May 3, 2026

02b U.S. Politics – Progressive

Comey’s 86 47 gets Indicted

pgnewser April 29, 2026 1

The Department of Justice has garnered two new indictments targeting former FBI Director James Comey. The indictments are connected to a social media post by Comey that showed seashells on the beach laid out to signal “86 47.” One charge is “knowingly and willfully making a threat to take the life of — and to inflict bodily harm on — the president.” The second charge is “knowingly and willfully transmitting in interstate commerce a threat to kill the president.”

Comey indicted again on charges stemming from Instagram post– www.cbsnews.com
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Washington — A federal grand jury indicted former FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday for allegedly making threats against the president, marking the second time he will be prosecuted by President Trump’s Justice Department.

The indictment charges Comey with two counts: knowingly and willfully making a threat to take the life of — and to inflict bodily harm on — the president, and second, knowingly and willfully transmitting in interstate commerce a threat to kill the president. CBS News reported that Comey was facing charges again hours before the indictment was issued.

United States? New Poll Suggests Otherwise – RedState– redstate.com

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A new Issues & Insights (I&I)/TIPP poll is showing increasing disunity, especially among — you guessed it — the left.

Each month, the national online I&I/TIPP Poll asks Americans across the nation whether they would say the U.S. is “very united,” “somewhat united,” “somewhat divided,” “very divided,” or simply “not sure.”

From this, I&I/TIPP creates a national Unity Index, which allows for comparisons over time.

What is it saying? Well, for one, Americans over the past five years or so have never been unified, even though there have been times the Unity Index has trended up.

Indeed, the Unity Index has never breached the neutral 50 level in the past half-decade. In August of last year, not too long after Donald Trump took office, it briefly touched 40.8, its all-time high. But since then, it has dropped back to April’s current reading of 32.1.

While that might seem dramatic, it’s in fact in keeping with the long-trend range for the index, as the chart below shows.

Why Ending the Iran War May Be a Never-Ending Story– www.thenation.com

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Beyond the bubble of hardened MAGA cultists and a smattering of elite pundits, the joint American-Israeli war on Iran announced by a somnolent President Trump on February 28 is widely regarded as a pointless fiasco that is doing incalculable and growing damage to the global economy. The fact that the president once again unilaterally extended the ceasefire with Iran last week means that he still has no credible ideas about how to get traffic moving through the Strait of Hormuz. He’s similarly flummoxed when it comes to imposing America’s settlement terms on an emboldened regime in Tehran—despite his constant insistence that the war has resulted in an unprecedented, monumental American victory.

Regardless of if or when Trump’s crack negotiating team featuring zero Iran experts returns to Islamabad to meet with Tehran’s delegation, the status quo in the Strait of Hormuz is untenable. Oil prices are creeping up again after dropping on President Trump’s flurry of hallucinatory statements on April 17 proclaiming that the war would be wrapping up soon. The end was inevitably near, Trump insisted, because Iran had agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz, forgo the ability to enrich uranium forever and relinquish its stockpile of what the president with almost child-like wonder calls “nuclear dust.”

DOJ Couldn’t Indict A Ham Sandwich So They Indicted James Comey Again– crooksandliars.com

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Incredibly, the Department of (In)Justice has secured an indictment of James Comey for…a seashell meme.

Here’s a little story for you. Once upon a time, former FBI Director James Comey went for a little walk on the beach when he happened upon…this.

Credit: Screenshot

And lo, the wingers went wild. “HE’S CALLING FOR TRUMP’S ASSASSINATION!” “86 MEANS KILLING!!!” “JAMES COMEY WANTS TO OFF TRUMP!!”

Johnson says Senate-passed DHS funding bill will have to change– www.politico.com

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Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday that language in a Homeland Security funding bill the Senate passed unanimously near three weeks ago is “problematic” and will have to be changed to pass the House.

The bill as written, Johnson said, would “orphan” funding for key immigration enforcement agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Passage of that measure is part of a two-track DHS funding approach that won President Donald Trump’s endorsement but has faced skepticism from some conservative hard-liners.

