Crash Course: Kyrsten Sinema follows the money

[View this email in your browser]( Your daily update from [Salon](. Written by [Brett Bachman](. Big pharma donates big money to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema has drawn headlines recently for her loud opposition to a Democratic plan to lower prescription drug costs by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug costs — a proposition that is heavily favored in opinion polls both in her home state and nationwide. To boot, she repeatedly promised to lower prescription drug prices and drug costs for seniors during her successful 2018 Senate campaign. Naturally, the question on everyone's mind is: what gives? [So Salon reporter Igor Derysh set out to discover what changed Sinema's mind]( — and got a big hint when he added up all of the controversial senator's campaign donations. In fact, she received more than $750,000 in donations from the pharmaceutical and medical device industries before her most recent change of heart. The report clearly touched a nerve — the phrase "$750K to Kyrsten Sinema" was trending on Twitter for a while Thursday morning. You can [read the entire breakdown here](. Gabrielle Union's radical transparency Most people know Gabrielle Union as an actress — and she certainly is that, with a celebrated Hollywood career and dozens of movies under her belt. But she's also in recent years tried her hand as a writer, and seen some pretty striking success at that as well. Her most recent book, "You Got Anything Stronger?" is, partly, a look into the unique struggles that being considered perfect by the outside world can bring. [Salon's D. Watkins sat down with Union for an episode of "Salon Talks"]( to talk about the book — and about the virtues of expressing pain and suffering in a world that more often than not can bring both, regardless of how other people may perceive you. "There is no such thing as a perfect relationship. It could be perfect in moments; not perfect, but real, amazing moments. But when the goal is perfection, you'll always feel like a failure. But if the goal is, 'Today, I choose you. I'm in this fight with you. I'm in these trenches with you, and I am loving you. And the things that I don't love about myself, that I'm projecting onto you, I am committing to work on, and vice versa. We have to figure out how to make all of these moving parts that are messy and complicated, but true, work.'" "And there's a commitment every day. And there's a lot of joy, and a lot of love, and a lot of adventures and antics, and this and that. But there's a lot of mess in there too. And to be fair, you kind of got to talk about the mess because you can't just always present this idea of perfection. It doesn't actually exist." [Watch — or read — the full interview here](. (Photo via Mike Coppola/Getty Images) - The first [Jan. 6 subpoenas have hit Trumpworld]( - COVID is changing Trump country: [Alabama's population shrinks for the first time in history]( - Experts say the now-waning delta surge [may be the last major COVID-19 wave]( - Matt Gaetz' sex trafficking scandal enters strange territory: [The allegations apparently leaked to the cartoonist behind "Dilbert"]( before becoming public - "This is super illegal": [Lauren Boebert used campaign cash to pay her rent]( FEC filing shows - Special envoy to Haiti [resigns in protest of Biden's continuation of Trump immigration policy]( - Bleak as it seems, [geoengineering may be the only way to save Earth]( from climate change - Rupert Murdoch "privately acknowledged" climate change — [while Fox News hosts denied it even existed]( - And, finally, [try Vallery Lomas's hushpuppies]( — they will cure your fear of frying Not a subscriber yet? [Sign up]( to receive Crash Course. Exactly one year ago, Trump warned us On Sept. 23 of last year, [Salon columnist Brian Karem asked then-President Donald Trump a simple question]( Would he commit to a peaceful transfer of power? It wasn't a question that anyone had ever thought to ask a sitting U.S. president, really. "I might as well have asked if they intended to continue breathing," Karem writes. But that day, Trump took 200-plus years of American history and shredded it: "We're going to have to see what happens. I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster. . . get rid of the ballots . . . and there won't be a transfer, frankly, they'll be a continuation. The ballots are out of control. You know it . . ." "No I don't," Karem replied. "Trump's traitorous, convoluted and muddy thinking, his flash over substance, his obfuscation of facts and his total disregard for the truth and decency was horrifying then and has largely overwhelmed American politics now," Karem reflects on the one-year anniversary of these comments. "There are those so convinced that Trump got screwed in the 2020 election that they'll defend the treasonous actions of the insurrectionists on Jan. 6, while at the same time denying that Trump whipped them into a frenzy or that they were in a frenzy at all. With the same breath, there are those who will say the insurrection was a peaceful protest, an FBI, Black Lives Matter or antifa violent action, that it did not occur or was justified or — shudder — was even patriotic. The actions of that day were the actions of domestic terrorists. I was there. I witnessed it." "And a year later, the United States looks even more lost." (Photo via Getty Images) - "[American Gentry]( The Atlantic - "[The ‘Great British Bake Off’ Hall of Fame]( The Ringer - "[Why everybody’s hiring but nobody’s getting hired]( Vox - "‘[The Conjuring’ House Is Asking $1.2 Million (Spirits Included)]( The Wall Street Journal - "[Lil Nas X Deserves a Better Industry]( Vulture McEnany bungles her Biden burn In theory, ex-White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany knows that Donald Trump was president at some point. She worked for the guy, after all. But after a Twitter brouhaha Thursday, it's hard to tell. She tried to get a burn in on current President Joe Biden by reposting a graphic that showed a huge uptick in the U.S. murder rate during 2020. "The U.S. murder rate under Joe Biden..." she wrote. There was only one problem — Donald Trump was president for that entire time. The good users over at Twitter.com, of course, [made sure to point out her error.]( She eventually deleted the original post and tried again: "From the White House podium in August 2020, I warned Defund would result in rising crime. Sadly, I was right. Biden you enabled this," she wrote. "Defund, Democrat mayors, you own this!" (Photo via Getty Images) Have a tip for Salon? Feedback on this newsletter? [Let us know](mailto:brett.bachman@salon.com). [Share]( [Share]( [Tweet]( [Tweet]( [Forward]( [Forward]( Copyright © 2021 Salon.com, LLC, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at Salon.com Our mailing address is: Salon.com, LLC 1000 N. West StreetWilmington, DE 19801 [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. [Mailchimp Email Marketing](