trump cabinet member to resign. Chao was followed by Trump’s deputy national security adviser, Matt Pottinger; former chief of staff and current special envoy to Northern Ireland, Mick Mulvaney; and top White House adviser on Russia, Ryan Tully. 

Other top national security officials are reportedly considering stepping down as well, taking a “brave” stand against the president — just two weeks before they’re all going to be fired from their positions on January 20 anyway.

And yet, despite all the material harm this administration has caused, the assault on the democratic process Wednesday seemed to be the last straw for some officials on Team Trump. Chao resigned following what she called a “traumatic and entirely avoidable event” at the Capitol on Wednesday, which she described as deeply troubling in a statement. Still, she said serving the Trump administration was “the honor of a lifetime.”

As for Mulvaney, he told CNBC he just “can’t do it” anymore, and added that some officials choosing to stay are doing so out of fear that the president “might put someone worse in.” Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Matthews announced her resignation, as well, saying she was “deeply disturbed” by far right groups storming the Capitol. Two of First Lady Melania Trump’s aides also resigned Wednesday night, along with the White House social secretary. 

It’s certainly not courageous or bold for any Trump officials to wait until the last second to distance themselves from the violence incited by this president. Officials resigning at this point have held cabinet positions in an administration that targeted marginalized communities these last four years, both in the form of policy and through its encouragement of organized violence from far right groups. They were as much responsible for the events leading up to the Capitol insurrection as those scaling the walls and storming in. It’s even less brave to wait until you’re 13 days from losing your job to say: “you can’t fire me, I quit!”

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Cops Are Taking Selfies With Violent Rioters

What Happens If The 25th Amendment Is Invoked?

America Is Not Better Than This. It's Who We Are

On Wednesday, hordes of Trump supporters, led by the white supremacist far right militia group the Proud Boys, took their demands for President Donald Trump to remain in office directly to the United States Capitol. In a coordinated, if chaotic siege of the building, thousands of Trump supporters disrupted the joint Senate and House of Representatives session to ratify the Electoral College votes. 

Lawmakers and their staff were evacuated from the building Wednesday afternoon as armed Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, entering its halls, breaking into offices, and causing mayhem. One of the most commonly expressed sentiments was that of surprise: How could this happen here? But the real question just might be: Why did it take so long?

The chaos erupted after President Trump, his son, Eric, and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, among others, offered words of encouragement to a crowd of thousands attending the “Stop The Steal” rally on the Ellipse near the White House. The president repeated his lies that the election was stolen, and told his supporters they would have to “fight much harder.” During his own speech, Giuliani said, “Let’s have trial by combat.” Is it any wonder then, that Trump supporters broke into the Capitol with guns, Confederate and Trump flags, and with alleged hopes to attack members of Congress. 

While no members of the government, nor anyone working in the Capitol building are reported to have been physically injured, it could have gone another way entirely. Many people speculated that one man who showed up armed and in tactical gear with zip ties came with the intention of taking hostages. And, people were hurt: Trump supporters attacked media crews with flagpoles, and stole and destroyed their equipment; Capitol Police killed a Trump-supporting woman, and three others died of medical emergencies Wednesday night. It wasn’t all contentious between police and protestors, though: Capitol Police were also filmed taking selfies with Trump supporters.

Rather than doing anything effective to stop his followers, President Trump offered them a video message of support. Though he told his supporters to go home, the president also offered words of encouragement, saying, “We love you; you’re very special.”  

The chaos across Capitol Hill prompted D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to issue a citywide curfew. Bowser declared a state of emergency, that will be extended until 3 P.M. on January 21, the day after Biden’s inauguration, as the city prepares for further unrest. “Some persons can be expected to continue their violent protests through the inauguration,” said Bowser.

People across the country expressed shock and horror at the violent, white supremacist show of force against the democratic process, and they were joined in their vocal dismay by many members of Congress — including otherwise steadfast Trump supporters, like Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Lindsey Graham. Once lawmakers made their way back into the Capitol on Wednesday night to certify President-Elect Joe Biden’s victory, they had the chance to disavow the events of the day, as well as the president’s role in them. Yet, even as it was interesting to see that some of the president’s allies finally broke from his rhetoric, it was too little, too late after spending the last four years fanning Trumpism’s flames. 

