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Federal agents in LA gather outside Gov. Newsom press conference in apparent attempt at intimidation

Federal agents in LA gather outside Gov. Newsom press conference in apparent attempt at intimidation

TRUMP’S PRIVATE ARMY IS ILLEGALLY ON PRIVATE PROPERTY!!!! WE WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED BY THIS WEAK LITTLE MAN!!! https://t.co/13nJL6JRvG — Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) August 14, 2025 Democracy Docket reports: Masked and armed federal agents made arrests outside of a Los Angeles museum in which Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) Thursday was announcing plans to redraw the state’s congressional map to offset the GOP’s redistricting efforts in Texas. The aggressive police operation directly outside the press conference appeared to be…

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Department of Homeland Security accused of tweeting antisemitic dog whistles

Department of Homeland Security accused of tweeting antisemitic dog whistles

JTA reports: Over the weekend, the Department of Homeland Security’s X account appeared to reference an antisemitic dog whistle. And it wasn’t the first time that happened this summer. “Which way, American man?” the department’s official page posted Sunday, over a political cartoon from 1936 called “Uncle Sam at the Crossroads.” The post, a recruitment ad for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, alluded to the phrase “Which way, Western man?” — the title of a 1978 book steeped in antisemitic conspiracy…

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‘Legitimization Cell’: Israeli unit tasked with linking Gaza journalists to Hamas

‘Legitimization Cell’: Israeli unit tasked with linking Gaza journalists to Hamas

+972 reports: The Israeli military has operated a special unit called the “Legitimization Cell,” tasked with gathering intelligence from Gaza that can bolster Israel’s image in the international media, according to three intelligence sources who spoke to +972 Magazine and Local Call and confirmed the unit’s existence. Established after October 7, the unit sought information on Hamas’ use of schools and hospitals for military purposes, and on failed rocket launches by armed Palestinian groups that harmed civilians in the enclave….

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Israel is becoming a defining issue for Democrats

Israel is becoming a defining issue for Democrats

Politico reports: Pete Buttigieg once had a ready answer about the U.S.-Israel relationship, likening it to a “friendship” in which you “try to guide them to a better place.” It’s a line that used to go over well with the “Pod Save America” guys, who once clapped for and nodded along with it on stage back in 2019. But this week they no longer did. The politics of the Israel-Hamas conflict — and its center of gravity — have changed….

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Consumer financial protections at risk as Wall Street reverses its stance on crypto

Consumer financial protections at risk as Wall Street reverses its stance on crypto

The New York Times reports: Not long ago, bank executives would compete with one another to be the loudest critic of cryptocurrencies. Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, once compared Bitcoin to a pet rock and said the whole crypto industry should be banned. Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan described the space as an “untraceable tool for money laundering,” while HSBC’s chief executive proclaimed bluntly: “We are not into Bitcoin.” Now big banks can’t stop talking about crypto….

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In Silicon Valley, eugenics is called ‘genetic optimization’ with breeding programs for smarter babies

In Silicon Valley, eugenics is called ‘genetic optimization’ with breeding programs for smarter babies

The Wall Street Journal reports: Tsvi Benson-Tilsen, a mathematician, spent seven years researching how to keep an advanced form of artificial intelligence from destroying humanity before he concluded that stopping it wasn’t possible—at least anytime soon. Now, he’s turned his considerable brainpower to promoting cutting-edge technology to create smarter humans who will be up to the task of saving us all. “My intuition is it’s one of our best hopes,” said Benson-Tilsen, co-founder of the Berkeley Genomics Project, a nonprofit…

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AG Pam Bondi blames ‘Deep State’ for DC altercation in which man confessed: ‘I threw the sandwich’

AG Pam Bondi blames ‘Deep State’ for DC altercation in which man confessed: ‘I threw the sandwich’

The New York Times reports: A man accused of throwing a sandwich at a federal agent who was patrolling Washington this week, after calling him and other agents “fascists,” was charged with assaulting a federal officer on Wednesday. The police said the man threw a “sub-style” sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection officer on Sunday night, the day before President Trump’s announcement that his administration was temporarily taking over Washington’s police force and sending National Guard troops and federal…

