Radley Balko
@radleybalko
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Investigative journalist. Journalism fellow: Quattrone Center. Books: Rise of the Warrior Cop, Cadaver King and the Country Dentist. Honorary Duckmaster.
Nashville, TN
Joined August 2008
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My first big report for the new Substack is now live. It's a two-year investigation into the horrific wrongful conviction of an intellectually disabled man in Arkansas.
No paywall, so I hope you'll check it out.
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Breaking: A member of the Breonna Taylor grand jury just filed a remarkable motion asking a judge to release the entire proceedings of the grand jury. The motion strongly suggests that Attorney General Cameron's public comments contradict what was presented to the grand jury.
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It isn’t easy for a man to rip a screaming child away from his mother. Most of us couldn’t do it. This is where “animals” comes in. Declare he isn’t really a child, she isn’t a woman. Now it’s like pulling a piglet from a sow. This has always been how states enable savagery.
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Remember when Kaepernick “disrespected the flag” by quietly taking a knee?
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GOP: He didn't do it.
Trump: I did it.
GOP: He didn't mean to do it.
Trump: I wish I'd done it sooner.
GOP: He did it for benign reasons.
Trump: I did it for the worst reasons.
GOP: He's sorry.
Trump: I'm never sorry.
GOP: He's chastened.
Trump: I'm doing it again tomorrow.
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Fearmongering works:
OK violent crime rate: 458 per 100K
NY violent crime rate: 364 per 100K
OK murder rate: 7.25
NY murder rate: 4.11
% of Oklahomans who say crime is most urgent issue: 5
% of New Yorkers: 28
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Fox News had the Indiana AG to say he’s opening a criminal investigation of the doctor in the 10 year-old abortion story. They then aired the doctor’s photo. They’re either actively trying to get her killed, or just don’t give a damn that they’re putting her in danger.
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This isn't hard.
A presidential candidate with a history of bullying and thuggery leading crowds in chants to imprison his opponent is unhealthy in a democracy.
A baseball crowd mocking the most powerful man on earth - who has been credibly accused of real crimes - is healthy.
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NYC is:
-- 25% black -- largest black population in U.S.
-- One of our most diverse cities. Whites are now a minority.
-- A sanctuary city, with ~500K undocumented immigrants.
It's also:
-- The safest big city in America. Crime is at a 50-year low.
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A heart transplant recipient was arrested after a dispute with a neighbor over WiFi. Jail officials refused to let him take his transplant medication for two days. He’d waited 12 years for a heart. His body rejected the heart, and he died.
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For the umpteenth time: There’s a huge difference between honoring historical figures in spite of their sins (Washington, Jefferson, etc.), and honoring historical figures because of their sins (Lee, Davis, Forrest, etc.).
Kayleigh McEnany: "Are we to remove from history George Washington? Are we to remove Thomas Jefferson? Are we to remove FDR?"
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So after nine years, I'm being let go by the Washington Post. This is disappointing but not surprising. In recent years, the Opinion leadership has made it increasingly difficult to do the reporting & in-depth analysis I was hired to do -- in favor of short, hot takes.
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Arpaio once sent 40 SWAT cops, a bomb robot, K9 units, and Steven Seagal to arrest a man suspected of cockfighting. Seagal drove an APC into the man's living room. They destroyed the guy's house with explosives, then filmed it all for a reality TV show.
Sheriff Joe on FBI's Roger Stone Raid: Ive Been Busting Down Doors for 50 Years &; Ive Never Sent That Many Units to the Baddest Murderer
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The audio makes it so much worse. Also, he’s the chairman of the local Republican Party.
A man called a non-emergency police line to report a 9-year-old Black girl who was spraying spotted lantern flies in New Jersey.
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Slavery lasted 250 years . Black people were second class citizens *as a matter of law* for another 100. It’s astounding that people pearl-clutch over the very idea that just a generation later, racism might still be pervasive, and that this is something we should talk about.
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Reminder: Joe Arpaio once faked an assassination attempt, then framed a man for it — all to win sympathy for his reelection campaign. The innocent man spent 4 years in jail. Taxpayers footed the $1 million settlement.
"I'm honored to have you here."
