meabell

"Jews don't belong in American society."

Imagine a sitting member of Congress tweeting that. You can't. Thankfully, it'd never happen. And *if* it did, it'd be the end of their career and the biggest story in America.

But Ogles can say this about Muslims without any censure.

Mike Benz — Frame Game — laying out his operating philosophy in his own voice.

A pathological liar who duped one rube after another. Matt Taibbi. Jacob Siegel. They legitimized him, then never walked back anything they wrote. Just quietly pretended they’d never taken him seriously as a source lol.

Guess What Moderate Democratic Voters Aren’t Anymore? Moderate. Two new polls suggest that moderate Democrats, too, want higher taxes on the rich and some measure of economic populism. Moderate isn’t what it was in 1992.

Moderate Democrats with columns in newspapers are constantly saying the Democratic Party is way too liberal on "social" issues. Moderate Democratic voters in real life do not feel this way. With some polling data from @gelliottmorris.com and @dataforprogress.org. newrepublic.com/article/2074...

That is the logic of anti-dei reactionary colorblindness. Acknowledging discrimination against a particular group is inherently discriminatory. bsky.app/profile/bren...

My name is Marisa Kabas, and I'm an independent journalist who publishes The Handbasket. I'm reaching out about a matter that involves your team and that continues to trouble me. In June of last year, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and I filed a FOIA lawsuit against the DC Metropolitan Police Department to compel them to release body camera footage from the March 17, 2025 DOGE raid on the US Institute of Peace. What followed was months of back and forth with their lawyers, arguing why it was in the public interest to release the un-redacted footage in its entirety. Though tiny segments were handed over, that wasn't enough: We wanted all of it.  On February 18, 2026, a DC judge ruled in our favor, and your reporter Mark Segraves sent a kind note of congratulations that day. Then on Monday, March 2nd, the footage was handed over to me and excitedly announced I'd received it and would be reviewing it in the coming days and sharing what I learned. When Segraves emailed me this past Thursday asking for my phone number, I didn't think much of it. But when he called me just before 2pm on Friday to let me know NBC4 Washington would be airing a segment at 5pm, I grew concerned.  Segraves said he'd obtained some of the footage via a FOIA request that week after he heard the footage had been released to me. He said he'd credit the work of RCFP and me, but it was little comfort. I asked if he'd known the day before when he emailed me for my number, why didn't he tell me then? He didn't have a good answer for that. He acknowledged all the hard work I'd done getting this footage released. I asked him if he could hold the story until Monday, to which he replied that he's "not just a blogger" (implying that that's all I am, presumably) and that he'd have to check with his editor. I said fine. Nearly an hour later he called back to say his editor refused to hold the story, but that they were happy to interview me via Zoom to add to the package, and I said I would.

What followed was two hours of furiously writing and posting clips of the footage to Youtube so I could get something published before the 5pm broadcast, and in the midst of that, recording a quick Zoom interview with a person who was about to take credit for my work. At 4:59pm ET, The Handbasket published a piece titled "Police body cam footage shows DOGE knew Institute of Peace was private property during raid." Then I tuned into NBC4 Washington via your website to catch the broadcast, and my instinct to rush to get something out first was proven right.  "It's a story you're seeing first on News4," your newscast began. "For the first time we're getting an inside look at what happened the day the Trump administration took over the US Institute of Peace. News4 obtained more than four hours of police body camera video from that day." What followed was more than six minutes of clips and commentary from Segraves, but it's not until six minutes and 21 seconds into the piece that he mentions my name (mispronounced though he asked for the correct pronunciation on Zoom), "The Handbasket blog," and the RCFP's foundational role in bringing this footage to light. I was angry, but didn't feel there was much I could do. Then I saw the version NBC4 posted to Instagram and TikTok—the video itself made ZERO mention of the RCFP or my work, only briefly acknowledging it in the written caption on Instagram, and not even bothering to do that on TikTok. An average viewer with no background on the case is lead to believe that this footage was released because of your efforts. When I saw that, I decided I couldn't let this go. It's difficult to explain what it's like to spend nearly a year working on a story only to have another reporter and outlet surreptitiously take credit for it; months of work and personal risk only to have another reporter lying in wait to swoop in. What NBC4 did was immoral, unethical, and to be frank, just truly sucked.

I just sent this email to the news director at NBC4 Washington about the unprofessional and disrespectful way they handled publishing the body camera footage of the DOGE raid on the US Institute of Peace that was obtained via my FOIA lawsuit:

The Iranian nightmare Ukraine should never see Proposed amendments to Ukrainian law would have put Ukraine closer to Iran by allowing child marriage in exceptional cases. Yesterday, Sasha joined a protest against these oppressive laws.

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands. Hundreds gathered in central Kyiv for the first Women’s March since 2021.

Proposed Civil Code amendments could allow child marriage in “exceptional cases.”

Sasha joins the protest, warning Ukraine not to follow Iran’s path.

Anthony Blinken says Israel tried to pressure Obama to bomb Iran, warning they’d do it with or without the U.S. Obama refused. Trump caved to the same tactic. Also worth noting: Obama’s name doesn’t appear in the Epstein tapes.

On Meir Kahane a terrorist mafia partner and extremist, free article: https://sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/the-no-world-order

I wrote about one of the worst Americans of the late 20th century. He's dead but his dream lives on — in Israel:
sarahkendzior.substack.com/p/the-no-wor...

