More international action from Biden as vaccination skepticism remains high in red zones. With the Supreme Court up for change, what could possibly go wrong? 

This episode features the song “Aside” by Normcore, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Links to this weeks stories :

00:05 Introduction to today's topics

01:12 Russian Sanctions 

• SolarWinds Breach prompted the issue 
• Actions taken are considered the less punitive measures that were on the table
• Largely focusing on decreasing the ability to borrow money for key actors in the Russian government 
• Though these intrusions are no uncommon, due to the scope and specifically targeted anti-democratic bend to the attack, it cannot go unaddressed 

04:50 NYT Vaccination Report

• Direct correlation between skepticism of the vaccine and support for Donald Trump 
• 1/20 democrats say they are skeptical of the vaccine while 1/2 of republicans say they do not plan on getting the shot 
• States such as Wyoming and Iowa claim they are receiving more doses than needed, due to a lack of vaccine appointments from citizens in the area 
• States such as Michigan are struggling to keep up with demand for vaccinations while asking for more federal assistance 

08:44 Supreme Court 

• Democrats reportedly preparing a bill that increases the court by 4 justices
• Goes against all precedent 
• Directly flies in the face of the idea of non-escalation of political bipartisanship
• A proposed alternative idea is to make the court a non-political position by adding a term limit, with no re-election, to decrease tensions