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- Washington, DC Police officer Michael Fanone giving us a midterms slogan we can all get behind
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It has been two years since the 2020 election, but Donald Trump still looms large as we head into midterm elections next Tuesday, and further on into 2024.
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A new set of emails provided to congressional investigators which were ordered released by a federal judge in California—show that Trump’s lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and John Eastman saw Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as the key player who could help them overturn the 2020 presidential election. Thomas oversees emergency petitions from the circuit court that includes Georgia, the state that was the linchpin of the coup plot. Thomas, of all of the Justices not directly appointed by Trump, is widely considered the most sympathetic to Trump, and his wife Ginni is a MAGA psycho who advocated the coup directly to Republicans in power .
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Trump has been teasing a 2024 run for some time now, and lately he seems more serious about it. His former chief of staff Reince Priebus (remember this asshole?) said he believes there is a “95 percent chance” that the former president runs again. As he remains the Republican Party’s biggest star and most shameless demagogue, they’re clearing the runway for his path to the nomination. For much of the past year, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has led many to believe he would challenge Trump in the GOP primary, even declining to promise he would serve out his full four-year term as governor if reelected in a debate last month. But a new report suggests DeSantis is reconsidering his plans to run, and privately indicating to donors that he would not challenge Trump.
- Two groups run by former Trump administration officials are orchestrating an 11th-hour radio blitz on Black and Hispanic radio stations as well as conservative talk radio in the less than one-week remaining before election day. The radio spots fan inflammatory culture war issues such as gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors and fictitious wedge issues like “anti-white bigotry.” Other ads imply that the Biden administration and Democrats more broadly are “forcing girls to take testosterone so they grow facial hair.” The two groups behind these ads are registered as nonprofits and therefore, by law, aren’t supposed to participate in political activity that supports or opposes specific candidates. The ads targeted towards Black and Hispanic voters are not necessarily placed in the hopes that those demographics will vote Republican, but rather make them believe that Democrats have become so “extreme” that those voters stay home.
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The White House is not naive about the challenges Democrats and American democracy face as voters head to the polls in this fraught climate.
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In an address tonight, President Biden laid out the stakes in front of voters less than one week from today. He began his address by recounting the break-in at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home, and life-threatening attack on her husband Paul, and connecting it to the events of January 6. The president at times was too vague, stating that Americans must confront “lies with the truth,” and that we as a nation are “facing a defining moment, an inflection point,” and “must speak as a country and say that there is no place, no place for voter intimidation or political violence in America.” He also reiterated his belief that MAGA Republicans are the minority of the GOP, which unfortunately just does not seem to be true anymore.
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Where his speech succeeded was when Biden explicitly called out Trump and the extremists he continues to inspire, saying: “American democracy is under attack because the defeated former president refused to accept the results of the 2020 election. He refuses to accept the will of the people, he refuses to accept the fact that he lost, he's abused his power…” He also reiterated that the 2020 election has faced every recount and legal challenge, and its results were upheld each and every time. It’s unclear whether these words will make a dent in the less than one week before election day, but Biden’s assertion that democracy is a choice and that every generation in America has had to fight for it or to protect it is one we would all do well to remember.
As Dems brace for the weeks ahead, it’s important to remind ourselves that the fight doesn’t end here, nor in 2024. Republicans know that democracy is not static, not guaranteed, and are using that to try and pull it from the root. We can’t let them.
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Exciting news! Duolingo and Crooked Media have worked together to bring you a brand new podcast named Radiolingo! Our newest show investigates all the ways language shapes our world and how our world shapes language. Hosted by Ahmed Ali Akbar, an audio journalist and James Beard Award-winning writer, each episode introduces a new way of looking at the impact of language across our lives, our relationships, our culture and much more.
You can subscribe and listen to the trailer of Radiolingo now, wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in every Tuesday for new episodes.
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Democratic lawmakers are calling for the immediate resignation of J. Brett Blanton, the architect of the Capitol, following a scathing federal watchdog report that found he abused his authority, misused government property, and wasted taxpayer money “among other substantial violations.” The Office of the Inspector General for Blanton’s agency found that he used government vehicles for personal purposes (like vacation travel!) and then lied about it. On top of that, he allegedly impersonated a police officer. A joint statement from six top Democrats who chair committees that oversee his agency say that Blanton must resign, be held accountable, and reimburse the government. This is such an old-school corruption scandal that it’s almost adorable. Would love to see more of these and fewer attempted assassinations of major political figures and their spouses.
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Someone get me in a room with Jerome Powell, I just wanna talk. The Federal Reserve hiked interest rates by 0.75 percent for the fourth time in a row today, as central bankers continue fighting against inflation, despite rising concerns that interest-rate hikes are leading us to a recession and that the true drivers of inflation are unaffected by the Fed’s crude interventions. Economists on both sides of the aisle have criticized the Fed’s blind adherence to the most aggressive rate-hike campaign in decades, having now raised rates six times this year. And we may not have seen the last of it. Chairman Powell said today that he sees no reason to slow the pace of hikes, and seems determined to suppress wage increases at all costs, which again, does not address the true cause of inflation and also hurts workers! Cut it out, my man! The Fed’s own projections show a possible hike of 0.5 percent in December, followed by a smaller hike in the first months of 2023. Of course, today’s increase and the news that such hikes will continue sent the stock market spiraling.
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A federal judge in Arizona ruled that an “election monitoring group” cannot use voter intimidation practices like taking photos or videos of voters, openly carrying firearms, posting information about voters online, or spreading falsehoods about elections laws. Love to live in a country where a judge has to explicitly tell people not to circle ballot boxes carrying guns.
The German government said today that it plans to make plastic manufacturers contribute to the cost of cleaning up litter in public spaces.
CVS and Walgreens, the two largest American pharmacy chains, announced agreements to pay over $5 billion each to settle nationwide lawsuits related to the opioid crisis.
Rabbi James Rudin, the longtime interreligious affairs director for the American Jewish Committee will be knighted by Pope Francis for his work on Catholic-Jewish relations, a rare non-Catholic to receive the distinction. I didn’t know the Pope could knight people, but okay! Sounds good!
Two international beauty queens, Miss Argentina and Miss Puerto Rico of the 2020 Miss Grand International Pageant revealed today that they recently married! Congratulations to the happy couple, and everyone else be careful not to injure your eyes while looking at pictures of a couple this blindingly beautiful.
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