Since Trump asserted that Biden stole the 2020 election despite all evidence suggesting the opposite, the Big Lie has spread like a cancer through nearly every part of the democratic process. Roles that are integral to polling sites — including poll watchers and election administrators — have been targeted by conservative activists, who have sought to politicize them and take them over.
Continue reading “Election Deniers’ Voting Machine Schemes Have Become Part Of The 2022 Midterms”DOJ Tries To Sidestep MAGA Judge With Quick Appeal, Enraging Trump
The Justice Department asked an appeals court last week to do an end run around the Florida federal judge that keeps contorting the law in favor of former President Trump.
Continue reading “DOJ Tries To Sidestep MAGA Judge With Quick Appeal, Enraging Trump”Jackson Tangles With Gorsuch In Her First Oral Argument Appearance
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson made her first oral argument appearance Monday in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, the Supreme Court’s first case of the term. It centers on whether certain wetlands warrant federal government protection.
Continue reading “Jackson Tangles With Gorsuch In Her First Oral Argument Appearance”“Sensitive Content”
Twitter has flagged as “sensitive content” an abortion ad from former Congressman Max Rose. (This means that if you’ve set the check box that you don’t want to see images of crime scenes and beheadings the ad won’t show up for you.) This is the always hotly contested Staten Island seat, currently held by Republican Nicole Malliotakis. The ad is about a woman dying after she was unable to receive an abortion when her life was in danger.
Here’s the video.
Continue reading ““Sensitive Content””Let’s Talk About the Senate
Yesterday I noticed the irrepressible Josh Kraushaar’s report on the Senate campaign. He’s one of the most notorious of DC reporters, now predictably working for Axios. He was positively giddy at newly good news for Republicans hoping to retake control of the Senate. But he’s not altogether wrong. Kraushaar focuses on two races — Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Democrats’ Mandela Barnes is now running behind Ron Johnson and John Fetterman’s once huge margin over Mehmet Oz has shrunk to mid- or low single digits. Kraushaar says Republicans are making gains by switching the discussion to crime. (Generally, he goes with his perennial hobbyhorse: Democrats are too liberal to win elections.) But I don’t think crime politics is precisely it.
Continue reading “Let’s Talk About the Senate”CPAC Scrambles To Clean Up Deleted Tweet Whitewashing Russia’s Ukraine Annexation
The Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) backpedaled this weekend after posting a now-deleted tweet falsely referring to the four Ukrainian regions that Russia illegally annexed as “Ukrainian-occupied territories.”
Continue reading “CPAC Scrambles To Clean Up Deleted Tweet Whitewashing Russia’s Ukraine Annexation”Who’s To Blame?
I want to dig in a bit more on our exclusive this morning about the appeal before the 11th Circuit that has dragged on for nearly seven years since oral arguments with no decision from the court.
As I said earlier, it’s not clear WHY this is happening. But I don’t think we have to throw our hands up in the air in helplessness and lament another broken institution without accountability. It’s pretty clear where responsibility for this fiasco lies.
Continue reading “Who’s To Blame?”Contortionist Rick Scott Avoids Rebuking Trump’s ‘Death Wish’ Attack On McConnell
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Profile In Courage
It was pretty painful to watch Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), the National Republican Senatorial Committee chair, respond on Sunday to Trump taking his usual attacks against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to an even more deranged level by screeching that the GOP leader had a “DEATH WISH” for supposedly backing what the ex-president called “Democrat sponsored [sic]” bills.
- Trump also directed some racist drivel at McConnell’s wife, Elaine Chao, who’s Taiwanese-American and served as Trump’s transportation secretary. The ex-president mocked her as McConnell’s “China loving wife, Coco Chow.”
- Pressed by CNN’s Dana Bash on Trump’s attack, Scott tried to brush it off by commenting that Trump “likes to give people nicknames” and “I’m sure he has a nickname for me.”
- ‘Twas just as sad on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” when Scott similarly bent over backwards to avoid criticizing Trump and tried to deflect to “spending” by Democrats.
Hurricane Ian Death Toll At More Than 70
Amid the search for survivors after Hurricane Ian tore through Florida, local officials have confirmed that at least 76 people were killed by the Category 4 storm. Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses still don’t have power.
Collins Predicts Lawmakers Could Be Murdered Amid Threats
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) told the New York Times that violent threats against lawmakers have gotten so severe, she “wouldn’t be surprised if a senator or House member were killed.”
Bolsonaro And Challenger Headed To Runoff In Brazilian Election
Far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro performed way better in his country’s presidential election on Sunday than polls had predicted, and now he and left-wing challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will face off again in a runoff.
- Neither candidate made it past 50 percent of the vote: da Silva won 48.4 percent while Bolsonaro won 43.23 percent.
- The runoff will be held on Oct. 30. If Bolsonaro (who, like Trump, had been trying to delegitimize the election results with baseless voter fraud conspiracy theories months before the actual election) loses, he’d be the first Brazilian president to fail to be reelected since Brazil became a democracy in 1988.
National Archives Confirms It’s Still Missing Trump Admin Docs
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) told House Oversight Committee chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) on Friday that the agency still doesn’t have all of the documents that Trump administration officials were legally required to hand over, per NARA’s letter to Maloney that was obtained by the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
- The missing documents were tied to “non-official electronic messaging accounts that were not copied or forwarded into their official electronic messaging accounts,” NARA reported.
- NARA pointed to the DOJ’s ongoing court battle against ex-Trump adviser Peter Navarro, who’s still clutching the government records he kept on his private email server in violation of the Presidential Records Act.
- NARA said it will consult with the Justice Department on whether to “initiate an action” to get the records back, according to the Post.
- Maloney reported in September that NARA wasn’t sure if Trump had given back all the documents he’d taken even after the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago raid. The committee chair asked the agency to hold an “urgent review” to see which records were still missing.
Must Read
“As Russian Troops Flee Lyman, Ukrainians Rejoice—and Help Themselves to Russian Supplies” – The Wall Street Journal
Home to some 22,000 people before the war, Lyman is a strategic town on the northern tip of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, one of the four areas that Russia has claimed as its own land following sham referendums last month. Its loss is a major embarrassment for President Vladimir Putin—the first such retreat from a city that he claims is officially part of Russia.
“Michael Fanone Is Not Your Fucking Hero” – Rolling Stone
His goal was to return to full duty. The very day he did, he wrote “Go fuck yourselves” on a napkin and submitted it to his supervisor as his resignation. His last day of work was Dec. 31, 2021.
Stop Being Gay 🛑
Happy Halloween Month! 🎃
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Get A Load Of This Exclusive
TPM’s Josh Kovensky has a new piece up on a bizarre case where a federal appeals court has simply failed to make a decision … for almost SEVEN years and counting.
The case was briefed, oral arguments were held (way back in February 2016), and despite entreaties from both parties the court has not issued a decision.
There are rumors and theories floating around for WHY no decision has been forthcoming, but nothing we could nail down or confirm. All we know is the court has abandoned its obligation to issue a ruling in anything approaching a timely fashion, circumstances legal experts describe to us as “extraordinary.”
Justice Delayed, Justice Denied: 11th Circuit Fails To Rule On Case For Seven Years
Update: Hours after TPM published the story below, the 11th Circuit issued a ruling in this case.
For seven years, one case has languished before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Continue reading “Justice Delayed, Justice Denied: 11th Circuit Fails To Rule On Case For Seven Years”