Vice President Mike Pence recognizes ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio during a tax policy event in Arizona, calling Arpaio a "tireless champion of strong borders and the rule of law."
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We should be far more worried about the people who are angry at the caravan than the people who are part of it.
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I never said Jews should be eradicated from public life. I said *Judaism* should be eradicated from public life.
I may be a buffoonish bigot who stirs rubes to violence, but my cowardice demands a smidgeon of plausible deniability. And you, sir, have libeled me by omitting it.
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It essentially accuses Cameron of hiding behind grand jury secrecy requirements while misleading the public about evidence the grand jury actually saw. It asks the court to release the record in the interest of justice, transparency, and accountability.
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College swim team takes bathroom break on the way back from a road trip. Local deputies spot the team’s only black member, tackle him, put a gun to his head, threaten to kill him. They later claim they mistakenly thought he’d taken the bus hostage.
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1. Don’t create “elite” police units who get special privileges, less oversight, and get to take shortcuts.
2. Definitely don’t give those units names like “Scorpion.”
3. The cops who really, really want to work on those units are the last cops who should be working on them.
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These executions were a conscious choice. Barr, presumably with Trump’s approval, ordered them. They didn’t have to. This isn’t some required duty they had no choice but to carry out. They made executing people a priority. They made it their legacy. They’re proud of it.
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TIL that as the CO river dries up, AZ is leasing its largest underground aquifer to the Saudis, who are growing water-intensive alfalfa, which is then shipped back to S.A. to feed cattle. Market rate for the lease is $5 million/yr. Saudis pay $86K.
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Idea:
- Set aside ~15 million Pfizer vaccines
- Give them a weird new name like Hydroxyiverzinc
- Send to doctors, veterinarians, acupuncturists, etc.
- Viral marketing campaign calling Hydroxyiverzinc “the secret COVID cure the government doesn’t what you to know about!”
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This apparently started because the kid said he wasn't feeling well and didn't want to play kickball. It ended with a school cop pepper spraying him, pulling him to the ground by his hair, and arresting him. Kid's now facing multiple charges.
JUST IN: Body camera footage from an incident involving an SRO arresting a student at East Ridge High School has been released by the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office.
WARNING FOUL LANGUAGE: Here's a clip from the footage that's over an hour long. More:
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There were 8 murders on the NYC subway last year. There were over 760 million riders. Odds of getting murdered on a subway ride: 1 in 95 million. If you ride 700 times per year, odds are still less than 1 in a million.
Odds of dying in a car accident: 1 in 8,500.
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A black woman inadvertently drove into a protest scene. Philly cops pulled her from her car and beat her in front of her toddler. America’s largest police union then posted a photo of the boy and claimed his mother had abandoned him on the street.
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I have a piece in The NYT this morning. A Minneapolis suburb hired a Black chief and assistant chief. Over half the department quit. Yet the world didn’t end.
If cops would rather quit than respect the people they serve, maybe it’s okay to let them go.
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If Biden was serious about unity he wouldn’t have embarrassed Trump right out of the gate with such an ostentatious display of competence.
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Arkansas woman calls 911. Officer sees her Pomeranian, is apparently terrified of the mighty beast. He shoots at the dog and misses, shooting the woman in the leg. He then tries to tell her the bullet hole in her leg is probably a scratch from the dog.
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In 2015, Kenosha cop Pablo Torres shot and killed a man armed with a bucket. It was his first day back after another shooting 10 days earlier. He had a 200-page disciplinary file, with 9 excessive force complaints. The Kenosha police union paid tribute to him with this billboard.
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“I will no longer be requesting free Anheuser-Busch products to drink backstage” is the funniest attempt at a political boycott since right-wingers were smashing their Keurigs with baseball bats.
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The O'Keefe thing at first feels like a hilarious own-goal. But think about what they did. They expropriated the child victims of a sex predator. And they did it because they want that sex predator to win a goddamned senate seat. You think they can't go lower. And then they do.
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Uvalde is a town of just 16,000 people. But it apparently has a SWAT team.
We’re regularly told small towns need SWAT teams so they can quickly respond to events just like this. The killer was in the building for an hour.
I found the Facebook page of the Uvalde Police Department. It is very interesting and does not conjure a feeling of safety or wellness.
