Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
Trump’s Department of Justice is arguing that it’s totally fine for the president to control prosecutors. A new video shows Mitch McConnell sitting nearly motionless on the Senate floor for hours, ten days before he vanished from public life. Trump’s National Guard deployment in D.C. costs $1.65 million a day and has been involved in barely one percent of the city’s criminal cases. And Iowa’s Republican nominee for governor would really appreciate it if you would stop calling the award-winning erection ring he invested in a sex toy.
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It takes talent to make an indictment over seashells look even sillier, but the DOJ found a way.
In a court filing Tuesday, federal prosecutors argued that DOJ independence from the White House is “a myth.” They wrote this in the same filing where they tried to prove that the prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey was not directed by Trump.
Comey has been charged in federal court for posting seashell art reading “86 47” on his social media account in 2025, which the government claims was a threat of violence against the president. Comey argues that the charges are retaliation for not pledging personal loyalty when he led the FBI.
Comey has filed a motion to dismiss based on Trump’s Truth Social post in which he ordered former Attorney General Pam Bondi to take action against him, as well as Trump’s request that he be allowed to see the notes taken by Secret Service agents who interviewed him.
The DOJ insists that the charging prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle, acted independently without pressure from his superiors, and that Attorney General Todd Blanche didn’t discuss the case with him until the day before the trial. In other words, he just happened to go after the same guy the president has been raging about on social media for a decade.
C-SPAN is not usually the network that breaks the disturbing story.
A video taken on June 4 reveals Mitch McConnell sitting almost perfectly still as his colleagues chat and move around him during a nearly 20-hour vote to pass a $70 billion reconciliation bill.
Between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m., McConnell was nearly motionless. Apart from a few feeble hand raises, it is difficult to tell how aware he was.
McConnell was hospitalized ten days later, and has not been seen in public since. His office released two photographs of him in a hospital bed wearing jeans and a button-down in nearly identical poses and with no IV visible.
McConnell’s Republican colleagues have claimed to be in contact with him, though none have produced evidence of their conversations. Meanwhile, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear has sent letters to both McConnell and Senate Majority Leader John Thune demanding that McConnell verbally confirm he can still do his job, or resign.
McConnell’s absence leaves Senate Republicans without one of their most reliable votes at a time when Trump needs every single one. Then again, they may have been missing it longer than they’ve let on.
It turns out that 4,500 soldiers are not very useful when their main job is standing around.
The National Guard troops Trump deployed in Washington, D.C. have been involved in just 1.3 percent of criminal cases since last August. Of the roughly 200 cases where police mentioned the Guard, soldiers stopped suspects in only 62 of them. Most were for minor offenses like shoplifting or jumping turnstiles.
Their deployment is costing taxpayers an estimated $1.65 million per day. As the White House plans to keep soldiers in the city until the end of Trump’s term in 2029, the total could reach $1.4 billion.
Crime in D.C. was already at its lowest level in decades when the troops arrived. Since then, violent crime has actually risen slightly, with 1,712 violent crimes reported in 2026 compared to 1,645 at the same point in 2025.
The administration refers to the deployment as “presence patrols,” arguing the soldiers’ mere visibility supposedly deters crime. By that logic, spending $1.65 million a day on a scarecrow would be money well spent.
A candidate who owned a sex toy company could survive the news cycle, but a candidate who insists he doesn’t while obviously doing so has a longer afternoon ahead.
After beating Trump-endorsed congressman Randy Feenstra in the Republican primary, Iowa’s Republican gubernatorial nominee Zach Lahn has been fielding questions about his financial ties to FirmTech Inc., a company that sells what it describes as “innovative wearable erection rings” that allow users to “track your sexual health and keep it up.”
Lahn insists his interest was limited to the company’s therapeutic work. He told the Des Moines Register that what he invested in is “not a sex toy” but “a grade two medical device.”
SEC filings signed by Lahn show he paid $1 million to become FirmTech’s second-largest shareholder with a 28.2 percent stake. When Lahn served on the board, FirmTech marketed its products using phrases not typically found in medical journals. The company also announced a “clitoral vibrator” to investors in documents that bore his signature.
Lahn said he resigned from the board in September 2023, before any “pleasure” products were released. But according to the company’s 2025 annual report, he still retains a 25 percent ownership stake.
The only thing more embarrassing than investing in sex toys is lying about it badly.
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Abdul El-Sayed Opens Up a 7-Point Lead in Michigan’s Senate Race. A new Susquehanna poll released Wednesday shows progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed leading Republican Mike Rogers 46 percent to 39 percent in Michigan’s Senate race. It’s a sharp reversal from other recent surveys that showed a tighter race, including a Fox News poll that had Rogers ahead. CNN’s Harry Enten used the polls to call El-Sayed “historically unpopular,” but it seems Michigan voters are more interested in Medicare for All, universal child care, and affordable housing than what pundits think.
** Member of Online Extremist Network 764 Sentenced to 77 Years in Federal Prison.** A federal judge sentenced 27-year-old Kyle Spitze of Tennessee to 77 years in prison on Wednesday for the online abuse of young girls. Spitze was the most prolific member of 764, a far-right extremist network whose followers use mainstream social media platforms to groom vulnerable teenagers into harming themselves and others. The FBI considers the network a form of “modern-day terrorism.” Spitze’s sentence is the most severe handed down to any 764 associate — he boasted online that he had groomed more than 2,600 victims, and two of them took their own lives.
** Personalized mRNA Cancer Vaccine Succeeds in Major Late-Stage Trial.** Moderna and Merck announced Wednesday that their experimental personalized cancer vaccine cleared a pivotal clinical trial in patients with advanced melanoma, the most lethal skin cancer. Each person’s mRNA-based vaccine was tailored to their specific tumor by testing the genetic makeup of a tissue biopsy and then programming their immune system to target those unique changes. Those who got the treatment in addition to surgery to remove their primary tumor were less prone to have the cancer return or metastasize. It’s the first time a personalized cancer vaccine has made it this far in clinical testing.
** Two-Time Emmy Winner Navajo Highways Is Teaching Kids the Navajo Language.** The two-time Emmy-winning children’s puppet series