- Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke shutting down a soulless Greg Abbott supporter
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Well folks, it’s the FBI raid that keeps on giving, at least for the news cycle.
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Attorney General Merrick Garland made an unscheduled press statement today and he said a hell of a lot given that he spoke for just about four minutes. Garland confirmed that the FBI executed a search warrant at Trump’s Florida beachfront monstrosity, and confirmed that he personally ordered it. He announced he has petitioned the southern district court of Florida to unseal the warrant and the property receipt of what the agents seized, both of which were provided to Trump as is standard procedure. He’s kicking the ball back to Republicans who have been screaming, “Unseal the warrant!!!” (without asking Trump to simply post it online) and denouncing the search as a political witch hunt. My guess is they won’t like what they find. The ball is now in Trump’s court to object or consent—which is a pretty good chess move by Handsome Merrick.
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Garland also said he did not approve this probe lightly. “Where possible, it is standard practice to seek less intrusive means as an alternative to a search,” perhaps hinting at Trump’s months of noncompliance, which seemingly forced the DOJ's hand. He also personally addressed attacks on the FBI and other DOJ employees, saying, “I will not stand by silently while their integrity is unfairly attacked,” and called them “dedicated patriotic public servants.” Garland has a notorious poker face, but we’re pretty sure this was him expressing as much anger as he’s capable of.
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His point about DOJ trying to explore “less intrusive” methods before the search is supported by new information that Trump received a subpoena this spring in search of the stolen documents that prompted the raid. (Imagine, the government subpoenaing Trump for things that belong to the government!) One thing to note is that if the property receipt becomes public, it will likely be redacted to shield classified material. According to an exclusive brief in the Washington Post, classified documents related to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents sought at Mar-a-Lago, which is both chilling and bonkers. Some senior Republicans have been warned by Trump allies not to continue aggressively criticizing the Justice Department and the FBI as they have so loudly been doing, in anticipation of additional potentially damaging information related to the search coming to light.
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But the damage is clearly already done.
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We’ve reported about the deeply disturbing threats of violence towards DOJ officials and the judge who signed off on the warrant, among others, but they seemed to come to a head today when a man wearing body armor tried to break into the FBI’s Cincinnati office at 9 a.m. After an alarm sounded, the man, 42-year-old Ricky Shiffer, fled and eventually gunfire was exchanged. Law enforcement attempted to negotiate with the suspect during an hours-long standoff and tried to take him into custody, but Shiffer refused to stand down, and was in the end fatally shot by law enforcement. Shiffer appears to have ties to the January 6 insurrection and there is a Truth Social account in his name. A healthy user base for Trump’s healthy social-media platform.
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The FBI raid has emboldened a frightening demographic of far-right Trump supporters, but despite what some centrist and conservative commentators would have you believe, that group was already extreme and highly active. Consider that with a few exceptions, almost every Trump-backed Republican who pedaled the Big Lie won their primaries, and almost all of those who didn’t toe the line lost their seats. Only two of the 10 House Republicans who supported Trump’s impeachment after January 6 survived the purge. Trump’s most ardent supporters are conspiracy theorists who have already taken to seditious violence, tampering with ballot boxes and intimidating poll workers, among other extreme measures. They killed a woman at Charlottesville, they chanted demands to hang the vice president. This was not a group that was going to suddenly be reasonable if the FBI never set foot in Mar-a-Lago.
As extremism goes mainstream in the Republican Party, it’s more important than ever to drown out their violent demands through organizing in an effort to cut off every fascist candidate at the knees.
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DARE WE SAY is out now! Every week, three fearless young actors & best friends Josie Totah, Alycia Pascual-Peña, and Yasmine Hamady will discuss the issues that affect their lives and they won’t shy away from diving deep into controversial topics. The show's so fun, so smart, and it’s Crooked intern approved!
The first episode is out now. Follow and listen to DARE WE SAY wherever you get your podcasts.