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Damn, this story. It just gets more angrifying by the word.
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Two journalists. Same statistic. One informs by providing context. The other misleads by uncritically parroting a line from a public official with an agenda.
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Hospital security officers detained a black man they suspected of “casing” a parking garage, beat him, and told him to never come back. He was a patient, looking for his car. He’d been receiving treatment for kidney failure.
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Without that video, none of this happens. Not the conviction. Not the reforms across the country. None of it.
Darnella Frazier is the 17 year-old hero who filmed it. Respect. 🙏🏽
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All six announced Republican presidential candidates now support sending the US military into Mexico, with or without Mexico’s permission.
This is also known as an invasion.
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Last year, a Beverly Hills tax attorney wrote an op-ed defending Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns. Trump appointed him to head the IRS.
Last year, an ex-US attorney went on cable news to defend Trump from the Mueller investigation. He’s now the acting attorney general.
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NBC is reporting that the feds’ new desert tent city outside of Tornillo, Texas, is preparing for more than 4,000 children. 20 to a tent. Expected high in Tornillo tomorrow: 106 degrees.
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So Trump wants to yank Sally Yates’ clearance because “national security.” Recall that Yates warned Trump about Michael Flynn’s ties to Russia. As did others, who also noted his work for Turkey. Trump then gave Flynn *the most sensitive national security position in government.*
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The Adam Toledo video is horrifying. The kid didn't have a gun in his hand. And the state lied about it right up until they were forced to release the video.
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El Paso is the most Latino big city in America, and the one with the largest percentage of immigrants.
Last year, just 23 people were murdered in El Paso.
Today, a man apparently motivated by politicians and pundits who claim Latino immigrants are dangerous ... mudered 20.
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DOJ just released the report from its two-year investigation of the Minneapolis police department.
Here's a thread of notable excerpts.
This first one happened *while a DOJ investigator was on a ride-along.*
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In 2021, Knoxiville cops killed a 17-yo boy. The deputies now say the boy's 15-yo sister recently refused to serve them at the deli where she worked. The department complained about the girl on its FB page, and appears to have gotten her fired.
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This is an incredible story. Whistleblower cop made recordings of superiors, colleagues framing innocent people. DA was made aware, but continued peosecuting cases. Only person punished was the whistleblower.
NEW: In secret recordings, police officers in Mount Vernon, NY say their colleagues framed innocent people again and again.
The
@WestchesterDA
got these tapes last year but kept prosecuting people—without disclosing the evidence. Here it is:
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That . . . is not what “our cup runneth over” means.
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Male West Virginia state police officers put a camera in the women’s locker room at the state police academy and recorded women for years, including minors participating in a “Junior Trooper” program.
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Just to reiterate: The president of the U.S. called a foreign leader specifically to praise his policy of extrajudicial executions.
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Go on,
@TuckerCarlson
. Tell her she’s an invader. An infestor. A “plunderer.” Diseased. Tell her she makes America “dirtier.” Tell her that her dad, who works hellish conditions at a chicken plant to give her a better life, is a threat to American values.
Little girl sobs for her father after he was taken during the Mississippi ICE raids. She pleads for him to be let go: "I need my dad."
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This is fucking depraved. Just profoundly evil.
The Trump gov't put out a call, asking legal immigrants to sponsor some of the 1,000's of kids in cages. Desperate to help, 170 kind ppl stepped up, hoping to finally free the kid from captivity.
Turns out, it was a sting operation. Then came the arrests.
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The man Trump appointed to the most sensitive national security position in US government and a current martyr/hero of the Trumpist right just posted a video of himself taking the QAnon oath.
#TakeTheOath
🇺🇸
Happy 4th of July 🇺🇸
God Bless America 🇺🇸
@SidneyPowell1
@molmccann
@BarbaraRedgate
@JosephJFlynn1
@GoJackFlynn
@flynn_neill
@lofly727
@TJHproject
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
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Percentage of tickets issued by NYPD officers that went to black or Latino people for . . . .
jaywalking: 99%
riding a bike on the sidewalk: 86.5%
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Others will get COVID from these assholes. Drivers. Waitstaff. Security. We won’t know their names. They won’t get the care Trump and Conway do. Some will pass it to their families. People will die. All because Trump decided it’s a liability to acknowledge that this is real.
