After attacking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for targeting Russian oil refineries, Donald Trump just signed an executive order exempting Russia from most of the sanctions in a Russia sanctions law he signed just last month. You heard that right: Trump signed the Russia sanctions law named after Lindsey Graham to put pressure on Moscow. This came after he cut a deal with the bloodthirsty dictator Vladimir Putin to allow more Russian diesel onto global markets, hoping to bring down prices amid the midterm turmoil—which he helped create. And Reuters reports that an order to restrict Starshield, the Pentagon-funded satellite communications service used by Ukraine, came from inside the White House—another development showing Trump betraying Ukraine for his own ends…
As anxiety over possible election losses for Republicans mounts, Trump has threatened California over mail-in ballots—with jail time for election officials—demanding that officials not count mail ballots from more than 20,000 people the federal government claims are probably noncitizens. The Justice Department has sued California, but whether the federal government has authority to block those ballots is disputed. The acting deputy attorney general warned of potential criminal exposure, while Trump claimed on social media he’s ready to put elections officials in jail…
And today is another No Kings Day—the least before the midterms—but with a different theme. Rather than uniformly planning marches across the country in cities, states and localities, No Kings is urging people to also organize events focused on voting rights and getting the vote out, whether they are educational events, helping people register or actually walking people to the polls to vote, as early voting has begun in many states. Thousands of events are planned across the country…