The failure of the House and Senate GOP to align on a plan threatens to further delay the passage of DHS funding, even after Saturday’s attempted assassination at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

“It has some problematic language because it was haphazardly drafted,” Johnson told reporters of the Senate-passed bill. “We have a modified version that I think is going to be much better for both chambers.”

Florida Republicans make peace with proposed new House map– www.politico.com

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Some House Republicans spent weeks warning against a drastic redraw of Florida’s congressional map.

Now that it’s out — with Gov. Ron DeSantis targeting as many as four Democratic seats for a GOP takeover — they’re mostly keeping any criticism to themselves.

“I think they did a pretty good job,” said Rep. Gus Bilirakis, who said he was one of the Florida Republicans whose district changed “quite a bit.”

“But I think they could touch it up a little bit, too,” he added.

Rep. Scott Franklin said he is set to represent his third constituency in four terms. He still lives within the confines of the 18th district, he said, though it is much smaller in area.

“Mine gets significantly less red than it was,” Franklin said. “But it’s still a conservative performing seat.”

America Scores Big With $1B Shakedown Of Offshore Wind Projects– crooksandliars.com

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The Trump administration is making two more payouts for energy companies to walk away from U.S. offshore wind projects. Which makes an incredible amount of sense, if you and your cabinet members own stocks in oil companies!

Bluepoint Wind and Golden State Wind have agreed to end their offshore wind leases in exchange for reimbursements totaling nearly $900 million. Both companies have decided not to pursue any new offshore wind projects in the United States, the Interior Department said Monday, as if that was something to brag about! Like a little boy who poops his pants and proudly wiped it on the wall.

Bluepoint Wind is an offshore wind project in the early stages of development off the coasts of New Jersey and New York — while under constant attack by right-wing radio for killing whales, birds, and probably small children, while Golden State Wind is a floating offshore wind project proposed off California’s central coast.

It’s just like the deal Interior made with Total Energies in March. They get a refund of its leases, and will invest the money in patriotic and pro-American fossil fuel projects instead.

Lefty Journo Tries to Paint Attempted Trump Assassin as Christian ‘Offended by Trump’s Blasphemy,’ Social Media Immediately Shuts Him Down– www.westernjournal.com

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Now that we have the full manifesto of the man who tried to assassinate President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, we know what we probably could have known from the start: He was an unsound man who was egged on by the conspiracy theories of the left.

Calling Trump “a pedophile, rapist, and traitor” — clearly, ideas taken from the fever swamps of the Jeffrey Epstein-baiting podcast class — Cole Tomas Allen, in the missive sent to family and friends, wrote that he was “no longer willing to permit” the president “to coat my hands with his crimes.”

I am giving Mr. Allen more credit for sense than he deserves by adumbrating his violence-excusing blather. After all, one cannot take seriously a manifesto that ends with “Can’t really recommend it! Stay in school, kids.” Allen, who was a teacher and engineer before he almost certainly signed himself up to spend a hefty chunk of the rest of his life behind bars, probably isn’t going to inspire too many people with those words, or with this sort of thing:

GOP exploits shooting, and Melania makes censorship great again– www.dailykos.com

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A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. GOP uses shooting to shill for Trump’s gaudy ballroom Good thing they’re focusing on the important issues! Democrats are leading in polls, but voters want new blood Here’s what they can do to engage young voters ahead of the midterms. Republicans hit airwaves to…

Endless Gun Violence | The Nation– www.thenation.com

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From illegal war on Iran to an inhumane fuel blockade of Cuba, from AI weapons to crypto corruption, this is a time of staggering chaos, cruelty, and violence.

Unlike other publications that parrot the views of authoritarians, billionaires, and corporations, The Nation publishes stories that hold the powerful to account and center the communities too often denied a voice in the national media—stories like the one you’ve just read.

Each day, our journalism cuts through lies and distortions, contextualizes the developments reshaping politics around the globe, and advances progressive ideas that oxygenate our movements and instigate change in the halls of power.