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Roberts Court: If you can give me a non-racist reason for this plan (wink)— even a totally implausible one (wink) — I’ll let it stand.
(Wink.)
Republicans: ...
...
...
WE ONLY WANT WHITE PEOPLE TO VOTE!
Roberts Court: Pretty close! I’m going to give you another chance.
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SWAT team raids house for a robbery suspect. Flashbangs ignite the house, which is then engulfed in flames. After the fire, police find the body of a 14-year-old boy. He was not the suspect. Nor was the family who live in the house.
(via
@DrRJKavanagh
)
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God, I love this story. Mostly white state leg. forces mostly black city to live with monument to racist icon (while hypocritically singing praises of localism). So city leaders secretly deploy a bold work around. Someone please make a movie about this.
State passes regs intended to stop anyone from taking down Confederate statues.
Memphis sells parks to nonprofit, takes down statues anyway, raises middle finger to state legislature.
[Standing Ovation]
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White leader of a powerful country tells a nearly all-white crowd that he and they are genetically superior to other people.
"You have good genes, you know that, right? You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn't it, don't you believe? The racehorse theory. You think we're so different? You have good genes in Minnesota." -- Trump
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Hunter Biden would have to serve on the Burisma board for at least 5,000 years to earn the money Middle East governments have given to Kushner’s firm since Trump took office. Kushner of course had an official White House position, and worked on ME policy.
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My guy is trying to lawsplain to the woman who literally wrote the book on qualified immunity.
And of course, he has no idea what he's talking about.
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The Twitter Files is a good lesson in how you can report out the goings on of any decent sized organization, and if you use the right tone, cite “documents,” and make it seem like you’re breaking news, you can make even the most mundane shit seem scandalous to the right audience.
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As of now, Tennessee has counted a lower percentage of its votes than Pennsylvania.
I’m so proud to live in TN, where we count our ballots on election day. This 3+ day counting, in other states, is BS.
#voterintegrity
@sectrehargett
@SenJohnson
@ltgovmcnally
@SenFrankNiceley
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TIL that in the 2000s, the mayor of Bogotá fired the city's traffic cops and replaced them with mimes. Instead of fining people who committed infractions, the mimes would mock them.
It apparently worked. And somehow, no mimes were murdered.
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Wayne State Univ. cop on a "wellness check" shoots neighbor's dog in the face.
Chief clears cop. "He had no recourse, he was boxed in the corner with nowhere to retreat."
It was a Goldendoodle, and an emotional support dog.
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Trump put Bannon, Miller, & Gorka in the White House. They're calling out his name. Stop saying he bears no responsibility for this.
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I researched countless protests for my first book. I’ve written about many since. I think it’s safe to say that we’ve never seen the widespread, deliberate targeting of journalists by police that we’ve seen over the last few days. Something has changed.
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So if I have it right, the argument goes like this:
— murders are surging because an entire profession would rather let people die than hold their colleagues accountable when they needlessly hurt and kill people
— we should hire thousands more for that profession
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Sessions just said we’ve seen a spike in violent crime the likes of which we haven’t seen since the 1960s. This is a lie.
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NFL coaches are all decked out in military camouflage today. But remember, kneeling players are ”politicizing the game.”
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I hope Rand Paul fully recovers. But how did he get a test without symptoms or contacts with a known carrier “out of an abundance of caution” while people with full blown symptoms are pleading for them?
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Arpaio once staged an assassination attempt to win sympathy, then framed a man for it. Taxpayers paid the damages.
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ProPublica is doing some amazing reporting on Thomas. At this point, the breadth of the corruption is just comical.
He didn’t disclose any of this.
By the numbers, here’s our accounting of all the trips he’s gotten since the 90s. It’s the most comprehensive to date but still surely an undercount.
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“Due to anger from the community, please remove this needlessly provocative photo of . . . you hugging your wife.”
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Biden deserves everything he gets for his criminal justice record, but if you think the guy who personally paid for that Central Park Five ad would have opposed the ‘94 crime bill, you’re out of your mind.
