Ron DeSantis

The Ambassador Bridge reopened Sunday night after right-wing protests over vaccine mandates halted international traffic at the essential border crossing for nearly a week.

While protests continue in other parts of Canada, including the country’s capital, police cleared the blockade at the Ambassador Bridge after a court injunction went into effect Friday ordering truckers and their supporters to leave the area.

On Monday, writing for The Week, Neil J. Young noted that former Vice President Mike Pence made a "deal with the devil" to position himself for the presidency in 2024 — only to see those ambitions implode as the Republican base marginalizes him.

Pence's recent speech condemning Trump's claims that he could have overturned the election, wrote Young, were an outlier. "More than evincing honor or bravery, Pence's speech served to highlight all the times he stayed quiet while Trump ran roughshod over the Constitution, demeaned the office of the presidency, and weakened the democratic foundations of the American system. Instead of showing his integrity, Pence revealed his bald self-interest. As a person close to him admitted to CNN, Pence has never wanted to rebuke Trump for any of his many wrongdoings or his numerous character failures. 'But if something is falsely said about him,' the source said of Pence, 'he is going to correct it.'"

As Florida's dangerous and possibly unconstitutional "Don't Say Gay" bill gathers nationwide attention and condemnation – making it more likely to be passed and signed into law by Republican governor and rumored 2024 presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, another Republican is dusting off his own "Don't Say Gay" bill to push his "Christian values" agenda.

Tennessee state Rep. Bruce Griffey says if schools are forcing him to teach Christian values at home because they won't teach them in the classroom, they should not be allowed to "promote" what his legislation calls "LGBT issues or lifestyles."

On Friday, The Washington Post reported on how Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is attempting to push the GOP-controlled legislature to pass a more aggressive gerrymander of the state's congressional maps — in particular urging they carve up a North Florida district spanning from Tallahassee to Jacksonville that exists to allow Black voters to elect a candidate of their choice.

The new report notes that even some Republicans who are normally allied with him are pushing back on the idea.

Opponents of bigotry and censorship are raising their voices in protest after Florida's GOP-controlled Senate Education Committee on Tuesday advanced legislation that would effectively prohibit teachers from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity in primary grades or at any level "in a manner that is not age-appropriate."

"It is always appropriate for kids to talk about themselves, their experiences, and their family. These are not taboo subjects, but banning them makes them seem so."

All over the United States, far-right Republicans in state legislatures have been pushing bills that prohibit teaching “critical race theory” in public schools. But CRT, a field of academic study found on some college campuses, isn’t even taught in K-12 schools in the United States — and the race-baiting bills are really a broad attack on any teachers who discuss the country’s racist past in any way. These bills, liberal Washington Post opinion columnist Greg Sargent warns in his February 9 column, are promoting a Republican “snitch culture” designed to bully and intimidate teachers and make them feel they have to walk on eggshells in the classroom.

Some of the bills being passed encourage parents or students to call a tip line and report any teacher who teaches CRT in the classroom, but the material that causes problems for the teacher doesn’t really have to be CRT-related — it could be anything from Toni Morrison’s work to “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” Moreover, MAGA Republicans’ anti-CRT hysteria is, as Sargent points out, going beyond racial matters and venturing into anti-gay territory.

On vaccines and science, and treatment of Black people and transgender people, Governor Ron DeSantis and Joe Rogan have a lot in common, which may be why the Florida Republican is rushing to defend the multi-millionaire podcaster.

A top Florida paper's opinion columnist recently called DeSantis a "vaccine denier in all but name."

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday for the first time showed support for an anti-LGBTQ bill that bans discussion of LGBTQ issues or topics in schools while forcing teachers to out children to their parents at home.

“In terms of the schools, we’ve seen instances of students being told by different folks in school, ‘Oh, you know, don’t worry, don’t pick your gender yet. Do all this other stuff,'” DeSantis said Monday, Florida Politics reports. “They won’t tell the parents about these discussions that are happening. That is entirely inappropriate.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence last week made headlines when he stood his ground and told former President Donald Trump that he was wrong about his ability to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Pence's speech earned him praise even from many conservative publications, including the right-wing Wall Street Journal editorial page, which called the former president's rhetoric about overturning the election "disgraceful."

Mike Pence's rebuke of Donald Trump on Friday was the beginning of the end for the former president, according to former GOP Congresswoman Barbara Comstock.

"I think what you're seeing is, the Trump operation is in sort of a meltdown," Comstock told CNN on Saturday. "Of course, Mike Pence is right — Donald Trump was wrong — and he basically also called him un-American, and he did it in front of conservative Federalist Society members who gave him a standing ovation."

The Republican National Committee on Friday passed a resolution censuring Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) for participating in the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riots.

While the resolution censuring the two Republicans had been widely reported, the actual text of the resolution still managed to shock many journalists.