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Rula Jebreal on Israel’s plan to eliminate Palestinians

Rula Jebreal on Israel’s plan to eliminate Palestinians

  Palestinian American commentator Rula Jebreal discusses how Israel’s commitment to genocide & occupation will spell disaster for Palestinians & Jews, and how the US has a responsibility to stop it. When it comes to public opinion, the ground is shifting on Israel and Palestine. Trump, as President, can end the genocide with a phone call, but he remains both indifferent and complicit. Palestinian American author, commentator, and foreign policy analyst Rula Jebreal joins The Left Hook to discuss the…

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Putin appears ready to test new nuclear missile as he prepares for Trump talks, researchers say

Putin appears ready to test new nuclear missile as he prepares for Trump talks, researchers say

Reuters reports: Russia appears to be preparing to test its new nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered cruise missile, according to two U.S. researchers and a Western security source, even as Russian President Vladimir Putin readies for talks on Ukraine with U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday. Jeffrey Lewis of the California-based Middlebury Institute of International Studies, and Decker Eveleth of the CNA research and analysis organization, based in Virginia, reached their assessments separately by studying imagery taken in recent weeks until Tuesday by…

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Trump has turned the annual human rights report into a cover-up of human rights violations

Trump has turned the annual human rights report into a cover-up of human rights violations

Anne Applebaum writes: For nearly half a century, the State Department has reported annually on human-rights conditions in countries around the world. The purpose of this exercise is not to cast aspersions, but to collect and disseminate reliable information. Congress mandated the reports back in 1977, and since then, legislators and diplomats have used them to shape decisions about sanctions, foreign aid, immigration, and political asylum. Because the reports were perceived as relatively impartial, because they tried to reflect well-articulated…

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DOGE saved less than five percent of its claimed savings. We have the receipts

DOGE saved less than five percent of its claimed savings. We have the receipts

Politico reports: The Trump administration’s claim that it is saving billions of dollars through DOGE-related cuts to federal contracts is drastically exaggerated, according to a new POLITICO analysis of public data and federal spending records. Through July, DOGE said it has saved taxpayers $52.8 billion by canceling contracts, but of the $32.7 billion in actual claimed contract savings that POLITICO could verify, DOGE’s savings over that period were closer to $1.4 billion. Despite the administration’s claims, not a single one…

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California trial sheds light on sweeping theory behind Trump’s military deployments

California trial sheds light on sweeping theory behind Trump’s military deployments

Democracy Docket reports: The broad legal theory behind President Donald Trump’s use of the military in civilian law enforcement took center stage Tuesday during day two of a trial over the deployment of National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles earlier this year. The three-day, non-jury trial before San Francisco-based federal Judge Charles Breyer concerns California’s claim that Trump’s use of troops in Los Angeles violated the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which generally prohibits using the military in…

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How the military became yet another instrument of Trump’s power

How the military became yet another instrument of Trump’s power

Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson write: By ordering 800 National Guard troops to Washington, on the pretext of an illusory crime wave, President Trump has further dragged the U.S. military into domestic law enforcement, in a move credibly perceived as an ominous “test case.” This continues what the administration started in California in June as part of the its deportation efforts. Unfortunately, though we (and others) had hoped that the military would only respond to calls to action in American…

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Trump’s D.C. crackdown is a show of weakness, not power

Trump’s D.C. crackdown is a show of weakness, not power

Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Guy Richards Smit. #NewYorkerCartoons Get more cartoons and other funny stuff in your inbox: https://t.co/Vsmr3SrI6z pic.twitter.com/znno7AngmB — The New Yorker (@NewYorker) August 13, 2025 Quinta Jurecic writes: In the summer of 2020, as demonstrators gathered in Washington, D.C., to protest against the murder of George Floyd, President Donald Trump directed the National Guard and officers from various federal law-enforcement agencies to patrol the streets of the nation’s capital. The results were a disaster from the perspective…

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