When President Joe Biden unveiled his surprise bundle of marijuana reforms Thursday, it rocked the world of experts who specialize in drug policy.
Continue reading “How To Think About Biden’s ‘Huge Step’ Towards Ending The War On Cannabis”The Keystone in The Arch
There are various stories about how Pennsylvania became the “Keystone State.” The truth seems to be mostly hidden in the mists of time. There are a number of contending theories. But it’s not clear which has the real origin of the label. Most of these center on Pennsylvania’s literal centrality in the early United States. It was the keystone (the top-most stone) in the arch which spanned from the New England to the Southern colonies, the keystone of the union. Or it was the necessary keystone in the process of building sentiment in favor of the federal constitution of 1787. But it’s one of the later stories I want to focus on. In the Jacksonian Era — 1820s through the 1840s — Pennsylvania was often referred to as the “Keystone in the Democratic arch,” the sectional coalition made up of — using the jargon of the age — “the working men of the North and the planters of the South.” Let’s state with some understatement that the described coalition and language is rather dated. But the more I look at the numbers in the final stretch, Pennsylvania is the cornerstone. It remains the Keystone in 2022, albeit for other reasons and with a very different coalition.
Let me walk you through it.
Continue reading “The Keystone in The Arch”DOJ Election Threats Unit Indicts Iowa Man For Threatening To Hang Arizona Official
The Justice Department announced on Thursday night the arrest of an Iowa man who prosecutors allege had sent death threats to an election official in Maricopa County, Arizona.
According to the indictment, 64-year-old Mark A. Rissi of Hiawatha, Iowa, allegedly sent two voicemails to Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman calling for him to be hanged.
“We’re going to hang you,” Rissi allegedly said in a voicemail sent to Hickman in late September 2021. He’d also allegedly called Hickman a “stupid lying Commie” and said that the election official was going to die.
In another voicemail allegedly sent in early December of that year, Rissi allegedly told Hickman: “Do your job” or “you will hang with those [expletive] in the end. We will see to it. Torches and pitchforks. That’s your future, [expletive].” He then accused Hickman of having evidence proving “conspirators” deleted data from the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors computer system, prosecutors allege.
Maricopa County, Arizona’s largest county, was the site of a highly publicized election audit in 2021 after the former president claimed the area was rife with voter fraud.
Hickman serves as chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. Trump reached out to him twice after the election to persuade him to investigate the county further, but Hickman reportedly let the calls go to voicemail.
On Thursday, Hickman said in a statement that Rissi’s voicemails were “chilling”.
“This wasn’t a prank call. This wasn’t protected speech. This was a serious threat to me and my family,” he said.
A Republican and self-proclaimed Trump voter, Hickman has faced a wave of death threats since the election for refusing to fold under pressure from Trump and his allies to find more votes for the former president.
“I’ve received numerous threats over the past two years,” his Thursday statement said. “My colleagues on the Board have as well. The Recorder. And worst of all, county elections staff doing their job honorably are getting calls and emails threatening violence, calling them traitors. It’s despicable.”
Since Trump claimed that he actually won several key districts back in 2020, election officials and poll workers have become targets of death threats from his supporters, prompting state and federal responses to provide extra protections for the group.
Rissi’s case was overseen by the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, a collaborative effort by several divisions within the department and FBI offices across the country to investigate the influx of threats against election officials and poll workers in recent years. The initiative was launched by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in June 2021.
“I’m grateful to the Department of Justice and the FBI for taking this case seriously and making an arrest,” Hickman said in his statement, “and I’m pleased the U.S. Attorney General has set up a task force to address increased threats of violence to election workers and elected officials.”
Rissi was indicted on two counts of making threatening interstate communications and one count of making a threatening phone call.
Georgia GOP Lt Guv Blames Trump For Roping Republicans Into Herschel Walker Disaster
Georgia Lieutenant Gov. Geoff Duncan (R) thinks a certain former president is to blame for the ever-growing possibility that the GOP loses the Georgia Senate race for Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D-GA) seat thanks to nominee Herschel Walker’s burgeoning scandal over an abortion he paid for.
Continue reading “Georgia GOP Lt Guv Blames Trump For Roping Republicans Into Herschel Walker Disaster”DOJ Believes Trump STILL Hasn’t Returned All Government Docs
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
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The chief of the Justice Department’s counterintelligence division has reached out to Trump’s lawyers in recent weeks telling them that the DOJ believes the ex-president is still clutching government documents he unlawfully took when he left the White House, according to the New York Times, CNN, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.
- Trump lawyer Chris Kise (aka the attorney who wisely made notorious lawyer-stiffer Trump pay him $3 million upfront), reportedly suggested recently that the ex-president hire an independent firm to find more documents. Trump’s more “combative” lawyers (in the Times’ words) suggested the ex-president be more aggressive toward the DOJ. Guess who won?
- FBI agents found dozens of empty folders that were marked as holding sensitive materials when they raided Mar-a-Lago, the DOJ has reported.
Fox News CEO Warned Against Giving Election-Denying ‘Crazies’ A Bullhorn
In the face of Trump and Co.’s fury over Fox News calling Arizona for Biden on election night, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott told her colleagues, “We can’t give the crazies an inch,” according to an attorney representing Dominion Voting Systems in its $1.6 billion defamation suit against the right-wing network.
