The Biggest Takeaway from the January 6 Report

The congressional committee investigating the January 6 insurrection delivered a comprehensive and compelling case for the criminal prosecution of Donald Trump and his closest allies for their attempt to overturn the 2020 election. But the committee zoomed in so tightly on the culpability of Trump and his inner circle that it largely cropped out the dozens of other state and federal Republican officials who supported or enabled the president’s multifaceted, months-long plot. The committee downplayed the involvement of the legion of local Republican officials who enlisted as fake electors and…

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The GOP Can’t Hide From Extremism

The role of extremist white nationalists in the GOP may be approaching an inflection point. The backlash against former President Donald Trump’s meeting with Nick Fuentes, an avowed racist, anti-Semite, and Christian nationalist, has compelled more Republican officeholders than at any point since the Charlottesville riot in 2017 to publicly condemn those extremist views. Yet few GOP officials have criticized the former president personally—much less declared that Trump’s meeting with Fuentes and Ye, the rapper (formerly known as Kanye West) who has become a geyser of anti-Semitic bile, renders him…

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How J. Edgar Hoover Went From Hero to Villain

Five decades after his death, J. Edgar Hoover still haunts the FBI. His nearly 48-year reign as its director, from 1924 to 1972, has come to symbolize the dangers of a stealth domestic police-and-intelligence agency in an open society. Hoover is widely seen today as an autocrat who used secret surveillance and other illegal means to control politicians and infiltrate and disrupt domestic political groups in the service of his conservative worldview. No operation confirms this verdict more vividly than the FBI’s wide-ranging electronic surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr.,…

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End the Exception: Senator Merkley Calls for Passage of the Abolition Amendment to End Legalized Slavery; Highlight Wide Support from Across the Country

WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley called on Congress to pass the Abolition Amendment. He was joined by Worth Rises and MoveOn, who presented a petition with over 200,000 signatures from across the country echoing the call. This event occurred just before Constitution Day (September 17) and 157 years after the passage of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery for most. The exception in the 13th Amendment makes slavery legal “as punishment for a crime,” forcing predominantly Black and brown people to work for little to no…

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Woke Corporations Face Backlash From Conservative States

Conservative states have a warning for corporations that have “gone woke”: The consequences of political activism are no longer one-sided. This month, West Virginia declared it would no longer do business with five Wall Street banks over the companies’ anti-coal or anti-fossil fuel policies. “You have your right to be able to boycott the fossil fuel industry, but we’re not going to do business with you. We’re not going to pay for our own destruction,” State Treasurer Riley Moore said. “They’ve weaponized tax dollars against the very people and industries that…

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