‘Endangers No One’: Group Defies Trump’s Acting AG By Refusing To Drop Ballroom Lawsuit– crooksandliars.com

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The National Trust for Historic Preservation declined to end a lawsuit blocking President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche used a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner to call on the litigation to be dropped.

“I write to acknowledge receipt of your letter requesting that the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States (“National Trust”) dismiss the above-captioned lawsuit,” National Trust senior counsel Gregory B. Craig confirmed to Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate in a letter on Monday. “The National Trust respectfully declines the invitation to dismiss.”

“The National Trust’s filings have repeatedly insisted that any injunction on ballroom construction nonetheless permit work to continue on the below-ground bunker construction you have represented to the Court is necessary to preserve national security,” the letter continued. “What Saturday’s awful event does not change is that the Constitution and multiple federal statutes require Congress to authorize construction of a ballroom on White House grounds, and that Congress has not done so.”

“Equally clear is that nothing in this lawsuit puts the personal safety of the President, his family, or his staff in any jeopardy. Indeed, after reviewing multiple secret security submissions by your office, the court concluded that the absence of a White House ballroom is not a matter of national security permitting those federal laws to be ignored.”

Days After NYT Excused Murder, Would-Be Assassin Went For Trump– thefederalist.com

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A would-be assassin with reported intent to target the Trump administration was caught on video charging through a security checkpoint during an event attended by the president and members of his cabinet. This marks yet another assassination attempt against Donald Trump, and like the others, Saturday’s attempt did not happen in a vacuum.

Just days before the attempted assassination, Marxist streamer Hasan Piker defended Luigi Mangione’s December 2024 alleged murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson during an interview with the New York Times (NYT). He invoked Friedrich Engels’ concept of “social murder” to suggest that Thompson was guilty of “systematized forms of violence” through the health care system.

According to Piker, Thompson was “engaging in a tremendous amount of social murder.”

It was stunning commentary to say the least. But what was more shocking was that the Times’ Nadja Spiegelman described the interview as a “lively” exchange. There was no pushback against Piker’s defense and justification of murder, just the Times lending its name-brand “credibility” to the idea that some killings are justifiable.

Melania Trump Slithers To The Bottom And Tries To Get Jimmy Kimmel Fired– www.politicususa.com

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It didn’t take long for the White House and its MAGA allies to try to use the attempted shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner to push all sorts of items on their agenda.

The one that has gotten the most attention is the call for the White House ballroom to be built, even though the project is illegal and has nothing to do with the incident at a private event on private property.

House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer (R-KY) demanded that the DHS be funded in a post on X, even though the Secret Service was funded last year as a part of Trump’s tax cuts for the rich that Comer voted for.

WHCD Faked? Trump's Numbers Worse Than Any I've Ever Seen– crooksandliars.com

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One can easily see why Trump would want a distraction at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. I’m not saying I know what happened, just it’s the kinda thing someone who looks this horrific politically would want.

Trump’s numbers aren’t just bad. I worked in polling a while, I’ve never seen numbers like some of these. Famed strategist Joe Trippi has been running national campaigns since 1979, and had a one-sentence verdict: “I have not seen anything like this in the entire time I’ve been doing this.” Trump’s approval with independents is 27%—a number not seen since Nixon was resigning.

He’s down to 70% with Republicans. Tucker, MTG, Megyn–they may be FOS, but if they’re headed where the wind’s blowing, many MAGA nuts are taking the same ride. Latino support’s moving away from Trump at a pace veteran strategist Mike Madrid–an expert on this demo–says he’s never seen before. We’re favored in places like Alaska right now.

Colorado DA charges Border Patrol agent with assault over anti-ICE protest—DHS call it ‘a political stunt’ | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com

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The incident occurred on October 28 outside the ICE detention facility in Durango, Colorado.

A Colorado district attorney has filed third-degree assault and criminal mischief charges against a US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer stemming from an anti-ICE protest outside a federal immigration facility in October of last year. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) described the charges as “unlawful,” saying they were filed as a “political stunt.”

