The Cost of Pardoning the Jan. 6th Defendants
Plus: Drone Hysteria, Alien Cultists, and the One-Armed Prophet of Cosmic Enlightenment
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KIM WEHLE: The Cost of Pardoning the Jan. 6th Defendants
IN HIS “PERSON OF THE YEAR” INTERVIEW with Time magazine, Donald J. Trump reiterated his campaign promise to pardon the Capitol rioters, claiming that “a vast majority of them should not be in jail.” While federal authorities continue to make new arrests, there have been upwards of 1,488 individuals charged across all fifty states and the District of Columbia for offenses ranging from misdemeanors to assault and seditious conspiracy. As of August 6, 2024, the Justice Department reported that there had been 894 individuals who pleaded guilty to a variety of charges. Another 223 have been convicted in trials. Some 562 have been sentenced to prison.
Among the defendants are individuals caught on tape brandishing stun guns, flagpoles, fire extinguishers, bike racks, batons, a metal whip, office furniture, bear spray, a tomahawk ax, a hockey stick, knuckle gloves, a baseball bat, a pitchfork, pieces of lumber, crutches, and even an explosive device during the attack in which approximately 140 police officers were assaulted.
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MORE THAN 140 TOP DEMOCRATIC operatives, fundraisers, and ex-campaign staffers are calling for executives at the party’s biggest online donation portal to clean up their operation or risk donor backlash.
In a letter to the leadership of ActBlue, these Democrats said they feared that “questionable” fundraising tactics by unscrupulous groups and operatives were damaging the party’s reputation and hindering its ability to keep voters engaged. The signatories, who say they have collectively raised or donated $1.14 billion on ActBlue since it launched in 2004, called for a number of new features and policies designed to protect donors from exploitation.
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MARTYN WENDELL JONES: Drone Hysteria, Alien Cultists, and the One-Armed Prophet of Cosmic Enlightenment
UNMANNED DRONES HAVE BEEN SWARMING New Jersey; patriotic defenders of the homeland have been zapping them with laser pointers to scramble the hostile visitors’ plans. It turns out many of the alleged drones are normal planes whose pilots have been getting their retinas fried by this ad-hoc home defense, but their accounts of frustration and potential injury are doing little to calm the drone hysteria. The intuition about a deeper, hidden reality is too strong.
Just ask any lawmaker involved in this fall’s congressional hearing on unidentified aerial phenomena—UFOs, in the slightly outdated parlance. In November, the Pentagon released a report documenting hundreds of new UFO sightings, including “several particularly interesting cases.” Officials claim there remains no evidence of alien activity. But Americans remain fixated on the sky, confident that they have watched portents zip across the horizon
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Wednesday! Good news! Remember the murder hornet hysteria? Well: We won. Sad to miss the Reason debate tonight, but if you’re going tonight: have fun!
🎁The Annual Matt Labash…🎁 Slack Tide Christmas sale is here. Treat yourself to 30% off while you can.
The T.R.I. 2024 Holiday Gift Guide… Suggestions from Bulwark contributor Alec Dent and his wife, our fearless art director Hannah Yoest.
Chances of a government shutdown… Just went through the roof. Which raises the question: What happens if we don’t have a Speaker next month? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It’s Time For A Little Recreational Mental Illness In New Jersey… As a treat. (David Roth, Defector)
Congrats to my former employer… The Lake County Captains, the High A affiliate of the Cleveland Guardians, for being named “Team of the Year” by Baseball America. (I was a security guard during their first season when I was in college.)
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How to disappear completely… The internet is forever. But also, it isn’t. What happens to our culture when websites start to vanish at random? (S.E. Smith, The Verge)
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