BA Rali

Center Left. Making the slow migration to the butterfly; look for me there: @barali4793.bsky.social #AlwaysBlue 📸🚴🏻🥾🏌🏼🌈

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

NEW: USPS is moving forward with Trump's attack on mail voting, proposing a rule that would require states to share private voter information to receive mail ballots.

There's still time to fight back, Marc Elias writes: the public comment period is open through July 2. Submit your comments today👇
https://t.co/MNIPpeIrkd

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

Postmaster General David Steiner's admission conflicted with a rule the USPS adopted under his watch last year.

The rule said the agency “does not administer elections, establish the rules or deadlines that govern elections, or determine whether or how election jurisdictions utilize the mail.”

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

96% of Trump’s second-term clemency grants have gone to recipients who didn’t fulfill longstanding DOJ guidelines for such requests. Past presidents on occasion have sidestepped those rules before.

But fewer than 1% of those who received clemency during the Biden administration and just 14% of recipients in Trump’s first presidency failed to meet the guidelines.

[Anthony Scaramucci @Scaramucci]

Trump told Leslie Stahl something years ago that everyone should hear.

She asked Trump he kept calling the media fake news.

He said, I do it because I need to discredit you, so that when you say negative things about me, nobody believes you.

That is EXACTLY what he’s done.

The problem everyone has with him is that most of us grew up with values, ethics, and integrity.

That is not Donald Trump.

He figured out a long time ago that he can bully his way through any rule and if he keeps pushing harder and harder, people will relent.

For most of his life they did, but we must stand up against it.

[Joyce Alene @JoyceWhiteVance]

Here’s the thing: this is not just an Alabama problem. It’s a Republican Party problem. From the moment he answered a call from Donald Trump on January 6. From the moment he couldn’t name the three branches of government when questioned by a reporter. Through a series of embarrassing statements and obedience to Trump even when it was against the interests of the people, he was elected to serve, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville has demonstrated a lack of fitness. Now he wants to be governor, but he doesn’t even live in the state. Read this summary of the detailed evidence in the complaint that shows how he himself has established that he’s a Florida man not in Alabama man. Sure it’s funny and in some ways, an entertaining read— why he thought he could get away with it after leaving a paper trail like this is beyond me. But it’s also important to understand just how low this Republican Party is willing to go to keep power. And to talk about it with your friends and family as we approach one of the most important elections of our lives this November. Read here to be informed. https://t.co/tjEojseIyX

[Leslie Marshall @LeslieMarshall]

Zero proof of that
There are 24 hr cameras, National Park service patrolling and also national guard
There was no vandalism
This was poor planning and giving a contract to someone who didn’t know what they were doing

[Jesse Eisinger @eisingerj]

Obviously I'm a little biased since I edited this thing but that a story about a killed criminal investigation into a sitting senator wasn't picked up, followed & pushed forward by major outlets is an excellent & sorry illustration of our broken information environment.

[Marc E. Elias @marceelias]

I took the weekend off. But next week will be a very important one for free and fair elections. SCOTUS releasing more opinions, RNC filing new lawsuits, and lots more.

I founded Democracy Docket for moments like this. Help it grow by subscribing now! https://t.co/0StGlWz45f

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

You paid for a plane with "a level of luxury that nobody has never seen before". And he's apparently taking it with him once he leaves the White House.

The plane. The ballroom. The corruption. This guy thinks taxpayers are dopes. Your money is just his to live a life of luxury.

[Mike Young @micyoung75]

The hydrogen peroxide workers poured into the Reflecting Pool did kill the original algae. It also created conditions for a new strain, genus Scenedesmus, nicknamed Skinny Dead Mouse by scientists, to take over instead. The scientists Viser brought samples to said they just switched the players.

The pool is also less safe in a different way now. The 16.4 million dollar sealant is peeling up from the bottom in chunks. Tourists are collecting pieces. One person compared it to taking a chunk of the Berlin Wall.

The government has been running water safety tests for days and will not release the results. Independent scientists who applied for permits to test the water themselves have been denied. NPS put out an internal email calling this a regional and national priority and asking staff to volunteer for 12-hour emergency shifts. Two weeks from the 250th birthday of the United States.

[Democracy Docket @DemocracyDocket]

Trump wants to create a national database of every registered voter in the country.

Then, he and the GOP want to decide who gets to stay on it.

“It’s a way of essentially taking over the voter registration process,” Marc Elias says, “or, more precisely, taking over the results.”

[Rep. Mike Levin @RepMikeLevin]

Trump told the country his ballroom was “taxpayer-free.” His own contractor’s records say you’ve been paying for it the whole time. 

The price has nearly tripled since last summer, from $200 million to $600 million, and more than $300 million of that is coming from your tax dollars. 

Welcome to Episode 18 of the Corruption Chronicles.

[Marc E. Elias @marceelias]

The legal battle over President Donald Trump’s effort to crack down on mail voting is heating up. And Democracy Docket is covering it more closely than any other news outlet. https://t.co/vbNRfiCLsv

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

Step 1: Remove filters in Reflecting Pool because Obama put them in.
Step 2: Give your criminal neighbor who runs "Greenwater Services" a $20 million no-bid contract to paint the pool.
Step 3: Fill the pool with water from the Potomac River, the phosphates from which cause algae blooms.
Step 4: Freshly sealed pool and extreme heat result in a super scum event
Step 5: Direct National Park Service to dump hydrogen peroxide into the pool which causes the paint to peel.
Step 5: Deploy US National Guard to stop people from taking photos of the swamp as a perfect metaphor for the administration.
Step 6: Blame someone else.

[Bill Madden @maddenifico]

The chasm between competence and incompetence could not be wider.

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

The plan is for this plane to be in service for two years and then Trump will take if for himself. No President has ever stolen an Air Force for himself.

And you paid for it. The total cost could be $1 billion of your money for a new luxury jet for Trump and his family.

[Marc E. Elias @marceelias]

We are suing to prevent Donald Trump from controlling mail-in voting by dictating to the Postal Service of whose ballot they will and won't deliver. All of this is laddering up to Trump trying to dictate who gets to vote and who doesn't.

[Lawfare @lawfare]

The Justice Department quietly deleted thousands of press releases about the Jan. 6 insurrection
So Lawfare restored them: more than 5,700 pages recovered and publicly archived.

@TylerMcBrien, Michael Feinberg, and Benjamin Wittes explain how. https://t.co/qtcxOnOmfa

[Rep. Mike Levin @RepMikeLevin]

This should be on the front page of every newspaper in America.   

Trump’s DOJ just shut down a federal investigation into a coal company owned by Sen. Jim Justice, one of his closest allies, after it racked up tens of thousands of alleged violations for dumping dangerous chemicals into our waterways. A veteran federal prosecutor with 24 years on the job said he had never seen anything like it.  

The man who killed the case was Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal defense lawyer and current Acting Attorney General. This is the same guy who just gave Trump, his family, and his companies permanent immunity from IRS audits. Now Trump wants the Senate to make Blanche’s appointment permanent too.  

Equal justice under law was never supposed to come with exceptions for the President’s friends.  

The pattern isn’t subtle: protect Trump’s friends, prosecute his critics, and get rewarded with more power. That is corruption, plain and simple. Todd Blanche must not be confirmed.
https://t.co/95K8zIySPz

[BA Rali @barali4793]

@MollyJongFast @atrupar Keeping DC safe…. 🙄