- Fox News executives tried to stop Fox Business anchors Lou Dobbs and Maria Bartiromo from letting then-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Krakenista Sidney Powell go on their shows to peddle the Big Lie, the lawyer said during a court hearing on Wednesday.
- A lawyer for Fox didn’t dispute the Dominion attorney’s accounts.
Biden Warns Nuclear ‘Armageddon’ At Highest Risk Since Cuban Missile Crisis
The President sounded the alarm over the possibility of Russian leader Vladimir Putin unleashing his nuclear weapons arsenal in his flailing Ukraine invasion.
- Until now, “we have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Biden said during a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser on Thursday.
- Biden said he was still trying to figure out Putin’s “off-ramp” in Ukraine, where the Russian leader’s military is “significantly underperforming.”
GOPers Saw Trouble With Herschel Walker Nearly Two Years Ago
While the report of Georgia GOP Senate nominee Herschel Walker paying the mother of one of his children to have an abortion reportedly came as a huge shock to the GOP, Republican operatives have known since early 2021 that Walker had a massive amount of baggage that could sink his campaign, according to the Washington Post.
Biden Pardons All Federal Marijuana Possession Offenses
The President issued a sweeping pardon on Thursday to all Americans and permanent residents who were convicted on simple marijuana possession charges under the Controlled Substances Act.
- More than 6,500 people have been charged with marijuana possession, according to a Biden administration official.
- Biden has also directed Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra and Attorney General Merrick Garland to review marijuana’s current classification as a Schedule I drug under federal law. That classification puts weed on the same level as heroin.
- Biden called on governors to similarly pardon state-level marijuana possession offenses.
Sasse Expected To Peace Out
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) is expected to announce today plans to resign to accept a job as the new president of the University of Florida, according to local outlet KFAB. His successor will be chosen by Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (R), per state law.
Next Jan. 6 Hearing Scheduled For Thursday
The House Jan. 6 Committee will hold what’s likely to be its last public hearing on Thursday, Oct. 13 at 1 p.m. ET.
A Scathing Georgia Judge
Fulton County Superior Judge Robert McBurney, who’s overseeing a legal challenge against Georgia’s abortion ban, shot down on Wednesday state attorneys’ motion asking to delay the scheduled Oct. 24 trial until after Election Day.
You really need to read the judge’s order, which is positively dripping with disdain for that request:
Since then, the State has filed a motion seeking to either “cancel” (not a term of civil procedure with which the Court is familiar) or postpone the trial. The State has offered four reasons for this “cancellation,” which can be summarized as “We are really busy with other things,” “There are no facts in dispute,” “We don’t know what facts are in dispute,” and “You can’t do what you are trying to do.” The Court’s response, detailed below, can be summarized as “Who isn’t?,” “There are,” “You do,” and “I can.”
There was also this little footnote tacked to McBurney’s remark that everyone in the case “can be adequately prepared” for the trial at the date he’d set:
Russians Flee To Alaska By Boat To Escape Putin’s War Draft
Two Russians fled by boat to Alaska to seek asylum from Putin’s partial mobilization order in his war on Ukraine earlier this week. They sailed about 300 miles from Egvekinot, a town in Northeastern Russia, to St. Lawrence Island, a small Alaskan island, according to Alaska’s News Source.
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Where Things Stand: Trump Wants To Clear Out The National Archives If He Wins In 2024
If Donald Trump ever grows tired of being faux-bashful about 2024 and actually announces he’s running, we know what at least one item on his agenda will be: purging the “woke and broken” National Archives.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Trump Wants To Clear Out The National Archives If He Wins In 2024”Strange
Herschel Walker announced his first event since the new raft of allegations and it was scheduled first for 9 a.m. and then shifted to 1 p.m. today. I thought it would be on the cable networks. I didn’t see it there. At least not on CNN. But it was livestreamed on Facebook. So I watched it. It was weird.
It was Walker talking on the back of a flatbed truck in what seemed like a lumber yard. There was no discussion of any of the controversies. It was basically twenty minutes about his life story: football, Jesus, chickens, finally MMA. And that was it. The closest he got to anything to do with the present controversies were some implicit references to his not giving up. It didn’t seem like there was much of any audience response.
Walker Faces Yet Another Bombshell In Abortion Scandal
Georgia Republican Senate nominee/former NFL player Herschel Walker and a very panicked GOP only had 48 hours to respond to an explosive report that he had paid for an ex-girlfriend’s abortion before the Daily Beast dropped another bombshell last night: The ex-girlfriend is the mother of one of Walker’s children.
Continue reading “Walker Faces Yet Another Bombshell In Abortion Scandal”Biden Unveils Major Marijuana Reform, Including Pardons And Reviewing Drug’s Scheduling
President Joe Biden unveiled surprise, significant marijuana reform Thursday, directing a review of marijuana’s scheduling under federal law, announcing pardons for “all prior federal offenses of simple possession” and calling on governors to do the same with state charges.
Continue reading “Biden Unveils Major Marijuana Reform, Including Pardons And Reviewing Drug’s Scheduling”Russian Nationalists Gnash Teeth Amid Ukraine Setbacks
While the Ukrainian city of Kherson was under Russian occupation, a local man with Russian sympathies declared that it was just the beginning of a new order.
Continue reading “Russian Nationalists Gnash Teeth Amid Ukraine Setbacks”