The Week in News
Trump spied on Dems in Congress, Kamala was right about Barr, Val Demings is running against Marco Rubio, and anti-vaxxers say the dumbest things. This is the week in news.
Biden is off to the G-7 summit, the cicadas are still swarming, and a major story broke last night about Trump spying on his political enemies in Congress. Here’s the week in news.
Trump DOJ spied on House Dems Schiff & Swalwell
Based on nothing, Trump thought that the House Intelligence Committee was leaking information about the Russia probe, so he had his Justice Department investigate his political enemies — including Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell — AND AT LEAST ONE OF THEIR UNDERAGE CHILDREN, all on a whim.
Former prosecutor Elie Honig just made some good points on CNN:
As a prosecutor you have an ethical obligation not to pursue an investigation unless you have some “predication,” i.e., some basis of evidence suggesting a crime has been committed. Trump’s then-attorney general Bill Barr told the prosecutors he had no evidence, but ordered them to keep going, and they did. (The investigation started under Sessions, Barr continued it.)
They only targeted Democratic members of Congress, not Republicans, even though there was no evidence suggesting either had leaked. Why wouldn’t you investigate both?
They targeted the congressmen’s family members, including at least one underage child.
They had the court issue a gag order so that no one would find out what they did.
Merrick Garland needs to get to the bottom of this.
I’m also not thrilled that Schiff and Swalwell only found out about the spying because Apple finally told them once the court order expired (DOJ went after Schiff’s and Swalwell’s iphone data). Joe Biden’s Attorney General, Merrick Garland, never mentioned this to either congressman.
PS Then-Senator Kamala Harris asked Bill Barr about this during a hearing two years ago, and he basically lied:
Anti-vaxxer thinks the Covid vaccine turned her into a giant super-magnet
I just had to respond:
The amazing Val Demings is running against Marco Rubio
Republicans aren’t the brightest
Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) thinks we can solve climate change by changing the orbit of the earth around the moon.
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The Talking Heads’ first selfie
The progressive case for cryptocurrency
Give it a chance. Read the piece. It’s actually interesting.
The world respects America again
Baby discovers echo - this is awesome
Trump capitulates to Putin, again
On the verge of Biden meeting with Putin, Trump, who is morbidly obese, going bald, and appears to wear an adult diaper, issued a statement mocking Biden for being old, then sent his “warmest wishes” to Putin. Never forget that the Republican party betrayed our country to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. They’re a party of traitors and cowards.
What does Putin have on Trump?
I don’t care what people say, I love Trump’s new earring
Bernie meets cannabis reporter, hilarity ensues
And there’s audio!
How Dems can get religious voters to leave the GOP
We did a podcast yesterday with Doug Pagitt, executive director of Vote Common Good, a non-profit that invites religious voters to take an off ramp from the Republican party. In our show, Doug talks to us about how his organization reaches Republican evangelicals, and why it even matters? We also get into a discussion on how religious voters can not only stand Donald Trump, but openly embrace him, and why progressives should welcome efforts to woo religious voters away from the GOP.
You can check out the interview here.
YouTube refuses to ban French fascists who posted video on how to kill liberals
In case you missed it, this is a story I published the other day about how the Alt Right in France is getting a pass from American social media companies. Sound familiar?
Speaking of France, am I the only one who didn’t know the Ancient Greeks founded Marseilles?
Just learned this yesterday. And then, their colony (called Masallia), went on to found Monaco, Nice, Arles and more!
And finally, the secret to happiness
That is it for this week. Enjoy the weekend. I’m off to make sourdough!
JOHN