June 16, 2021

Is a pro-democracy coalition to defeat Trumpism possible?

America’s political emergency and the need for progressives, moderates, and anti-Trump Republicans to unite against a common threat.

By Sean Illing @seanilling sean.illing@vox.com Jun 16, 2021, 8:00am EDT

There are many cleavages in American politics, but at this moment only one of them truly matters: Are you for or against democracy?

Over the last four years or so, the Republican Party has become the anti-democracy party. However hyperbolic that may sound, there’s a strong case to be made that, to borrow the words of How Democracies Die co-author Daniel Ziblatt in a recent interview with Vox, the GOP is now “the central weakness of our political system.” Its complicity in the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, and its continued assault on voting rights since, has only strengthened this argument.

Arguably the biggest national challenge moving forward is finding a way to defeat Republicans without completely breaking the political system they’re undermining. Whatever that resistance looks like, it’s very likely it will involve some kind of partnership between progressives and moderates.

E.J. Dionne is a longtime columnist for the Washington Post and the author of Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country (2020). Dionne’s book is part manifesto, part plea. His argument, then and now, is that a pro-democracy alliance is essential if we’re going to right the ship before it’s too late.

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https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22524145/american-democracy-republican-party-ej-dionne

June 16, 2021

Two Fort Hood soldiers charged with attempting to smuggle undocumented immigrants into Texas

By Raja Razek, CNN

Updated 8:28 AM ET, Wed June 16, 2021

(CNN) - Two Fort Hood active-duty soldiers have been charged with attempting to smuggle two undocumented Mexican citizens into Texas and could face up to 10 years in federal prison, according to the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas.

Emmanuel Oppongagyare and Ralph Gregory Saint-Joie were both wearing their full US Army OCP uniforms when they approached the Hebbronville Border Patrol Checkpoint in a sedan on June 13, according to a criminal complaint by the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

"At approximately 12:45 a.m., a black sedan approached the checkpoint at a high rate of speed before coming to an abrupt stop to be inspected by the BPA on duty," read the complaint.

The border patrol agent asked Oppongagyare, who was driving the vehicle, to lower the loud radio volume and proceeded to conduct the inspection. When asked where he was traveling to, Oppongagyare told the agent he was traveling to San Antonio from Zapata, Texas.

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https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/16/politics/fort-hood-soldiers-undocumented-immigrants/index.html

June 16, 2021

Hillary Clinton: Casting doubt on 2020 election is 'doing Putin's work'

BY DOMINICK MASTRANGELO - 06/16/21 08:51 AM EDT

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday said that elected officials who have suggested the 2020 presidential election was not conducted fairly are aiding Russian President Vladimir Putin's effort to undermine America.

“We never thought we had to worry about domestic enemies. We never thought we had to worry about people who didn't believe in our democracy," Clinton said during an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

“And sadly, what we've seen over the last four years and particularly since the election is that we have people in our own country who are doing Putin's work.”

Clinton said some may be helping Putin cast doubt on democracy in a "witting or unwitting" way.

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https://thehill.com/homenews/558677-hillary-clinton-casting-doubt-on-2020-election-result-is-doing-putins-work

June 16, 2021

Education Department erasing debt of students defrauded at for-profit college

Source: The Hill


BY JORDAN WILLIAMS - 06/16/21 09:15 AM EDT

The Department of Education is erasing the debts of students who were defrauded at a for-profit college.

The agency said in a statement that it had approved $500 million in loan cancellation for 18,000 borrowers who were defrauded by ITT Technical Institute.

ITT is accused of misleading students on their likely employment prospects after graduation and the ability to transfer their credits to other schools.

The school, between 2005 and 2016, made “repeated and significant misrepresentations” to students about how much they could expect to earn and the jobs they could get after graduating, the agency said.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/558683-education-department-erasing-debt-of-students-defrauded-at-for-profit

June 16, 2021

1 in 3 election officials report feeling unsafe, new survey finds

Source: NBC News

June 16, 2021, 9:00 AM EDT / Updated June 16, 2021, 9:09 AM EDT

By Jane C. Timm

About 1 in 3 election officials have felt unsafe because of their jobs, a new survey of election workers released Tuesday found, and 1 in 6 say they've been threatened for their work running America's elections.

The survey was commissioned by the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law and conducted online by Benenson Strategy Group, using a sample of 233 local elections officials. The survey, conducted April 1-7, reported a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 6.4 percentage points. It was released as part of a report about the threats facing election workers by the Brennan Center and the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank.

NBC News this year interviewed a dozen election officials who described months of harassment and threats as they sought to run an election that had already been made more difficult by the coronavirus pandemic. Many officials — used to lives outside the spotlight — described phones' ringing off the hook and frequent harassment online. Some said they needed security details to protect themselves and their families.

The Associated Press reported this week that many elections officials are quitting or retiring early amid concerns of the politicization of their jobs. The Brennan Center noted in the report that almost 35 percent of local election officials in 2020 were eligible to retire by the 2024 election.



Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/1-3-election-officials-report-feeling-unsafe-new-survey-finds-n1270968

June 16, 2021

Trump to join Abbott for Texas-Mexico border tour to attack Democrats' 'dereliction of duty'

Texas Governor Invites Trump for Border Tour

June 16, 2021 at 9:44 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

“Donald Trump will tour the state’s border with Mexico later this month, after accepting an invitation from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to investigate what Trump termed an ‘unmitigated disaster zone,'” the Dallas Morning News reports.