A $1.3-billion river dredging in North Carolina by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could unleash ‘forever chemicals’ A proposed $1.3-billion U.S. Army Corps of Engineers port expansion in North Carolina threatens to unearth decades of “forever chemicals.” The government’s initial plan: don’t test the mud

A proposed $1.3-billion U.S. Army Corps of Engineers port expansion in North Carolina threatens to unearth decades of “forever chemicals.” The government’s initial plan: don’t test the mud

Mfume: "The seats are made out of concrete. Concrete! There is no privacy to use the toilet." He says ICE has changed the signs about the maximum capacity in each room. One room said it could hold 18, but "you couldn't fit five people in there."

Alsobrooks: "This facility is not fit for animals. It is shameful, and history will record this."

Alsobrooks: "We saw a woman upstairs who has committed upstairs who committed no crime, who's been here [the US] for two decades," who just wants to go home to her son, and she's afraid she's going to be separated from him.

Sen. @alsobrooks.senate.gov speaking now: "Each time I come to this facility it makes the hair stand up on your arms. This facility is unfit."

U.S. Catholic Bishops Continue Rebuking the Trump Administration On Immigration From defending birthright citizenship in the courts to condemning ICE’s warehouse scheme, U.S. Catholic bishops have made clear they’re siding with immigrant communities.

US Catholic bishops continue rebuking the Trump admin on its anti-immigrant policy.

“Children do nothing wrong by being born in the United States,” they said in a legal brief ahead of next month’s Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship. “Yet, this executive order renders them stateless.”

You can oppose a war and the leaders who cause it without blaming it on an entire faith or global population of people of that faith.

There’s so much hatred in all of this. Yes we’re all angry and hurting but this is an attack on Jewish people, not an honest opposition to Israel’s war itself.

I know people are very sensitive about the use of the word “genocide” but the attempts to medically eliminate trans children is very clearly meets the standard because they are trying to eliminate a population and also they know some of those kids are going to kill themselves

Rep Glenn Ivey: the facilities in the Fallon Building look "like slave quarters" he toured during a visit to Selma earlier this month.

Maryland Rep. Mfume just now: "What we need is a team united against the ridiculous."

This follows Senator Alsobrooks' earlier revelation that 255 people are being held in rooms designed for 50 at Baltimore's Fallon Building.

For years on my old blog I published the names of servicemembers who died in Iraq & Afghanistan. No other outlets were.

These are the first 4 Americans to die in the Iran War.
Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35
Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42
Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39
Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20

How to Talk to Someone Experiencing 'AI Psychosis' Mental health experts say identifying when someone is in need of help is the first step — and approaching them with careful compassion is the hardest, most essential part that follows.

What do you say to someone who believes their chatbot has unlocked the keys to the universe? I talked to mental health experts who are following the 'AI psychosis' issue closely to find out: www.404media.co/ai-psychosis...

Trump: "Australia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran National Woman’s Soccer team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed. Don’t do it, Mr. Prime Minister, give ASYLUM. The U.S. will take them if you won’t. Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP" (Trump's bombs have killed over 1,300 Iranians, including scores of children)

Trump: "Australia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran Woman’s Soccer team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed. Don’t do it, Mr PM, give ASYLUM. The US will take them" (Trump's bombs have killed over 1,300 Iranians, including scores of children)

* Iran Warns of $200 a Barrel Oil if Strikes on Its Infrastructure Don’t Stop

@wsj.com
www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

This is a case where multiple ex-SDNY U.S. Attorneys suspected that Trump's White House tried to kill the case.

It began when @preetbharara.bsky.social charged Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab with spearheading the scheme.

Rudy Giuliani repped Zarrab and tried to execute a prisoner swap.

The moms risking arrest to protect gender-affirming care for trans youth The government wants to ban the care nationwide. Hospitals are shutting down treatment. Parents just want it all to stop.

Larissa, a therapist from D.C., recently spent 12 hours in a jail cell with five other people. There was no running water, since the sink wasn’t working. They were all fed once: a baloney sandwich per person.

She was there for her trans patients. They're being hurt by this administration, she said.

remembering when Trump had that press conference announcing Google had built them a Covid tracking tool at the start of the pandemic and the market shot up 10% (!) on the news and it turned out to be a total fabrication they just made up

An explosion at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, Norway, may have been a deliberate attack linked to the “current security situation,” the country’s police force says.

‘The cover-up is brazen’: one journalist’s tenacious, traumatic fight to expose Ghislaine Maxwell Lucia Osborne-Crowley has endured threats and sexual harassment to report on Jeffrey Epstein’s chief enabler. Maxwell’s conviction was only the start of the quest for justice, she says

‘The cover-up is brazen’: one journalist’s tenacious, traumatic fight to expose Ghislaine Maxwell

Today, Clayton is in control at SDNY, and the Halkbank case appears to be heading to an out-of-court resolution as Trump appears to have neutralized SDNY's famed independence from Main Justice.

Incredibly, this is not the same GlobalX plane that had to do an emergency landing in Miami last Monday.

I’ve heard from employees at two other ICE charter airlines that they delay maintenance to keep ICE money faucet flowing. When you watch the flights closely, you see signs of it ALL THE TIME.

Just another normal morning where the President of the United States shares completely false claims from a conspiracy theory site. I’ve confirmed with election officials in Maricopa County that this is 100% BS.