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The House Ways and Means Committee subpoenaed a newsroom. Not a corporation. Not a contractor. A small, nonprofit news outlet called BreakThrough News… because it covered ICE abuse, Palestine solidarity, and U.S. foreign policy. The subpoena demands internal emails and money records. The committee, led by Republican Jason Smith of Missouri, says it is looking into whether the outlet gets foreign cash. BreakThrough says it does not… and already files every report the law requires. “This is a political witch-hunt against independent media, pure and simple,” the outlet said. Rania Khalek, a journalist at BreakThrough, compared it to McCarthy-era raids on left-wing groups. “They’re attempting to criminalize dissent and an independent press,” she told Democracy Now. “Everybody who cares about a free press and free speech should be alarmed.” Press freedom groups are calling it a red line. The Freedom of the Press Foundation said: “If lawmakers can abuse tax oversight to single out outlets whose reporting offends them today, no newsroom in America is safe from government intimidation tomorrow.” The outlet’s lawyer, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, called it “a direct frontal assault on free speech and democracy.” The same Congress that just voted $73 billion for a war is now using its tax committee to demand the emails of a newsroom that covered it. | |
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BREAKING The DOJ Asked the Supreme Court to Allow Mail-In Voting Restrictions Nationwide — Three Months Before the Midterms |
On Monday, the Justice Department filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court to restore an executive order that would restrict voting by mail across the country. The midterms are 97 days away. Trump signed the order in March. It tells DHS and Social Security to build lists of who can vote in each state. Then it tells the Postal Service to stop mailing ballots in states that refuse to share their voter data with the feds. A judge blocked it. An appeals court kept the block. Now the DOJ wants the Supreme Court to undo both rulings. More than 20 state attorneys general are fighting it. The DHS database is known to flag citizens as non-citizens… meaning real voters could be wrongly cut. The Postal Service has said that if the order goes through, it will not deliver ballots in states that don’t hand over their rolls. This is the administration’s 35th emergency application to the Supreme Court… more than any other president in the same time span. The court has until August 3 to respond. The case first goes to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. If the court rules for the administration, millions of voters in states that don’t comply could lose the ability to vote by mail in November. |
EXPOSED Rubio Targeted Cuba Solidarity Groups as Foreign Agents — CodePink Says the Campaign Is Designed to Criminalize Dissent | |
Rubio has launched a public campaign calling U.S.-based Cuba solidarity groups agents of the Cuban government. The State Department put out a report this month claiming Havana had planted operatives inside American left-wing groups. It named no proof. It cited no courts. It showed no evidence. CodePink, one of the groups targeted, said it would not be intimidated. “We can’t be intimidated,” the group said. “This is about silencing anyone who opposes sanctions, blockades, and regime change.” The campaign comes weeks after the U.S. oil blockade caused Cuba’s power grid to collapse three times in nine days… leaving 10 million people in the dark. Rubio has a personal stake in Cuba policy. He is the son of Cuban immigrants. He pushed sanctions on Cuba for years in the Senate. He is now using the State Department to brand Americans who oppose those sanctions as foreign spies. A newsroom subpoenaed for its coverage. Voting by mail challenged at the Supreme Court. And now, activist groups smeared as foreign agents for opposing a policy that left 10 million people without power. The machine does not debate its critics. It labels them. | |
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DEVELOPING 1 Million Acres Burning in Oregon. 360,000 Evacuated in France and Spain. Tens of Thousands of Acres on Fire in Minnesota. The Government Is Arguing About Voting Rules. |
Fires in Oregon have burned more than 1 million acres of land. Fires in Minnesota have burned tens of thousands more. In France and Spain, more than 360,000 people have been forced to leave their homes as wildfires fueled by record heat sweep across both countries. Firefighters and troops are fighting on three continents. And the world’s largest governments are spending this week arguing about mail-in ballots, nuclear deals, and tariffs. In Spain, one resident described the scene: “It was like in the movies, where hell cracked the ground open, and you see the red hell. That’s how it looked.” Scientists say the heat driving these fires would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change. The federal wildfire budget is roughly $4 billion a year. The war costs $250 million a day. The Saudi nuclear deal unlocks billions in reactor contracts. The SCOTUS filing could change the rules of an election. And the fires burn. A million acres is bigger than Rhode Island. The government has not declared a national emergency. It has not held a press conference. It has not cancelled a single trip. The machine does not hold summits for fires. It holds them for deals. |
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They rely on the shadows. |