Out d’Coup | Build Back Better; Dems Coming Apart; Kellogg’s Strike; bell hooks; PA Democracy Not OK; PA Maps; Philly Proud Boys Arrested; NASA James Web Telescope; Last Show of 2021; Thank You!

The FDA has permanently lifted a restriction on access to abortion pills. This will allow patients to receive the medication by mail instead of requiring them to schedule an in-person appointment with specially certified health care providers. The decision will not change state laws that ban the pills, but it’s one piece of positive news in an otherwise dark future for abortion rights. 

President Biden indicates that the Build Back Better bill will not be passed before the Christmas break, despite Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer’s assurances that it would. The Senate had no problem, however, of passing a $768 billion, one-year defense spending bill on a vote of 88-11. So, we won’t get critical climate action, paid family leave, universal preschool, or hearing aid coverage, but we will get more, shiny nuclear weapons this holiday season. 

Did 

1,400 Union workers at Kellogg’s may have an agreement that would end their 10-week strike. But don’t celebrate yet. While negotiators said they have an agreement, workers still need to vote on the agreement. Workers voted down the last tentative agreement after workers refused a two-tiered workforce that would have sold out newer workers. 

Schools in Pennsylvania and several other states have increased police presence around schools today in response to national TikTok trend to threaten school shootings and bombings. Generally, officials are saying the threats are not credible, but are taking no chances. 

bell hooks, one of the most important black feminist writers, scholars, and activists has died at the age of 69. She began writing her ground-breaking book, Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, when she was a 19-year-old undergraduate. Her long collaboration with Cornell West provided some of the most important dialogic books for a generation of public intellectuals and activists. 

Democracy in Pennsylvania is not ok.  Pennsylvania House Democrats stood up to the GOP’s attacks on voting rights and the democratic institutions protecting those rights this week.  Progressives, led by Emily Kinkead and Chris Rabb, held a press conference Wednesday morning bringing attention to the GOP’s efforts to undermine democracy and weaponizing constitutional amendments aimed at those institutions while leadership used the House Floor to air their concerns.

Republicans are pushing constitutional amendments that would immediately dissolve and gerrymander Pennsylvania’s supreme court, change the court’s 10 year term limits to 2 years, change the Secretary of State’s appointed position to an elected position, allow fraudits and give the legislature more control in overseeing elections. 

The Legislative Reapportionment Committee released their preliminary house and senate maps yesterday and Republicans are upset at the House maps calling them a Democratic Gerrymander.

Water is wet and the New York Times recently reported that Scott Perry and other friends from the Freedom Caucus attended key meetings with Trump to overturn the 2020 election. 

Philadelphia Developer Ori Feibush uses scab labor and someone died at his worksite. The worker, Siarhei Marhunou, was employed by a company called DBCI LLC. DBCI had been subcontracted to work on the project by the Huntingdon Valley-based construction company Hammers Contractors. Hammers had, in turn, been contracted by the Fitler Construction Group, which was managing construction for OCF, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Three more Proud Boys from Philly were arrested Friday and charged in connection with the January 6 insurrection. Isaiah Giddens, Brian Healion, and Freedom Vy decided taking pictures of themselves flashing the white supremacist “OK” sign inside Senator Jeff Ferkley’s offices was a good idea at the time. Time to pay the piper. 

NASA’s James Webb telescope is set to launch as early as Christmas Eve, December 24, according to Space.com. The James Web telescope is NASA's next "Great Observatory" and is set to launch from Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. 

SpaceX is looking at sexual harassment allegations from five former employees. 

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter crossed the 30 minutes of flight time threshold.