Steve Bannon displayed such intentional contempt for the rule of law in defying a subpoena from the January 6 Committee that he deserves a near-maximum sentence behind bars, the DOJ argued to a federal judge on Monday.
Continue reading “DOJ: Bannon Deserves 6 Months In Prison For Contempt”Walker Admits Abortion Check Is His, But Insists He Doesn’t Know What It Was For
A woman’s allegation that Georgia Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker, the father of her child, paid for her to have an abortion in 2009 is a lie, the ex-NFL player insists. In fact, he doesn’t even know her!
…..Okay yes, he knows her. But that $700 check she’s provided with his signature on it is fake!
…..Okay yes, that’s a real check that he gave her. But he doesn’t know what it was for!
Continue reading “Walker Admits Abortion Check Is His, But Insists He Doesn’t Know What It Was For”More Details on the ‘Perla’ Crew
The Miami Herald has another richly reported article on the migrant bamboozling operation Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida ran in San Antonio, Texas — the one that left 50 Venezuelan migrants in Martha’s Vineyard and spawned an on-going criminal investigation in Bexar County, Texas. The article is paywalled. So if you’re a subscriber give it a read. If not I want to summarize a few key new pieces of information, drawn mainly from public documents the DeSantis administration has been compelled to divulged under Florida’s sunshine law as well as on-the-ground reporting from the Herald.
Continue reading “More Details on the ‘Perla’ Crew”Herschel Walker Insists His Big Boi Badge Is Legit
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
100 Percent!
Georgia GOP Senate nominee/abortion funder Herschel Walker will have you know that the “not a prop” police badge that he whipped out during his debate with incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) on Friday is a real “honorary” badge and absolutely not a prop, okay?
- The badge came from, uhhh, “all over Georgia,” Walker told NBC News correspondent Kristen Welker when she asked in a pre-taped interview who gave him the not-a-prop badge.
- To be clear, Walker has never once worked in law enforcement, despite the claims he’s made.
- Here’s the badge moment, in case you missed it:
- Walker ditched the Atlanta Press Club’s debate last night that he was supposed to have with Warnock and Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver.
Kari Lake Refuses To Say If She’ll Accept Defeat
Far-right Arizona gubernatorial nominee and hardcore 2020 election denier Kari Lake made it crystal clear during a CNN appearance on Sunday that the election denialism that fuels her entire campaign very much extends to her own race.
- Lake repeatedly refused to say whether she’d accept the results of her election if she lost, even though CNN anchor Dana Bash repeatedly pressed her on it.
- Lake and Democratic rival/Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs are neck-and-neck in the polls right now.
Russia Hits Central Kyiv With Drone Strikes
Russia struck the central area of Ukraine’s capital with kamikaze drone strikes on Monday, according to Ukrainian officials.
- At least one person has died and multiple have been injured from the attack, the mayor of Kyiv reported.
- Iran provided the drones, and U.S. security officials have warned that the country is planning on sending more.
DOJ Asks Appeals Court To Toss Out Cannon’s Trumpy Ruling
The Justice Department requested on Friday that the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturn U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon’s mind-bogglingly MAGA order that granted Trump’s request for a special master to sift through the government records the FBI had seized from Mar-a-Lago, an order that also barred federal investigators from accessing those records.
- Cannon had admitted in her order that the government hadn’t shown a “callous disregard” for Trump’s rights, the DOJ pointed out, a key standard for court intervention at this stage of a criminal investigation.
- The DOJ had already notched a victory against Cannon’s order in the same appeals court over the issue of her order blocking investigators from accessing the classified documents that were found at Mar-a-Lago.
Leahy Released From Hospital
The office of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) announced on Friday evening that the senator had been discharged from the hospital that day after an “uneventful night” of observation. He had been admitted the day before due to feeling “unwell,” according to his office.
Must Read
“On the Alex Jones Verdict: The Very, Very Lucrative World of Lying” – Insight writer Zeynep Tufekci
But we should recognize that a constant barrage of lies and dehumanizing propaganda are often part and parcel of the road to mayhem and even large-scale violence, and each societal transition renews the challenge of finding better, updated ways to face this reality.
This is one big reason why every new communication milieu brought about by technological and political changes has to be grappled with, but without nostalgia — as the past is rarely perfect, but in any case it’s not coming back — or without sloganeering. Oft-repeated formulations like “let more speech counter bad speech” or “technology can be good or bad” don’t even begin to get at the current problems partly because they don’t even describe the current problems.
Michigan GOP Guv Nominee Attacks Single Working Women
Tudor Dixon (R), the anti-abortion extremist challenging Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), told her supporters during a campaign event on Friday that “last time I checked,” a working woman who’s single has a “lonely life.”
What Happened To The Men Of #MeToo?
For a lot of them, not much!
Food For Thought
Guess Who?
(Seriously, you’re not gonna guess who it is.)
Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know!
Wait What?
Quote of the day:
“I was a victim of the January 6th riot just as much as any other member of Congress.”
—Rep. Marjorie Greene.
What Republicans Will Do If They Win The House, In Their Own Words
Predicting elections is a fool’s errand, and we are living at a time of dramatic crosscurrents.
Republicans tout high inflation, low (though improving) approval numbers for President Joe Biden and the historical reality that the President’s party nearly always loses seats in his first midterm election. Democrats are counting on the Supreme Court’s landmark decision to overturn abortion rights, and the rage it’s unleashed, along with a slate of very weak Republican candidates in some key races.
Continue reading “What Republicans Will Do If They Win The House, In Their Own Words”Timeline: The Mar-a-Lago Scandal From Start To Raid
The scandal that erupted in August over former President Trump taking, secreting, and refusing to hand Presidential and classified records back to the government was based in a dispute that had been ongoing since he left office.
Continue reading “Timeline: The Mar-a-Lago Scandal From Start To Raid”Pay Attention
I want to flag your attention to what is happening tonight at Evin Prison in Tehran. Evin is a notorious prison complex known for housing many of the clerical regime’s political prisoners, including dual citizens. The complex is the scene of a fire tonight along with gunfire and explosions. I hesitate to say much more about it since it is a topic in which I have no expertise; even for those who do it is very difficult to understand just what is going on. Who started the fire or how did it start? Who is shooting who? There are reports security forces creating a cordon around the prison, preventing civilians from approaching it. But the mix of events – a fire at a prison complex heavily associated with regime repression, gunshots and explosions, ancillary protests on the periphery of the complex – have a strong regime crisis feel to them. It seems to mark a qualitative escalation from the continuing protests that roiled the country over recent weeks.
Continue reading “Pay Attention”Who’s Pumped Up?
This is just a tiny morsel of data. So it may simply be noise. But it caught my eye. Recent polls in two key senate races show big spreads between registered and likely voters. Traditionally likely voter screens tend to favor Republicans, who are more regular voters. In recent years though that has been less consistent. A CNN/SSRS poll conducted 9/26 to 10/2 in Nevada gave Catherine Cortez Masto a +3 advantage among registered voters and -2 among likely voters. A Marquette Law School poll of Wisconsin conducted from 10/3-10/9 showed an even race among registered voters and Ron Johnson up 6 points over Mandela Barnes among likely voters.
Continue reading “Who’s Pumped Up?”Amazing
For some impossible to understand reason this actually made it as a headline about the big supermarket merger.