Vice President Mike Pence, McConnell, and Graham were among those who spoke out against the mob violence and claimed to be shocked at the events. But not only should they never be off the hook for encouraging the far right groups who spent years under Trump organizing and planning for this very moment, they should also be held to task for expressing any surprise that this happened at all. Researchers and reporters of the far right have long documented the ways the GOP and white supremacist groups have merged in recent years. No one should be surprised by the violence that took place on Wednesday. The far right has stated clearly their intentions for a violent and racist insurrection for at least the last decade, and were emboldened by this president and his Congressional allies to take concrete action. 

Fascists were honest about their goals when they attempted to take over the city of Charlottesville, VA in 2017 in the so-called Unite the Right rally, where they killed Heather Heyer and physically and emotionally traumatized many others. They were clear in their intentions when they spoke repeatedly of a desired white ethno-state, and carried out acts of deadly violence against Black people, Jewish communities, and immigrants. Fascists have repeatedly stated their goals, as the media gave them a platform to spew their hateful rhetoric, and encouraged people to debate their ideas rather than directly confronting them in the streets and online. 

Many people — including antifascists who have been demonized by liberals and conservatives, Black people, Indigenous people, queer and trans people, disabled people, immigrants, and Muslims — have warned of what would happen if we allowed fascists to take an inch. And still, people are surprised that the fascists did exactly what they said they would do. 

Rather than reckon with the root of this racist violence, by saying that yesterday’s events were an anomaly or a surprise, political leaders are consciously choosing to distance all of us, and specifically those of us benefiting from whiteness, from the reality of what led to this insurrection. What happened on Wednesday isn’t just the product of a Trump administration, but is rooted in over 200 years of white supremacist violence on which this country was founded. 

And yet on both sides of the aisle, politicians were saying things like Republican South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace, who claimed, “This is not who we are.” Incoming President Biden responded to Trump’s mob by saying: “America is so much better than what we’re seeing today.” 

The problem is — and the problem has always been — that this is exactly who we are — America is not better than this. That doesn’t mean we can’t change, but it’s not possible to change unless we confront what the problem actually is. Until then, this will be who we remain, and we will never be any better than we were on Wednesday night.

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Cops Are Taking Selfies With Violent Rioters

What Happens If The 25th Amendment Is Invoked?

What We Know About The Capitol Attack So Far

After four years and a seemingly never ending presidential election, the Trump family hoped to carry out one last multi-million dollar grift before leaving the White House next month. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner reportedly helped set up a shell company to secretly pay Trump family members more than half of the $1.26 billion raised for the president’s reelection campaign. 

Kushner helped create the company in April 2018, and appointed Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump as the president, Vice President Mike Pence’s nephew John Pence as its vice president, and Trump campaign CFO Sean Dollman as its treasurer and secretary, Business Insider reports. As one former Trump 2016 campaign advisor told the outlet, “Nothing was done without Jared’s approval.” 

Campaign finance records show that Trump’s reelection effort along with its Republican National Committee affiliate spent more than $600 million through the shell company, which was incorporated under the name American Made Media Consultants Corporation and American Made Media Consultants LLC (AMMC). 

In July, the nonpartisan watchdog group Campaign Legal Center filed an 82-page complaint with the Federal Election Commission. The complaint accuses the Trump campaign of disguising “nearly $170 million of campaign spending by laundering the funds through firms headed by Trump’s” former campaign manager Brad Parscale, “and/or created by Trump campaign lawyers.” 

According to Insider, Republican lawyer Ben Ginsberg — who previously worked with the law firm that helped Romney with a workaround during his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns to purchase TV ads — suggested that Parscale do something similar for the Trump campaign. Kushner would later sign off on the plan as a result. When reached for comment, Ginsberg told the outlet, “Can’t help you with this.” 

The Campaign Legal Center complaint further alleges that the scheme disguised “millions of dollars in payments to companies engaged in significant work in the campaign” as well as to Trump family members, including Lara Trump and Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle. A campaign spokesperson has denied the claims that AMMC paid Lara Trump or John Pence for being on the board, but the whole thing is certainly messy and suspicious. 

Furthermore, reports suggest that the shell company served as a cover for financial and operational details that the campaign wanted to keep hidden from the public, while allegedly laundering millions of dollars to the president’s top advisors and family. Brendan Fischer, the director of federal reform for the Campaign Legal Center told Insider that the payments to AMMC are a “scheme to evade telling voters even the basics on where its money is really going” and a “shield to disguise the ultimate recipients of its spending.”

The accusations may already be the subject of a criminal investigation within the Department of Justice, which would leave Trump vulnerable to an expansive legal disaster upon his departure from the White House because, no, he can’t actually pardon himself before leaving office — a shame for him, really, since it seems like there’s quite a few criminal activities in which he and his family are directly implicated. But, you know, good for America and anyone who believes people should face in consequences for their actions.

