Blue 812 News Issue 39 - Sept. 28

Sep 28, 2025

No rapture this week, so delivered unto thee is a new Blue812News!

President Donald Trump could hardly contain his vindictive glee over the news that his longtime foe, former FBI director James Comey, had finally been charged with two felonies. “JUSTICE IN AMERICA,” Trump crowed in a post on Truth Social Thursday evening, lambasting Comey as “one of the worst human beings this country has ever been exposed to.” This morning, he signaled once again that Comey may just be the first in a wave of arrests of people he doesn’t like. “I think there will be others,” Trump told reporters outside the White House. “I mean, they’re corrupt.”

Yet for all its massive importance, the case brought by Trump’s team is also flimsy, opaque, and bizarre. Prosecutors traditionally like to flesh out the details of high-profile cases in their early filings, often in what’s known as a “speaking indictment.” In this case, Trump’s hand-picked prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, took the very unusual approach of drafting a document that hides the most important details. Halligan, the 36-year-old former Miss Colorado contestant who has never prosecuted a case in her life, has a background in insurance law and, just days ago, was in charge of harassing the Smithsonian for “wokeness.”

The slim, two-page indictment charges Comey with obstruction of justice and making false statements — but doesn’t specify clearly what those statements are, giving the public no way to be sure what Comey has been accused of, as Zack Beauchamp points out in VOX. There’s a complicated trail of details to follow here — and they underscore a big reason why perjury is rarely charged: It’s a tough case to win, because prosecutors have to rebut the possibility of mistakes or bad memory beyond a reasonable doubt.

The grand jury refused to approve a third count, in what is normally considered an embarrassing defeat for prosecutors (given that grand juries, as the old joke goes, will “indict a ham sandwich”). Halligan then proceeded to give the wrong paperwork to the judge, who - prepare to be shocked - Trump is already attacking. U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff was assigned at random to the case in the Eastern District of Virginia outside Washington, DC. In 2019, he presided over the arraignment of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two cronies of Rudy Giuliani caught up in campaign finance accusations. On Friday, Trump claimed that Comey was “off to a very good start” because he had been assigned to Nachmanoff, who was appointed by “Crooked Joe Biden.”

Trump isn’t just going after Comey — he’s going after the legal system itself. We rely on that system to protect our elections and to protect our rights, and the authoritarian president knows it. The case against Comey may be slipshod, but it’s still a test of Trump’s ability to turn the DOJ into a weapon of vengeance. This story is bigger than Comey. As David Frum put it in The Atlantic: “It’s a glimpse of Trump’s next attempt to seize power.” Comey’s criminal case marks “another step in a forward-looking plot to shred the rule of law in order to pervert the next election and protect his corruption from accountability,” Frum wrote. “James Comey’s rights and liberties are not the only ones at risk today. So is your own right to participate in free and fair elections in order to render a verdict on Trump’s invasion of those rights and liberties.”

Soooo the government’s shutting down Tuesday if no deal is reached. Where do things stand? Well, the GOP needs seven Democratic Senators to join them in passing their stopgap budget bill, which would keep the lights on until November. Dems are saying they’ll only do it if the budget reverses the GOP One Big Beautiful Bill’s Medicaid cuts, ends billions of dollars in unilateral spending rescissions by the White House, restores public-broadcasting funds that Republicans have eliminated, and includes a permanent extension of Obamacare premium tax credits. The price tag of this Democratic package is $1 trillion-plus. Without the extension of the Obamacare credits, approximately 20 million Americans will see higher insurance premiums. Twenty million is already huge (almost 15% of Americans), but in the long run, an increase in Obamacare premiums will drive up premiums for private insurance, too. If private insurers see an opportunity to raise prices, they’ll take it. Yay, capitalism.

A shutdown is also about politics. Republicans are already looking for ways to blame this on the Democrats, and Trump — who cancelled a shutdown meeting with senior Dems earlier this week — is already planning to seize the opportunity to fire more federal workers. According to a memo from the Office of Management and Budget, “With respect to those Federal programs whose funding would lapse and which are otherwise unfunded, such programs are no longer statutorily required to be carried out. RIF notices will be in addition to any furlough notices provided due to the lapse in appropriation.” In short, more cuts. Unlike typical shutdowns, they would be permanent. Democrats should still hold the line, though. For one thing, it’s not as though Trump has let “the government being open” stop him from firing people before. And if you’re not going to use your power to keep healthcare costs down for millions of people, what’s the point of having power? More at NBCNews.

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Indiana farmers are staring down a record soybean harvest with nowhere to send it, thanks to a standoff that’s turned international trade into a slow-motion hostage situation. China — Indiana’s biggest soybean customer — is ghosting us while flirting with Brazil and Argentina, leaving Hoosier crops swiping left in the grain bin.

