Being an opinion columnist requires a tremendous amount of news consumption. Each week, as I sift through stories on a range of local, state, and national issues that I might focus on, I uncover far more interesting topics than I could ever hope to get around to. Sometimes I’m able to assign a topic to a reporter or put together a brief summary myself, but so many worthwhile stories seem to fall through the cracks. So, I’ve decided to compile a list of them to share with readers, complete with links to in-depth articles or videos if you’d like to learn more.
Pardons & Commutations
This week, President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of former US Rep. George Santos (R-NY) in a federal fraud case, sparing him from serving more than seven years in federal prison. However, the commutation also spares Santos from a considerable amount of restitution he was ordered to make after defrauding supporters. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was an unexpected ally, urging the White House to commute Santos’ sentence, which she called “a grave injustice” and a product of judicial overreach.
Trump also pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, a high-profile cryptocurrency figure who created the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and went to prison for failing to stop criminals from using the platform to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking, and terrorism. In this short video, Stephen Findeisen, host of the YouTube scam channel Voidzilla, details some of the very questionable transactions leading up to the pardon.
Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
President Trump has been going back and forth on the Russian war on Ukraine. After slamming Zelensky— “You don’t have the cards” —in the Ukrainian President’s first White House visit, Trump later suggested Ukraine would get all of its land back (and possibly more) in a peace deal. After a phone call with President Putin last Friday, Trump changed course again, saying the U.S. would not provide Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles and suggesting Ukraine may have to give up most of the Donbas region that Russia currently holds. This week, after canceling a planned summit with Putin, the Trump administration imposed new sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies. Putin called the sanctions an “unfriendly act” and said Russia wouldn’t bend.
Citizen’s United
Could a constitutional amendment overturn Citizens United? Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) thinks so. He’s the cosponsor of the new Citizens Over Corporations Act, which would introduce a Constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United ruling. Does the effort have a real shot at fixing our democracy crisis? Check out his interview with the Lever.
White House Ballroom
The East Wing of the White House was partially demolished as President Trump moves forward with the construction of a controversial ballroom, despite the president’s assurances that the historic White House would not need to be touched in order for the ballroom to be built. Check out video and analysis of the demolition from Breaking Points here.
Nazis
The GOP's Nazi problem keeps getting worse in the wake of disturbing group texts from Young Republican members. Paul Ingrassia, President Trump's nominee to head the office of Special Counsel, said MLK Jr. holiday belongs in ‘hell’ and that he has a ‘Nazi streak,’ according to texts that were recently leaked. Meanwhile, Graham Platner, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine, announced that he had covered up a tattoo he’d drunkenly gotten while in the Marine Corps and stationed in Croatia. Platner, 41, says he later learned that it resembled a Nazi symbol. Platner is challenging longtime Republican Senator Susan Collins.
Amazon Robots
Amazon announced this week that it plans to replace 600,000 humans with robots, automating 75% of its operations by 2033.
Trump Payday?
President Donald Trump is seeking $230 million in compensation from the Department of Justice for federal investigations conducted during the Biden administration, including probes into Russian election interference in 2016 and the 2022 FBI search of Mar-a-Lago for classified documents. Democrats have launched a probe.
Fired DOJ Attorney Speaks Out
DOJ whistleblower Erez Reuveni told 60 Minutes he witnessed government officials undermining the rule of law and was pressured to lie about Kilmar Abrego Garcia's gang ties. Reuveni said that when he refused to sign off on information he knew to be false, he was fired from the Justice Department, where he'd served as an attorney since 2010.
CBS News
On a recent edition of The Bradenton Times podcast, I mentioned just how bad CBS’s hiring of pseudo-journalist Bari Weiss and its “Editor in Chief” was. I had hoped to get around to writing about it, but fortunately, the team over at Last Week Tonight with John Oliver did a segment on it that is far more entertaining than I could have hoped to produce. Enjoy.
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ruthlawler
OMG, paying attention to daily news is like drinking from a firehose. I just viewed the John Oliver segment you attached...I have been a long time viewer of CBS news and recently have become upset with their right leaning and unbalanced reporting. Thank goodnes I also read and view numerous other sources, like Bradenton Times, to get a more balanced insight into what is going on, and who is biased propaganda. Thank you for these insights.
Friday, October 24 Report this