“The trip, on June 30, is an apparent response to Vice President Kamala Harris not visiting the U.S.-Mexico border amid ongoing tensions over how to address an influx of migrants.”

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https://politicalwire.com/2021/06/16/texas-governor-invites-trump-for-border-tour/

June 16, 2021

Mo Brooks gets arrest warrant for man who served lawsuit on his wife

Source: Al.com

Updated 6:59 AM; Today 6:36 AM

By Paul Gattis | pgattis@al.com

U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks said Wednesday his wife has sworn out an arrest warrant for the man who served a lawsuit at their Huntsville home on June 6.

The Brooks have said they would seek the warrant for misdemeanor criminal trespassing after the process server entered the garage as his wife was returning home.

Brooks’ wife, Martha, filed a police report immediately after the incident.

An attorney for Democratic California Congressman Eric Swalwell, who named Brooks as a defendant the lawsuit being served, has said there was nothing illegal or inappropriate about the service. In response, Brooks released the home security video of the process server appearing to enter the garage.

Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2021/06/mo-brooks-gets-arrest-warrant-for-man-who-served-lawsuit-on-his-wife.html

June 16, 2021

Trump's DOJ Was More Dangerous Than We Knew

Revelations since Biden’s inauguration are adding detail to a portrait of ethical decay at the department.

By David A. Graham

About the author: David A. Graham is a staff writer at The Atlantic.

Sometimes, the actions a government takes look bad at the time, but posterity treats them kindly. Other times, a president might look good in the moment but see his reputation sink in retrospect. Then there’s the Trump administration, and especially its Justice Department, which looked bad when it was in power and now looks even worse.

Late yesterday, The New York Times reported that the Justice Department subpoenaed Apple to try to obtain data from accounts belonging to Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, their aides, and even one of their children as part of an investigation into leaks about Trump associates’ ties to Russia. Even after the probes produced few results, Attorney General Bill Barr insisted that prosecutors keep them alive.

This is only the latest ugly revelation about the Trump Justice Department to emerge since January 20—sometimes despite the best efforts of the Biden team to keep things secret. We now know that prosecutors sought to compel records of reporters from |The Washington Post], CNN, and the Times; failed to prepare for right-wing violence because of a focus on antifa; and even saw a plot by the assistant attorney general and the president to oust the acting attorney general in order to overturn the result of the presidential election.

The scope of the subpoenas disclosed last night by the Times is still not clear. Schiff and Swalwell were perhaps natural suspects for the White House, because they were among the noisiest of the president’s critics. Yet if that’s the case, that makes the subpoenas only more troubling, because they then smack of political retribution. It is not unusual for members of Congress to be investigated by federal law enforcement—corruption cases against members are distressingly common and warranted—but a leak hunt has seldom if ever targeted members in this way. (The subjects only recently learned of the subpoenas from Apple, which had previously been under a judicial gag order.)

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https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/trumps-doj-was-more-dangerous-we-knew/619178

June 14, 2021

Reality Winner, the NSA contractor who pleaded guilty to mishandling government secrets, is...

Source: Washington Post/MSN

Reality Winner, the NSA contractor who pleaded guilty to mishandling government secrets, is transferred to halfway house

Devlin Barrett 26 mins ago

Reality Winner, a former National Security Agency contractor who pleaded guilty to mishandling government secrets about Russian election interference and who has long sought a pardon, has been transferred from federal prison to the custody of a halfway house to serve the rest of her sentence, her attorney said Monday.

Winner’s transfer came on June 2 and was not part of any commutation or special treatment but a scheduled shift due to good behavior, said her attorney, Alison Grinter Allen.

While she finishes her sentence, she is likely to have the option of home confinement.

“She is in the custody of the halfway house, and the halfway house can use home confinement as part of it, but it’s all at the discretion of the halfway house,” her attorney said. “She has begun the reentry process.”

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/reality-winner-the-nsa-contractor-who-pleaded-guilty-to-mishandling-government-secrets-is-transferred-to-halfway-house/ar-AAL2rwc

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No Paywall

June 14, 2021

Caitlyn Jenner is miffed that Jimmy Kimmel called her "Trump in a wig"

"Where is the outrage from the left or LGBT community? Being WOKE must be optional if you are a Democrat."

By Alex Bollinger Monday, June 14, 2021

California gubernatorial candidate Caitlyn Jenner lashed out at comedian Jimmy Kimmel, calling him transphobic for a joke about how her political style is similar to Donald Trump’s.

“Are you sure that isn’t Donald Trump in a Caitlyn Jenner wig?” Kimmel joked on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last week before showing photos of the two side-by-side making the same faces.

“He obviously believes that trans women are simply men with wigs on,” Jenner said on Twitter. “Where is the outrage from the left or LGBT community? Being WOKE must be optional if you are a Democrat.”

https://twitter.com/Caitlyn_Jenner/status/1403439147398750214

Jenner went on a Twitter tirade against Kimmel, bringing up racist and sexist jokes he has made in the past, as well as a sketch where he used blackface. Kimmel apologized last year for the blackface sketch.

more
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/06/caitlyn-jenner-miffed-jimmy-kimmel-called-trump-wig/