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MSNBC reporting the Secret Service just had to usher Pence out of the Capitol through underground tunnels . . . to protect him from an angry mob sent by Trump.
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I refuse to believe Mueller, Adam Schiff, and Jerry Nadler are trying to overthrow the government until I see statues of them outside of southern courthouses.
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Over the last year, it's become clear that my short, hot takes aren't particularly welcome either. My last day is Dec 1.
It's a deflating way to end a dream job. But I'm proud of the journalism I've published in the last decade, including reporting that has brought real change.
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If there's one thing the Soviet Union was known for, it's allowing students to protest and disrupt speeches by government officials.
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Biden just said he’d push for mandatory rehab for drug possession, with the charge cleared if you complete the program. This isn’t reform. Possession does not mean addiction.
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Love it when an angry reply inadvertently illustrates the point.
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The guy who’s a coin flip to be the next president is using sort of language that has historically resulted in mass graves.
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Ilya Shapiro on Sonia Sotomayor (17 years as a federal judge, extensive trial experience, pro bono and appellate work when she was nominated) vs. Amy Cony Barrett (3 years as a federal judge, never tried a case or argued an appeal, nominated after Trump promised a woman).
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Maybe the Central Park 5 could take out a full-page ad to condemn the coddling of thug real estate barons who commit serial sexual assault.
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This is infuriating. Grijalva chairs the committee investigating the clearing of Lafayette Square. He wanted his hearing to be via video. The Trump administration said it wouldn’t cooperate unless Grijalva flew from Arizona to DC to appear in person. 1/6
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Cops nearly beat a man to death, then arrest him for “assaulting” them. Man serves full sentence before state SC court overturns. Prosecutor charges the guy all over again, just so he’ll have a record. Apparently, he’s mad that the guy threatened to sue.
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Apparently, Pence was planning to criticize "taking a knee" in his speech tonight. The Milwaukee Bucks just put their own livelihoods on the line for their cause. Contrast to Pence, who once spent $325K of taxpayer dollars to make a show of angrily walking out on an NFL game.
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Impeach. Prosecute. At the very least, censure him. The president threatened a state election official with criminal charges unless he manufactured votes to throw an election. The only consequence for that cannot merely be that the state election official said “no.”
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1. Obama did bad stuff as president.
2. Obama isn't president. If Trump's doing dangerous things now, that's far more important than
#1
.
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ICE tried to deport a key witness in the forced hysterectomies story. She's a U.S. citizen.
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Fun thread about Federalist co-founder Sean Davis:
A while back, I happened upon an old Politico article about Trump retweeting a white supremacist. It included an embedded tweet from Davis criticizing Trump. Given that Davis is now one of Trump's fiercest defenders. 1/
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Need a word for people (Musk, the Weinsteins, Scott Adams, etc.) who think success/expertise in some areas makes them experts in everything else, then consistently (but confidently) demonstrate why this isn't true.
Like, the opposite of a polymath. Follymath? Trollymath?
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While we're canceling things, we should be thinking about misdemeanor courts. They're typically packed. Defendants can spend hours elbow to elbow while waiting for cases to be called.
DAs should consider waiving misdemeanor charges until this passes, especially in hot spots. 1/5
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I don’t think presidents have much effect on crime. But if we’re going to play that game:
1. Obama left Trump with the lowest murder rate of any president since LBJ.
2. Trump was the first president in 28 years to leave office with a higher murder rate than when he started.
Everywhere we go, people tell us they’re concerned about two things:
1. The economy
2. Crime
And everywhere we go, people know Joe Biden has no plan to fix it.
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The GOP position:
— Presidents can only be impeached for indictable crimes
— But DOJ can’t investigate possible presidential crimes
— Neither can state or local officials
— If Congress tries to investigate, presidents can mass refuse all subpoenas for witnesses and documents
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One more thing:
My first big story will post in few days. It's a two-year investigation into a horrific wrongful conviction in Arkansas.
Stay tuned.
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A congressman just revealed on MSNBC that the Park Police apparently have recordings of police radio transmissions from the day before the clearing of Lafayette Sq. And from the day after. But on the day they cleared the park, the recording device malfunctioned. So weird!
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