Prices have tanked from $15 to under $10 a bushel, and farmers are wondering if they should start Ubering instead of farming soy. The cause is retaliatory tariffs China has placed on the United States, making the price of American soybeans unattractive for buyers there. Meanwhile, Braun’s administration says “don’t panic,” he’s confident Trump will “make a deal,” and if not, maybe Indiana will toss farmers a fiscal Band-Aid.

Taiwan sent a “letter of intent” to buy some soybeans, which is the diplomatic equivalent of “I might text you back.” Purdue experts say China could come crawling back by November — unless South America slides into the DMs first. More at IndyStar.

“Let them all fucking die.” That’s the statement made by Vigo County Sheriff’s Deputy Scott Brown in recently attained body camera footage. referring to the local use of Narcan to reverse the effects of drug overdoses. The footage is now being used as evidence in a civil rights violation case filed by Dylan Sinn against deputies Scott Brown, Cogan McClain, Darren Silvers, Michael Ellsworth, and the Vigo County Sheriff’s Department in the US District Court of Southern Indiana.

According to court records, Sinn claims that on August 18th, 2023, deputies Brown, McClain, Silver, and Ellsworth responded to a cardiac arrest call and conducted an unlawful search of the home, along with delaying his medical care while the search was conducted. Deputies additionally prevented him from contacting his attorney and violated departmental policy by arresting him, which led to a wrongful incarceration for twenty months.

Court records show that Deputy Brown has been a defendant in at least two other settled cases involving civil rights violations. More at Terre Haute Vice News.

What happened to “jUsT tEaCh ReAdInG aNd MaTh?” The Department of Education is proposing to make “patriotic education” a grant priority. That means federal $$ will flow to groups that push a “government-approved” version of history (think PragerU). They’re calling it ‘patriotic education’… but let’s be real, it’s propaganda.

The Trump admin has revived the 1776 Commission and is threatening to pull federal funds from schools that teach about racism, whatever they deem “DEI” or gender identity. This wouldn’t just hit schools; non-profits (from museums to civics orgs) will now be judged on whether they push this version of history too. Mrs.Frazzled has a great explainer video on what this could look like.

Real patriotism doesn’t involve pretending America’s perfect. We cannot go backwards.

Go to Regulations.gov, search docket ED-2025-OS-0745, and leave a comment by October 17. Go on record telling this administration that kids deserve honest history, not whitewashed talking points.

The Resource Center archive page has been refreshed to include all the links from the last few months of posts, gathered in one place and organized by topic!

This is usually the most difficult part of the newsletter to write, so any readers with good resources that have not already been featured - please send them to [email protected] or comment below!

Nasty Women - Vigo County calendar | Indivisible Wabash Valley calendar

Monday, September 29th at 6pm: Vigo County School Board meeting at 501 W. Olive Street - Boardroom. More info here.

Tuesday, September 30th at 5pm: Public information meeting hosted by the Indiana Department of Transportation. at South High School 5-7pm. This meeting is an opportunity for the public to provide feedback on the future of 12.5 miles of the U.S. 41 corridor from Harlan Avenue to East Haythorne Avenue in Vigo County.” More info here.

Thursday, October 2nd at 6pm: Terre Haute City Council Meeting at City Hall. The city council will vote on the 2026 budget.

Wednesday, October 8th at 6pm: Nasty Women Meeting at the Vigo County Public Library main branch meeting room A.

Thursday, October 9th at 6pm: Terre Haute City Council Meeting at City Hall.

UPCOMING:

On October 18, residents of Terre Haute and the Wabash Valley will join millions across the country to say loud and clear: No Thrones. No Crowns. No Kings. Vigo County Courthouse, 12 - 2pm. More info & register here.

About 60 people opposed to congressional redistricting in Indiana staged a rally Thursday at Dobbs Park as conservatives gathered across the street at the Red Barn for the annual Ronald Reagan dinner.

Broadcasters Sinclair and Nexstar both relented in their boycotts of Jimmy Kimmel. Sinclair said its decision was made “independent of any government interaction or influence” and said it was exercising free speech when it decided to take Kimmel’s show off the air. What Sinclair didn’t say: Nothing they were putting in Kimmel’s place got anything close to the ad revenue “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” generates.

Relatedly, Kimmel’s Tuesday return scored his highest ratings in over a decade. You know Fallon is just begging for Trump to come for him next.

Democrat Adelita Grijalva won a special election for a House seat once held by her late father in Tucson, Ariz. Grijalva’s win narrows Republicans’ already thin majority to 219-214. Grijalva may be the last signature needed to force a House vote on releasing the DOJ’s Epstein files… which Trump and GOP leadership have been trying to stop.

Tax the Greedy Billionaires released new polling that found strong majorities of voters in congressional battlegrounds and key states want to raise taxes on the very rich.

Trump’s time in the White House runs out in:

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