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Jared Kushner Doesn't Understand Systematic Racism

Jared Kushner Wants Trump To Keep ignoring Doctors

The Sad Reason Trump Scrapped A Federal COVID Plan

Nearly 10 months into the coronavirus pandemic, elected officials have approved just one financial relief bill, providing working people across the U.S. a one-time payment of $1,200 for individuals and $2,400 for couples. As Congress is in talks to push another smaller relief package providing people with just $600, enough for a one-time student loan payment, President Donald Trump reportedly wanted to raise that amount — and his ego, clearly hoping to leave office in a wave of popularity. 

Trump on Thursday prepared to issue a statement calling for stimulus payments of “at least” $1,200 per person or as much as $2,000 per person, officials told The Washington Post. Trump’s plan would be a double-edged sword: Americans deserve more than $600 to make ends meet (they also deserve more than a one-time $2,000 check); however, Trump being the one behind it would also allow the president to take one last victory lap before leaving the White House. In his final act, Trump would become the president who did the right thing for suffering Americans, if only to make himself look better. 

Nevertheless, Trump’s aides, along with other top Republicans in Congress, nixed the plan. “The aides were really frantic, saying, ‘We can’t do this. It will blow up negotiations,’” one person familiar with the events told the Post. Trump was apparently in the middle of drafting his statement when officials warned it would shatter the months-long negotiations between top Democrats and Republicans as they work up a relief package before a holiday recess. 

Ahead of the presidential election, Trump stated he would be open to supporting a larger stimulus package than the $2.2 trillion proposal from Democrats. But again, Republicans threw a wrench in the works, instead pushing forward an inadequate $500 billion relief bill. 

But Trump wasn’t the first to suggest a larger relief package. Sens. Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders and Ed Markey introduced a bill in May that sought to give Americans $2,000 per month for the duration of the pandemic. Every U.S. resident would have received the financial assistance, regardless of whether or not they had filed a recent tax return or have a social security number, making it an even more expansive and inclusive package. Unfortunately, the bill did not make it to the final negotiating table, and following the election victory of President-elect Joe Biden, top Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slimmed down the Democrats’ proposed COVID relief bill even more. 

As for Trump’s heftier stimulus proposal, a White House spokesperson told the Post in a statement that the president had “heard from Americans all over the country who are hurting through no fault of their own, and he’s made clear he wants the next round of relief to include stimulus checks at a significant number.” Despite what the president might be saying now, his administration has done more harm than good to the working class in his efforts to strip affordable healthcare, his attacks on labor unions, and his cuts to social security in the midst of a public health crisis. 

It should be abundantly clear that any efforts from the White House to offer more financial assistance to Americans has only one person’s best interests at heart, and that’s Trump.

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The Second Stimulus Check Will Only Be $600

The Stimulus Bill Election Day Deadline Is Tuesday

Trump Blocks Stimulus Bill Until After Election

In another blow to sex workers rights, the video-sharing social media app TikTok is allegedly booting OnlyFans creators and sex workers from its platform for violating sex and nudity policies, Rolling Stone reports. The creators who saw their accounts deleted from the app in November in what one referred to as a “TikTok purge” say that the videos they shared on the app didn’t explicitly violate any policies. 

Instead, they believe their accounts were removed for including either a direct link to OnlyFans, or to Linktree, a third-party app where creators can list all of their social media accounts in their bios. 

Lydia Love, a content creator on both sites told Rolling Stone she was very careful about what kind of content she posted on her TikTok. “I wouldn’t even type the word ‘sugar daddy,’ I would type ‘sugar daddi’ and things like that lol. And I never used the word OnlyFans on my page,” she said. Still, Love was kicked off the app in November after building up her following to nearly 100,000. While she never linked directly to her OnlyFans account, the Linktree in her bio did. 

The other handful of creators who spoke with the outlet said their videos weren’t in violation of TikTok’s policies, whose guidelines state that users are prohibited from posting, streaming, or sharing nude content in addition to “content that depicts, promotes, or glorifies sexual solicitation, including offering or asking for sexual partners, sexual chats or imagery, sexual services, premium sexual content, or sexcamming.” 

And while a representative of the app confirmed to Rolling Stone that TikTok doesn’t allow “accounts that attempt to redirect traffic,” it hasn’t cracked down on creators who link to their Twitter accounts, for example. Further free from the TikTok purge are OnlyFans creators who are either famous or more mainstream, like actress Bella Thorne. The actress received backlash in the fall for “making obscene amounts of money [on OnlyFans] without acknowledging the plight of sex workers,” as Aussie Rachel, a sex worker and OnlyFans creator, told Rolling Stone earlier this year. 

