Crooked Media - A Hill to cry on

• A raft of right-wing policies  and legislation will land early and hard in 2025, if Republicans have their way in this year’s election. That’s exactly what convicted felon and disgraced former President Donald Trump is coming to D.C. to discuss with Republican lawmakers. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) gushed to reporters on Wednesday that he’s excited to “bounce around ideas” with Trump about their “very aggressive first 100 day agenda.” 

• Conservatives have a blueprint for a second Trump term dubbed Project 2025. The 900-page proposal, produced by a right-wing think tank, The Heritage Foundation, would expand the power of the president, fire thousands of federal employees, install loyalists into positions of power, overhaul government agencies including the FBI, dismantle the Department of Education, crack down on reproductive rights, and add religious tests to strict immigration laws — all within six months of Trump seizing power. 

• Democrats are feverishly working on plans to stop this from happening. A group of House Dems led by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) announced The Stop Project 2025 Task Force on Wednesday. The group’s strategy is still in development. But the group aims to begin by serving as a hub of information for lawmakers and voters about Project 2025 and counter-proposals on immigration, reproductive rights and more. Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation, scoffed at the idea, telling the Associated Press: “Project 2025 will not be ‘stopped.

A crime surge during the first two years of the pandemic turned the issue into a top concern for many Americans, and a key talking point for Republicans. But here’s some good news: new stats suggest a significant turn for the better. 

Violent crime declined by 15 percent nationwide in the first quarter of 2024, according to the FBI’s quarterly uniform crime report. Rates of homicide and reported rape both fell by about 26 percent. Robberies declined by nearly 18 percent, and aggravated assault fell by about 13 percent. Gang violence prevention programs likely helped ease the number of shootings in major cities, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal. Police are becoming more active after pulling back enforcement in response to racial-justice protests after the murder of George Floyd. 

It’s unclear whether these improvements will register in the minds of citizens and voters before this year’s election. A Gallup poll taken in November found that 63 percent of Americans viewed crime as a serious problem, the highest number in at least two decades. 

Meanwhile, don’t expect fewer in scare tactics from Republicans. One GOP Minnesota senate candidate, Royce White, recently tweeted out a map that he claimed showed “out of control” crime in Minneapolis. It turned out to really be a map of drinking fountains at public parks.

The House voted along party lines to find Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for refusing to hand over audio tapes of President Biden’s interviews with a special counsel about his handling of classified documents. The vote amounts to a request that Garland prosecute himself, and isn’t going to go anywhere. But I guess it’s cool that folks are finding ways to kill time on Capitol Hill! 

Steven Bannon is begging a federal appeals court to delay his imminent prison sentence while he continues to appeal. The former Trump advisor was ordered to turn himself in on July 1 and begin serving his four-month prison sentence for refusing to comply with subpoenas from the congressional January 6 committee.

Rudy Giuliani’s creditors have asked a judge to put a third party in charge of the disgraced longtime Trump lawyer’s finances. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy protection after he was ordered to pay two Georgia election workers $148 million in a defamation lawsuit. 

Republican Arizona senate candidate, Kari Lake, was told by yet another court that her 2022 loss in the state’s governor’s race will not be overturned. This was the SIXTH time. Let it go, sis!

The G7 summit in Italy kicks off Thursday. President Biden reportedly aims to negotiate a deal to raise nearly $50 billion for Ukraine using frozen Russian assets. 

R&B superstar Usher showed up on Capitol Hill Wednesday to meet with congress members about diabetes awareness and insulin. The singer was spotted on the Senate subway alongside Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) who last year introduced legislation to cap insulin prices. Usher has been vocal about his young son’s Type 1 diabetes diagnosis and is looking to turn the news into advocacy. Yeah! We support that. 

An Arizona man was indicted Tuesday for allegedly planning a mass shooting in Atlanta targeting Black people in the city to incite a race war. Mark Adams Prieto was arrested in May after months of surveillance by the FBI, who was tracking Prieto selling rifles to people to provide weapons for a race war, speaking at gun shows, and advocating for mass shootings targeting “Blacks, Jews or Muslims.”

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy lost a battle in his revenge tour war Tuesday night when Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) — who voted to oust McCarthy last year — defeated her Republican primary challenger. McCarthy dumped $4 million into backing Mace’s opponent Catherine Templeton. Mace was one of eight rebel Republicans responsible for booting McCarthy out of his Speaker role, prompting him to seek retribution. 

The Oklahoma Supreme Court dismissed lawsuits brought by the two last known survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, putting a final end to the survivors’ quest for justice and reparations. Lessie Benningfield Randle, 109, and Viola Ford Fletcher, 110 were small children in 1921 when a racist white mob destroyed a town known as Black Wall Street that resulted in hundreds of deaths. The lawsuit was filed in 2020 and was dismissed by a lower court before the state Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal last year.

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And the best part? When you purchase from Bookshop.org, you’re supporting over 1,900 local, independent bookstores across the country. 

Bookshop.org is a certified B Corp, named “Best of the World” in Governance and they believe local bookstores are essential community hubs that foster culture, curiosity and a love of reading, and they’re committed to helping them survive and thrive. 

Happy reading!

A court in Valencia, Spain handed down an eight-month prison sentence to three men who made racist remarks and gestures towards Real Madrid soccer player Vinícius Jr. The conviction was the first of its kind handed down by Spain and will hopefully send a signal to fans to like, not be such assholes!

Researchers have detected a significant dip in atmospheric levels of hydrochlorofluorocarbons, harmful gasses that deplete the ozone layer and warm the planet. It’s the first recorded decline since the country agreed to phase out the chemicals nearly 30 years ago.