Democratic District Attorney Sean P. Murray for the Sixth District of Colorado announced the two-count indictment in a Tuesday press release, identifying the Border Patrol agent as Nicholas Rice. The incident occurred on October 28 outside the ICE detention facility in Durango, Colorado, during which Rice was responding to a hostile anti-ICE protest following the apprehension of a man who was arrested while taking his children to school. The subject was later released by ICE after agents wrongly identified him, an official said.

Video evidence shows the alleged victim, Anne Francesca Stagi, putting a phone up to Rice’s face before he allegedly knocked it out of her hand. Stagi then appears to make physical contact with the officer as he began to walk away, grabbing his shoulder. Rice turned around, grabbed Stagi with other federal agents, and brought her to the ground.

Latest US military strike on alleged drug boat kills 3 in eastern Pacific– abcnews.com

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WASHINGTON — The latest U.S. military strike on a boat accused of ferrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean killed three people Sunday, according to a social media post by U.S. Southern Command.

The Trump administration’s campaign of blowing up alleged drug-trafficking vessels in Latin American waters has gone on since early September and killed at least 186 people in total. Other strikes have taken place in the Caribbean Sea.

The military has not provided evidence that any of the vessels were carrying drugs.

After Sunday’s attack, Southern Command posted a video on X showing a boat moving swiftly in the water before a explosion left it in flames. It repeated previous statements by saying it had targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes.

The attacks began as the U.S. built up its largest military presence in the region in generations and came months ahead of the raid in January that captured then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. He was brought to New York to face drug trafficking charges and has pleaded not guilty.

The MAHA revolt threatening the farm bill– www.politico.com

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Republican infighting between two important constituencies — the agriculture sector and the MAHA coalition — is threatening passage of a bill leaders are counting on to help woo rural voters ahead of the midterms.

House GOP leaders hope this week to advance a long-stalled farm bill that would secure a slew of industry and rural investments. They see a political incentive to move quickly now to shore up farm country support in advance of the November elections, plus heed calls from President Donald Trump to “PASS THE FARM BILL, NOW!”

The farm bill traditionally comes to the floor with bipartisan support. But House Democrats this time are largely opposed to the package because it does not reverse the massive cuts to the country’s largest food aid program enacted by last year’s GOP megabill. That’s putting extra under pressure on Republicans to see it over the finish line amid intraparty disagreements over provisions related to pesticides, livestock laws and ethanol sales.

Many Americans Don’t Care About 3rd Assassination Attempt On Trump– www.politicususa.com

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The media elites are traumatized by the events at the White House Correspondents Dinner, and they will not stop talking about it. The problem is that they were never in any real danger, unlike people in the United States who experience real gun violence in cities, towns, schools, churches, restaurants, grocery stores, movie theaters, concerts, dance clubs, neighborhoods, and their own homes every single day all across the country.

It has been less than a day since a gunman tried to enter the White House Correspondents Dinner, and even though, according to administration officials, the gunman’s manifesto said that he wanted to kill administration officials, the American people aren’t interested in the story.

If you spend five minutes on any form of social media, you’ll soon learn that the consensus reaction is people claiming the gunman was staged, MAGAs who think a White House ballroom will solve everything, and some version of the sentiment that the American people have already seen this movie twice before, and they are bored.

After WHCD shooting, Republicans blame Dems for political rhetoric– www.politico.com

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It’s becoming a pattern: A possible threat to President Donald Trump’s life. Calls from both sides to turn down the temperature. And then, a pivot.

Republicans on Sunday rushed to turn the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner into a campaign cudgel, accusing Democrats of opening the door to political violence with “dangerous and inflammatory rhetoric” against the president. And they’re leveraging the attempted security breach to try and break the congressional stalemate over Department of Homeland Security funding.

Less than 24 hours after calling on Americans to “resolve our differences,” Trump said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that “I do think that the hate speech of the Democrats … is very dangerous.” Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters cast Saturday’s incident as “the inevitable result of a radicalized left that has normalized political violence.”