Sex workers have become increasingly vulnerable to the whims of corporate interests in digital spaces in recent years, whether that’s on social networking sites like TikTok or The New York Post. Earlier this week, a Post article outed 23-year-old New York City-based paramedic who started an OnlyFans account to supplement her income. But rather than shed light on how people are increasingly relying on informal economies — especially in the middle of a global public health crisis as the U.S. government refuses to financially help working people any meaningful way — the Post only made the EMT more vulnerable to threats of violence and the potential loss of her job. 

Any crackdowns on sex workers rights is always an assault on the most marginalized workers. To do so during a pandemic, as the industry faces further financial hardship, following years of growing hostility toward sex work, is particularly violent.    

Moreover, TikTok isn’t the only social media platform cracking down. Instagram also took a hardline stance against content created by sex workers in November when it changed its guidelines to include: “attempted coordination of or recruitment for adult sexual services” and “explicit sexual solicitation” as violations of its terms of service, Novara Media reports.

“Instagram seems intent on censoring sex workers’ voices and making it even harder for us to make money during this pandemic,” April Fiasco, a sex worker who started using the app during the pandemic, told Novara. Fiasco added that censorship on the platform “disproportionately affects marginalised communities and impacts our livelihoods.”  

To make matters worse, platforms like TikTok and Instagram have profited off the communities formed by sex workers who use them, especially as some of these creators bring in thousands of followers. One TikTok user, Rebekka Blue who also makes content on OnlyFans said her account, with 950,000 followers, was deleted after she was approved as a TikTok creator, which would allow her to make money off her posts. It wasn’t until she sought legal help that she was able to have her account restored. Others have not had the same luck, and are seeing their accounts removed for no obvious violations when their content is apparently no longer advantageous to the platform.

Despite it all, sex work is legitimate work, and the community will always find ways to keep pushing forward. As Samantha Sun told Novara, “We’re going to adapt – they can try, but we will always be able to [maneuver], to foil their plans.”

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Head Empty Just Vibes: How Bimbos Took Over TikTok

The New York Post Doxxed A Paramedic On OnlyFans

Can You Get Rich On OnlyFans? It’s Complicated

Georgia is already embroiled in legal battles as millions of people across the state are voting or preparing to vote in the January 5th Senate runoff election. In the first days of early voting, voters have cast more than 482,000 ballots, approximately one third of total votes in the 2018 statewide general election, Axios reports. That might be why four counties are making it exceedingly difficult for voters to get to the polls. 

The New Georgia Project and Democracy Docket, two organizations advocating around voting rights and fair elections, have filed lawsuits in Bibb, Clarke, Houston, and Paulding counties in Georgia. According to the lawsuits, the counties are refusing to offer early voting on “December 19th, December 31st, or on any of the days in January,” which the organizations say is required by law. 

“Georgians will be heading to the polls in this critical election under challenging conditions,” the lawsuits filed by the voting rights groups state. As such, the organizations seek “an emergency injunction ordering [the counties] and their officers, agents, servants, employees, and all persons in active concert or participation with them, to provide for advance voting,” the suit adds. 

Election officials in the four counties for their part have pointed to a strange loophole to justify their voter suppression, and are claiming that Georgia law only requires early voting on weekends during a primary or general election, but not in a runoff. But the voting rights groups say the actions taken by election officials in these counties threaten “to disenfranchise voters in this critical election.” 

In the more than six weeks since the presidential election, Donald Trump and his supporters both in Congress and in the streets have continued to push a false narrative of widespread voter fraud. According to the president and his loyalists, the election was rigged, ultimately leading to President-elect Joe Biden’s win. There is no proof of voter fraud in the presidential election, which is also evidenced by the fact that the Trump campaign has lost more than 30 of its lawsuits challenging the election results. 

With that in mind, and the potential for Georgia’s runoff election to solidify Democratic control of the U.S. Senate, this election will undoubtedly face even more scrutiny. That might be why Republicans, including the campaigns of Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, have launched their own attacks on voting rights across the state, filing three separate lawsuits that seek to restrict absentee voting ahead of the election. The suits target the legality of using drop-boxes for absentee ballots and make their signature requirements even more complicated. 

Georgia’s runoff appears to be the latest battleground for Republican-led attacks on voting that will surely continue into the next year in response to the nationwide expansion of accessible voting — due to the deadly coronavirus pandemic — in the 2020 presidential election. 

