🇺🇸 DOJ vs. DJT

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🐎 Pennsylvania Senate - Oz vs. Fetterman: Fetterman 49, Oz 44 (Susquehanna)

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TRENDING

Left: Trump Freaks Out On Truth Social After More Mar-A-Lago Raid Details Are Made Public (Huffington Post)

Left: The DOJ’s latest filing has even more damning claims against Trump (Vox)

Left: A Chaotic Glimpse of the Classified Documents Recovered at Mar-a-Lago (Mother Jones)

Right: DNC and DCCC adviser Kurt Bardella describes 'MAGA Republicans' as 'a domestic terrorist cell' (The Blaze)

Right: Biden Student Loan Giveaway A Boon For Doctors, Lawyers, And Grads With Dubious Degrees (Daily Wire)

Right: Biden to frame midterm elections as war for democracy — and against Trump (Washington Examiner)

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QUICK CLICKS

Border Back-and-Forth, Soviet Pizza, Food Fight!

US: Mayra Flores rips Biden administration for 'politicizing' border crisis: 'Nothing surprises me anymore' (Fox News)

World: Mikhail Gorbachev's Pizza Hut commercial — now used in memes and history lessons — cost millions to make and paid the former Soviet leader much-needed cash (Insider)

World: Inside the annual Tomatina food fight festival (NY Post)

US: NASA Will Re-Attempt a Launch of the Artemis 1 Mission on Saturday (Gizmodo)

US: Life expectancy drops again, marking worst 2-year decline in a century (CBS)

US: Gas prices are falling at a historic rate. Here's why experts say it will continue (ABC)

Business: Snap cancels original shows, other projects amid 20% layoffs (The Verge)

Business: Bed Bath & Beyond stock tanks after cutting staff, closing stores, and floating share sale (Yahoo)

US: Robotext onslaught: Americans are suing (Axios)

US: Everything you need to know about Biden's student loan forgiveness program (CNN)

US: Omicron booster shots are coming—with lots of questions (Science)

POLITICS

DOJ vs. DJT

Former President Donald Trump speaks with servicemembers from Mar-a-Lago on Dec. 25, 2020. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

In the latest development concerning the raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a Lago home, the Justice Department asked a federal judge not to appoint a “special master” to review seized evidence. The DOJ also released a photo of seized documents, placed on a rug at Trump's South Florida estate.

From The Flag: The DOJ said in the same filing that it has evidence government records were concealed and removed, adding there are national security risks involved. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and says the search and seizure conducted on August 8 were politically motivated. We recently covered the affidavit concerning the search itself. Here’s more from both sides.

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Trump Keeps Dragging Down the GOP Amid Deserved Scrutiny

  • The discovery of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago is part of a continuing careless pattern with regard to state secrets and intelligence assets.

  • It’s fitting that Trump has invoked Hillary Clinton in claiming he’s being treated unfairly, as he deserves the same treatment she got.

  • These developments put the GOP in a bad spot because they purport themselves as the party of “law and order.”

“What's really at stake when top secrets are stored at Mar-a-Lago?” Ted Gup, CNN Op-ed: “Others have written that Trump’s actions may be unlawful… I think of the dishonor brought upon the memories of those who gave their all for this country, who volunteered in the belief that their commander in chief would have their backs. … How did we come to this point? Trump is not the answer, merely the ultimate expression of a slow and steady erosion of respect for state secrets, the routine mishandling of sensitive documents and the slipshod and uneven prosecution of those who willfully violated the laws governing classified documents – in particular, the coddling of the powerful and the harsh punishment of their underlings. Against such a backdrop, Trump’s dangerously casual handling of state secrets seems all but inevitable… Such actions cast a shocking light on a bureaucracy corrupted by power, arrogance and petty opportunism.”

“Trump wants to be treated like Hillary Clinton? By all means.” Dana Milbank, Washington Post Opinion: “Donald Trump and his MAGA mouthpieces say the former president should be treated the same way Hillary Clinton was — and they’re right! Ever since the FBI found boxes upon boxes of government secrets hoarded at his resort residence, Trump has complained that he’s being held to a different standard from the one applied to Clinton during the probe of her private email server in 2016. ‘Absolutely nothing has happened to hold her accountable,’ Trump claimed when he confirmed the search of Mar-a-Lago. … In fact, Trump should be treated exactly the way Clinton was: The FBI should undertake a sprawling, multiyear investigation into Trump’s conduct, grilling him and his staff, running extensive forensics, and examining whether his actions allowed hostile actors to compromise U.S. security. The FBI should continue to keep him under investigation while he runs for president in 2024.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: The FBI’s Mar-a-Lago affidavit paints an unsettling portrait of Trump Lloyd Green, The Guardian Opinion

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Don’t Bury Trump Just Yet, but GOP May Want to Move on Politically

  • Unlike previous efforts centered on Trump’s taxes, these classified documents could bring down the former president, but it’s too early to tell.

  • The president can declassify any documents at his or her discretion, and there’s no evidence the information fell into the wrong hands.

  • Republicans would be better off moving on from Trump given this latest issue, which distracts from Biden’s failures.

“Trump’s Al Capone moment is nowhere near” Freddy Gray, Spectator World: “When the FBI searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida earlier this month, various pundits suggested the raid could be an ‘Al Capone moment.’ … he could go down for a technicality: i.e., withholding sensitive official documents he legally should have returned. … But where the ‘Trump’s tax’ story failed, the ‘Trump caught hoarding nation’s secrets’ story may yet succeed. … As always it’s a muddle of claims and counter-claims. Who is hiding what? Has Trump really been stowing away masses of highly sensitive documents like some sort of state-secrets hoarding pirate? Is it all part of his dastardly plan to hold the US government, or certain foreign leaders, to ransom? … For now, it seems, the Justice Department appears to have done more than enough to justify its actions. But until we know more about what those documents are and what exactly Trump did with them, it’s impossible to make any great claims.”

“Peter Strzok says Russia might have tried to infiltrate Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence” Eric Utter, American Thinker: “First off, the documents that the FBI seized during its August 8 raid of Trump’s private residence were declassified by then President Trump — the only person with the ultimate authority to do so. If the Commander-in-Chief says a document or documents is/are declassified, they are, ipso facto, declassified. … But anything is possible. Maybe the DOJ should send Hunter Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Eric Swalwell to Mar-a-Lago to help investigate. A crack team to get to the bottom of this Chinese puzzle of deception and intrigue! We know Hillary and Hunter worked with ‘foreign agents,’ so they know what to look for. … And a foreign agent named Fang Fang apparently infiltrated Swalwell’s pants. … While there is no evidence that any competent foreign intelligence service infiltrated the former president’s home, we know for a fact that the FBI did.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: Republicans must move beyond Trump — to keep the focus on Biden’s disasters Editorial Board, New York Post

FLAG THIS

Classified Documents and Charges

Polling conducted last month found 48% of respondents feel former President Trump should face criminal charges for his handling of classified documents, while 35% said he should not, and 17% were unsure (YouGov).

Do you think Trump should be charged for keeping classified documents at Mar-a-Lago?

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WATERCOOLER

First Japanese Pitcher, Disney Houses, Semi-Identitcal

On September 1, 1964, pitcher Masanori Murakami becomes the first Japanese man to play in Major League Baseball. Murakami pitched a scoreless eighth inning for the San Francisco Giants in a 4-1 loss to the New York Mets in front of 39,379 fans at Shea Stadium. Above is a photograph of Murakami, taken during his rookie season.

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Today I Learned a third type of twins exist: "Semi-identical" — when a single egg is fertilized by two sperm and then splits.

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