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A couple in Tulsa, Oklahoma was forced to make a horrifying decision when Lori Brown-Loftis discovered during her 20-week pregnancy scan that the fetus had a rare genetic disorder “not compatible with life.” Oklahoma law, even some months before Roe vs. Wade was overturned, dictated that Loftis would have to carry to term for an additional 4+ months and give birth to a dead baby, so she was forced to travel to New Mexico to have an abortion. Oklahoma now outlaws abortion almost entirely, but the legislation does not address fatal fetal abnormalities. One in every 33 babies born in the U.S. is affected by fetal abnormalities, which vary in severity and account for 20 percent of infant deaths. According to the CDC, some defects cannot be detected until later in the pregnancy. The dishonest rhetoric anti-aboriton advocates and lawmakers have used for decades about “the horrors of late-term abortion” has been shockingly effective. Now we can see what the pro-choice movement has said for so long: that the actual horror lies in banning it.
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The FBI delivered subpoenas to several state House and Senate Republican offices in Pennsylvania over the past few days. Those guys are really on a roll this week.
New research identified that striking decreases in the stress hormone cortisol in the blood were the strongest predictor for who would develop long Covid.
Former Miss America and Harvard Law School graduate Cara Mund decided to run for Congress as an Independent in her home state of North Dakota after seeing the swift erosion of abortion rights.
Poland and Germany have seen a mass fish die-off along the Oder River amid severe drought and wildfires still plaguing Europe.
Multiple studies have confirmed that since 1979, the Arctic has warmed four times faster than the rest of the globe.
A judge declared a mistrial in the lawsuit to decide whether particular engineering firms should be held responsible for the lead-contaminated water in Flint, MI, after the jury could not reach a verdict.
New satellite images revealed heavy damage to a Russian air base in Crimea that saw major explosions earlier this week, suggesting Ukrainian abilities to strike deep behind enemy lines, which could change the course of the ongoing war.
Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Arizona Blake Masters had claimed he is unfamiliar with Andrew Torba, the CEO of Gab (a far-right, white-nationalist social network) who endorsed him. New leaked audio proves he was lying.
A former Trump staffer has created a new dating app for Republicans called “The Right Stuff” who, suspend your gag reflex, “know traditional is attractive.” And they said dating apps couldn’t get any worse.
One year after returning to power, there appears to be an uneasy but certain detente in Kabul and throughout the country between the Taliban and Afghans.
More than 10,000 Americans have tested positive for Monkeypox since the outbreak began, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) failed to appear for his subpoena at the Fulton County courthouse in Georgia to testify for a special grand jury investigating possible 2020 election interference in the state. Great choice! Good luck with that!
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Two days ago, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted “Do you make $75,000 or less? Democrats’ new army of 87,000 IRS agents will be coming for you—with 710,000 new audits for Americans who earn less than $75k.” He was parroting talking points from basically every conservative politician and commentator that the Inflation Reduction Act’s $80 billion appropriation for the Internal Revenue Service means more taxes and more audits for middle-class Americans. And it’s just not fucking true. The 87,000 agents figure was plucked from a Treasury report from May 2021, not even used in the Inflation Reduction Act. The facts are these: the IRS has been systematically defunded for decades, and total staff is currently equal to what it was during World War II, when the U.S. population was less than half what it is now. Much of the funding will go towards rehiring due to the fact that over half(!) the current IRS staff is eligible for retirement in the next five years. Onto the audits: IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, who was appointed by Donald Trump, said in an August 4 letter to lawmakers that after the bill was approved, “audit scrutiny” would not be raised on small businesses or middle-income Americans. Rettig, I repeat: a Trump appointee, said, “The proposal would direct that additional resources go toward enforcement against those with the highest incomes, rather than Americans with actual income of less than $400,000.” Which is, you know, exactly what Democrats have been saying this whole time. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen wrote a letter directing the IRS specifically not to increase audits on households making less than $400,000 per year when the Inflation Reduction Act is passed, which is a head-scratching choice, as it seems to only play into Republican talking points needlessly. Wealthy Republican lawmakers and pundits have a vested interest in killing any tax bill that targets them, and they use this same playbook of spuriously insisting that the middle class will suffer every time. Don’t let anyone fall for it.
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