But Trump and the GOP’s continued bad faith attacks on voting rights don’t just hurt Democratic voters, they hurt everyone. And we would all be better off rejecting these attacks for what they are: an assault on the most vulnerable communities across the country in an effort to maintain power for the wealthy few. 

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Two more states have filed a Supreme Court brief on Friday in support of an improbable Texas lawsuit that seeks to overturn the election results in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Georgia. The lawsuit, filed by Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton with support in 17 states and from more than 100 House Republicans, can now also add the very real and absolutely not made up states of “New Nevada” and “New California” to the list of backers. 

“New California State and New Nevada State are directly impacted by the arbitrary and capricious changes in election laws and procedures occur with unfortunate regularity in the current States of California and Nevada,” writes Pahrump, Nevada attorney Robert E. Thomas III, in the brief. It’s totally possible that these two states have been impacted by changes in election laws, just not within the United States because, well, they don’t exist. 

While Paxton’s lawsuit focuses on battleground states where Trump lost to President-elect Joe Biden, Thomas’s brief spends more time attacking Democratic Governors Steve Sisolak of Nevada and Gavin Newsom of California, which is spelled “Newsome” throughout. The brief also continues Thomas’s apparent advocacy for secession from Nevada and California in order to form their “New” state counterparts.

It didn’t take long for New Nevada and New California to go viral online. The weeks since the election — and the entire year, for that matter — have been so bonkers that adding a couple of imaginary states to the mix just feels like more of the same chaotic energy of 2020 at this point. One person responding to the brief wondered, “How the hell did we get New Nevada and New California, before the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico become states?”

Another person mocked Trump’s recent false claim that no presidential candidate had ever lost the presidency while winning Florida and Ohio, because it seems that Trump had his states mixed up. In reality, “No candidate has ever won New Nevada and New California but lost the presidency.” Meanwhile, someone noted that this latest brief “takes this Texas case to circus level. It was already ridiculous, but this makes a total mockery of the court.” 

While there is nothing legally stopping anyone from filing an amicus brief in support of a plaintiff or defendant, it’s still absolutely wild to see two imaginary states join the intensifying political battle over the presidential election. As the never-ending election drags on, Trump has not only made history as one of the most hated presidents ever, he’s also the first to receive support from two states that don’t exist. At this point, we can’t make this stuff up.

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More than a month has passed since Joe Biden won the presidential election — which definitely feels more like a decade in pandemic time — and still, President Donald Trump has refused to concede. Trump has, for the most part, continued to maintain his very false and disproven narrative that he actually won the election and that the Democrats tried to steal it by making voting more accessible during a public health crisis. 

But on Friday, something miraculous happened, and as one might expect with matters relating to the current president, the miracle happened on Twitter. Early Friday morning, Trump decided to start his day with some posting, and this time he slipped up a little bit, as he declared, “Now that the Biden Administration will be a scandal plagued mess for years to come, it is much easier for the Supreme Court of the United States to follow the Constitution and do what everybody knows has to be done.” Trump added, “They must show great Courage & Wisdom. Save the USA!!!” (Zoom in on Biden Administration.)

This tweet, which is still absurd, is the closest Trump has come to a concession in the presidential election. His acknowledgement that a “Biden Administration” exists at all is an admission on some level that there will be a new president in the White House very soon. Trump’s tweet also comes off as super petty, calling attention to the announcement this week that the Department of Justice is investigating Biden’s son for alleged criminal violations of tax and money laundering laws. It’s almost as if Trump couldn’t concede without first making sure that Biden has a scandal looming over his administration from day one. 

But Trump’s Friday morning ramblings weren’t the first time he came close to accepting defeat. In his first public remarks to reporters after losing the election, Trump stated that his administration would not authorize another lockdown to deal with a possible COVID surge, but he couldn’t say the same for Biden.  “I will not go – this administration will not be going to a lockdown. Hopefully the – whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration will be. I guess time will tell,” he said, which sounded a lot like an acknowledgement of his loss. 

A few days later, the president again tweeted what sounded like a possible concession, writing that Biden “won because the Election was Rigged,” and in a separate tweet, claimed that Biden “only won in the eyes of the FAKE NEWS MEDIA.” 

Despite his near-concessions, Trump’s legal team is still filing lawsuits in battleground states that he lost, trying to prove without evidence that some kind of nefarious, Democratic plot took place across the country to steal the election from him. For someone who claims incessantly to have won the election, it sure sounds like Trump is doing a lot of losing.

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