Crooked Media - What A Day: Darkest hour before the Ron

- Georgia GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker setting expectations for his October 14th debate with Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA)

Disgraced former president Trump can’t help but be felled by his own narcissism and hubris, like the main character of a Greek tragedy, but significantly dumber.
 

• In a filing with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta on Friday night, prosecutors said the government faces irreparable harm as a result of Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling halting the investigative team’s ability to review and investigate classified records until an outside “special master” conducts a review of them. The filing was characterized as an “unsparing rejection of Cannon’s handling of the entire matter,” and stated that it jeopardized national security, is based on flimsy interpretations of executive privilege, and could enable further obstruction of justice. Yowza.
   

• For his part, Trump has fully embraced the violent QAnon cult. He recently shared a photoshopped image of himself wearing a “Q” pin on Truth Social, and at a Saturday night rally in Youngstown, OH, his production team played music inspired by the QAnon theme song, while his QAnon fans did a QAnon-style fascist salute. I’m sorry, but, I just…conspiracy theorists have their own theme songs now?? In any event, the rally was held for Ohio Republican Senate Nominee and full-time charlatan J.D. Vance, but it was clear who the crowd was there to see. Trump even said, “J.D. is kissing my ass, he wants my support so bad,” to thunderous applause, because of course he did. And despite that humiliation, Vance definitely does want his support that badly. 
   

• Trump revels in stringing his loyalists along about whether or not he will run in 2024 (always implying that, yes, he will). But there’s also the issue of Trump’s legal team, which was famously difficult for him to assemble, as even the usual roster of truly unscrupulous, scumbag lawyers don’t want to have to hire lawyers of their own. The Trump legal team has been a clown show fraught with infighting. Two members of the team have subjected themselves to scrutiny from federal law enforcement over false assurances they provided to prosecutors and federal agents in June that Trump had returned all requested documents he stole and kept at Mar-a-Lago.

For anyone who knowingly hitches their wagon to Trump, it stands to reason that criminal action is not far behind.
 

• Jury selection began today in the trial of Tom Barrack, the private equity executive and onetime Trump and Republican Party fundraiser, who later became a lobbyist for the United Arab Emirates to secretly influence Trump’s campaign and administration between 2016-2018. This was not just a loose or coincidental association, either: Barrack chaired Trump’s inauguration committee and worked closely with his administration for the first half of his presidency. Serious question: was there a single corner of Trump’s government not staffed by crooks?
   

• The legions of followers who adhere so tightly to Trump’s every word are, unsurprisingly, no strangers to crime either. A CBS News review of Justice Department court filings shows a growing number of January 6 defendants have been arrested, again, for subsequent crimes involving guns, drugs, and domestic abuse. It’s always the ones you least suspect! For instance: U.S. Naval reservist Hatchet Speed (a name which I will never get tired of writing) has been indicted on a series of additional charges unrelated to January 6, and subsequently made statements to the police glorifying violence, expressing admiration for convicted domestic terrorists like Ted Kaczynski, and described Adolf Hitler as “one of the best people that’s ever been on this earth.” Sounds like a chill, normal guy! 

On the newest episode of Political Experts React, Pod Save America host Dan Pfeiffer is joined by Crooked Media Co-founder and host of The Wilderness podcast Jon Favreau. Together the guys break down new great and terrible midterm battleground ads from Republican Herschel Walker in Georgia, Nevada Democrat Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto's 'Succession' ad against Republican Adam Laxalt, and the latest attack ad from Dr. Oz against Democrat John Fetterman in the Pennsylvania Senate race. Plus, Jon talks about how effective he believes these ads will be on voters based on the focus groups he conducted for season 3 of The Wilderness. You don't want to miss this!

Check out this episode now at www.youtube.com/c/CrookedMedia!

Hurricane Fiona is the latest climate disaster to hit land, dropping 30 inches of rain onto Puerto Rico which caused an island-wide power outage, along with widespread damage to homes and infrastructure. President Biden authorized FEMA to mobilize and coordinate aid with Gov. Pedro Pierluisi. New York will send more than 100 Spanish-speaking members of its state police to assist the Puerto Rican government as the scope of damage continues to be assessed. Seventy percent of island residents remain without power or water service thanks to its already-fragile electrical grid. This was especially devastating given that Puerto Rico has yet to fully recover from 2017’s Hurricane Maria, which killed nearly 3,000 people and destroyed the power grid. Moving from one island to another, Hurricane Fiona then battered the Dominican Republic, setting off mudslides that damaged highways and shuttered resorts. The storm is expected to strengthen as it makes its way to Turks and Caicos tomorrow.

Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral was held today at Westminster Abbey, and it was broadcast on what felt like every single television channel, all day.

An Alabama poll worker was fired after he asked Alabama State Republican Party Chairman John Wahl and his family to present identification before voting, as is, you know, required by an Alabama law created by Republicans.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) told a former White House aide he wanted a pre-emptive pardon from then-President Trump for the investigation into his alleged sex trafficking. We love this new “I definitely didn’t do this crime but let’s just get out in front of it and give me a pardon for having done it,” legal strategy.

New court documents allege that in 2019, then-Gov. Phil Bryant (R-MS) threatened to cut state welfare funding in order to hurt his political rival, then-state Attorney General Jim Hood, whose wife was employed at a poverty-fighting nonprofit. 

A magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck western Mexico today, triggering the U.S. Tsunami Warning System near the coast of the country’s southwestern state of Michoacán.

The new chief of staff to British Prime Minister Liz Truss, Mark Fullbrook, was interviewed by the FBI as a witness about work he did for a banker accused of bribing the governor of Puerto Rico in 2020. 

The GOP is walloping Democrats in terms of television ad spending, and in many cases just outspending Dems overall in key races, another one of the Dem establishment’s head-scratching decisions which make a lot of us extremely fucking nervous!

Gov. Glenn Younkin (R-VA) sharply restricted the rights of transgender students in public schools over the weekend with new policies that must be adopted by all of the state’s school districts next month. Truly an exceptionally bad guy!

Younkin, who ran as a “normal” Republican (and tricked lots of reporters into repeating the claim!) has now fully endorsed the Big Lie wing of his party and will campaign for Arizona GOP gubernatorial nominee/Miss Stop-the-Steal pageant winner Kari Lake.

President Biden went on 60 Minutes last night to speak about his recent legislative accomplishments and recent challenges, and said, among other things, that “the pandemic is over.” A bold statement from someone who had back-to-back cases of COVID a few weeks ago.

Attorneys for the dozens of Venezuelan migrants who were unceremoniously dumped onto the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard last week have called on state and federal prosecutors to open a criminal investigation of the heinous political stunt orchestrated by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). Newly surfaced documents suggest that the migrants were provided with false information to convince them to board the flights DeSantis chartered, seemingly at taxpayer expense! He also sent a videographer to document the whole disgusting ordeal. DeSantis adamantly denies misleading the migrants. He and his administration have repeatedly referred to the migrants as “illegal immigrants” but they surrendered to immigration officials immediately upon crossing the Texas border, seeking asylum from the authoritarian regime in their home country, and are therefore legally permitted to remain in the United States until their cases are decided by immigration courts.

Stop Classroom Censorship.
 

In classrooms and educational spaces across our country, a coordinated attack on our students’ right to learn is underway right now. We need your help to stop unconstitutional classroom censorship bills – sign up today to fight back.  

Instead of encouraging learning, classroom censorship bills effectively gag educators and students from learning and talking about issues related to race and gender that impact their everyday lives. 

We’ll be clear: Every young person has a First Amendment right to read and learn about the history and viewpoints of all communities – including their own identity – in and outside of the classroom. This wave of censorship legislation is attempting to erase the legacy of discrimination and lived experiences of Black and Brown people, women and girls, and LGBTQ+ individuals. And it’s refusing to let students think for themselves.

That’s why the ACLU is already hard at work to fight back against these damaging censorship bills and book bans through lawsuits and fierce advocacy. But while our teams push exhaustively in the courts and the statehouses – public support is also going to make a huge difference in the fight. Add your name today to join us in the fight against classroom censorship.

Thank you for taking action,

The ACLU Team

A first-of-its-kind database tracking the world’s fossil-fuel production, reserves, and emissions launched today. I have a feeling the data won't be good, but at least we'll know it's there!

(Fingers crossed) Midterms are shaping up to be a “political watershed” for female candidates in Massachusetts poised to win their elections. 

A Baltimore judge has overturned the murder conviction of Adnan Syed and freed him after 23 years in prison, finding that prosecutors failed to turn over evidence that could have helped Syed at trial and discovered new evidence that could have affected the outcome of his case.

An American contractor who has been held hostage by the Taliban for over two years has been released in exchange for a convicted Taliban drug lord jailed in the United States. Does this constitute strictly “good news”? Probably not, but we’re trying.