Senators announce bipartisan bills to stop candidates from stealing elections  —  WASHINGTON — After months of negotiating, a group of senators announced two proposals Wednesday designed to close gaps in federal law and prevent future candidates from stealing elections.

The GOP Just Nominated a ‘QAnon Whackjob’ and a ‘True Confederate’ in Maryland  —  A guy who tried to impeach Maryland's GOP governor was just nominated to replace him—and he's not even the most extreme candidate who won on Tuesday.  —  Cameron Joseph  —  WASHINGTON, US

Documents detail the secret strategy behind Trump's census citizenship question push  —  Former President Donald Trump's administration spent years trying to add a census citizenship question as part of a secret strategy for altering the population numbers used to divide up seats in Congress …

Judge orders Giuliani to testify before Fulton grand jury  —  Rudy Giuliani, former President Donald Trump's personal attorney, is being ordered to appear in front of a Fulton County special grand jury next month after failing to attend a hearing in New York to challenge a recent subpoena.

John Fetterman, in first interview since stroke, talks recovery and return to U.S. Senate campaign trail  —  This story will be updated.  —  In his first media interview since suffering a stroke days before the May primary election, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman …

Confessions of a Conservative Apostate  —  What does it mean to be a conservative now? … For weeks I've been watching a parade of Republican officials describe how they worked inside a Republican administration under Donald Trump as the GOP fell to a bunch of kooks, opportunists, racists, and aspiring fascists.

Trump-backed Arizona Senate candidate escalates election fears ahead of GOP primary  —  (CNN)Arizona Republican Blake Masters, who earned Donald Trump's endorsement for the Senate race by embracing the former President's lies that he won the 2020 election, has turned to questioning whether …

The Abortion Vote In Kansas Looks Like It's Going To Be Close  —  A new poll shows that Democrats may be more energized than Republicans.  —  By Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux and Nathaniel Rakich and Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux and Nathaniel Rakich  —  Jul. 20, 2022, at 9:33 AM

Secret Service was told at least once before Jan. 6, 2021, to preserve texts  —  A senior Secret Service official said agency employees received two emails — at least one prior to Jan. 6, 2021 — reminding them to preserve records on their cellphones, including text messages …

'It's the accumulation': The Jan. 6 hearings are wounding Trump, after all  —  The conventional wisdom about the Jan. 6 committee hearings was that no single revelation was going to change Republican minds about Donald Trump.  —  What happened instead, a slow drip of negative coverage, may be just as damaging to the former president.

The case of the disappearing blockbuster: James Cameron's ‘True Lies’  —  The first $100 million movie is simultaneously retrograde, forward-looking and completely of its time.  —  Last week on Facebook, Jamie Lee Curtis shared a fond memory about a stunt she did for James Cameron's 1994 …

Witness Garrett Ziegler lashes out at J6 committee in white nationalist grievance rant  —  After invoking the Fifth Amendment and executive privilege more than 100 times to refuse to answer questions from the January 6th Committee on Tuesday, former White House aide Garrett Ziegler opened …

Okay, but Cassandra cannot possibly be right *again*  —  Listen  —  Gift Article  —  I hear what you are saying.  And, yes, the data is compelling.  Cassandra has been right literally every time she has made a prediction.  War.  Famine.  Rights rollbacks.

Schumer seeks enough GOP votes to pass same-sex marriage bill  —  Listen  —  Gift Article  —  Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that he is working to get sufficient Republican support for the Senate to pass a bill that would federally protect same-sex marriages.

Biden Approval Hits New Low Amid Public Discontent With Both Parties, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Nearly Half Of Americans Worry About Being Mass Shooting Victim  — mail_outline  —  One and a half years since President Joe Biden took office, Americans give President Biden …

US Rep. Timmons deflects affair, abuse of power allegations on Upstate SC radio  —  GREENVILLE — U.S. Rep. William Timmons went on conservative talk radio to address rumors circling for weeks that he had an extramarital affair and abused his power as a congressman to further it.

Endemic Covid-19 Looks Pretty Brutal  —  It may surprise you to learn, given the mood of the country — and indeed the world — about the pandemic that probably half of all Covid infections have happened this calendar year — and it's only July.  By December, the figure could be 80 percent or more.

Republicans Have Created a Pro-Life Dystopia  —  And they're not going to do anything to fix it  —  Roe v. Wade Protest  —  Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is arrested during a sit-in outside of the Supreme Court to protest the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on July 19, 2022.

‘The mouth of a bear’: Ukrainian refugees sent to Russia  —  NARVA, Estonia (AP) — For weeks Natalya Zadoyanova had lost contact with her younger brother Dmitriy, who was trapped in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.  —  Russian forces had bombed the orphanage where he worked …

GOP's grassroots money problem  —  Democrats across the 10 most competitive Senate races are out-raising Republicans by more than $75 million among small-dollar donors — those giving less than $200 — according to an Axios analysis of Federal Election Commission records.

Democrats want Biden to go scorched-earth on GOP  —  When Michelle Obama declared “When they go low, we go high” about Republicans in 2016, Democrats generally agreed with the sentiment.  —  After all, the party was up against Donald Trump, a man who seemed to find joy in making personal attacks part of his daily routine.

Trump-backed Kari Lake shared anti-Trump ‘not my president’ meme on Facebook days before 2017 inauguration  —  Former VP Pence and Gov. Ducey both recently endorsed Lake's primary opponent Karrin Taylor Robson.  —  Republican Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona speaks on Trump's impact on the primaries

The Manchin Aide Turned Corporate Shill  —  Former top Manchin aide Jonathan Kott launched an anti-Sanders dark money group and now lobbies for oil giants, Big Pharma, and Fox News.  —  Late last week, after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) obliterated much of what was left of President Joe Biden's agenda …