What to do with a Supreme Court of corrupt liars?

The NPR show The 1A had an episode last week that discussed what can be done with the Supreme Court. The current Court (or at least a good number of its members) appear to be corrupt liars – they have been influenced by outside money and have done the opposite of what they said under oath. They also act in a partisan manner, supporting Republicans and blocking Democrats. Too many of their rulings are through the shadow docket without arguments or explanations. They’ve lost the respect of a large number of people. So what should be done? Guests on the show are: Kate Shaw, professor at University of Pennsylvania and co-host of Strict Scrutiny. Alicia Bannon, the judiciary program director at the Brennan Center for Justice, and Daniel Epps, professor at Washington University School of Law. I am working from the transcript. At the top I’m told the transcript may contain errors. Right off I see the speakers are not identified by name and the method of identifying them by number isn’t consistent. So I may not be accurate in identify the speakers. The discussion began with opinions about the Calais case that gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by declaring gerrymandering can proceed without regard to race. Bannon said that there is such a thing as the Purcell principle that says the court should avoid making election changes too close to an election. A map may be discriminatory, but it must be used for the imminent election. Epps added a reason for that is one of the parties may give reasons why the decision should be reconsidered. Overall the court should exercise caution. That wasn’t invoked in this case. The justices seemed eager to let legislatures revise their maps, leading to changing maps as an election is proceeding, causing chaos over the primaries. Also, issuing the ruling in April, rather than January or June, was the month to cause the most election chaos. Much of the show was host Jen White reading suggestions of Court reform from listeners and sometimes asking her guests to comment on them. I skipped most of the suggestions that didn’t get comment. Shaw said this Congress is unwilling to regulate the Court. The Court would not want Congress to regulate it. Alito told the Wall Street Journal in which he said Congress has no constitutional authority regulate the Court, which Shaw says is flat wrong and a stunning statement. Shaw said she thinks there are things Congress could do: Mandate a code of ethics. Limit when the shadow docket is used. Set the number of members (which had been done in the past). Shaw added we (most of us) want a Court that protect groups that are too small to protect themselves. But this Court is overprotecting the rich parts of the majority that don’t need protecting. Epps said the current system of selecting justices works to give us more extreme partisan views. Listener Matt proposes the idea that the Court be made up of a rotating body of one judge from each Court of Appeals, with a new panel every year. Shaw responded by saying it’s interesting and she doesn’t see a constitutional problem with it. The current Court chooses cases that allows them to give the answer they want to give. Perhaps outsourcing that function would be good. Listener Augustus proposed justices get an 18 year term that expires just after the presidential and midterm elections, giving a vote of confidence from the electorate and avoids making an appointment during an election year. Bannon added this idea would tighten the democratic link between the court and public while also respecting judicial independence. Over time the Court would more reflect public values. Historically, Carter had no Court appointments and the nasty guy had three. More regular terms would prevent that imbalance. Also, the Court wouldn’t be so high stakes. Shaw reviewed the way justices get on the Court. The current Senate hearings are politicized, choreographed, and not informative. Senators give speeches and the candidates evade questions. No one learns much. We don’t know anything about how a president picks a nominee, including whether they give assurances on how they will decide a given question. We do know when the nominee gets before the Senate such questions are evaded. Listener John suggested that a nominee should get approval from 75% of the Senate. Epps agrees that would give us a more moderate candidate. We used to have a filibuster on nominees, which required a 60% approval, but Republicans got rid of that in 2017, so requiring 75% approval isn’t going to happen. Shaw said even if reform of the Court doesn’t seem possible right now a public conversation still needs to happen so that perhaps in a decade reform can happen. Bannon added we need to create the political momentum and opportunity for reform. Emily Singer of Daily Kos wrote about the nasty guy’s $1.8 billion slush fund he wants to disburse to traitorous insurrectionists – people who attacked the Capitol, broke the law, and were correctly prosecuted. But there are people who actually deserve a payout from a weaponized Department of Justice. These are people who had to go to court to defend themselves from fraudulent charges brought by the nasty guy. They had to spend their own money to do it and suffered pain and anguish from being the focus of attack by the nasty guy and his minions. Singer lists some of these people and says the list is not exhaustive. In her list are: James Comey and his daughter Maureen. New York Attorney General Letitia James, the one who successfully prosecuted him for falsified business records. John Bolton, who wrote a book saying the nasty guy had abused power. Former Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell who refused to let the nasty guy dictate interest rates. Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, who the nasty guy tried to fire because she didn’t support lowering interest rates. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, wrongly deported and facing deportation again. ChongLy Thao, wrongly arrested by ICE in a dangerous manner. The DC sandwich thrower. The Broadview Six, who were arrested for protesting inhumane treatment at the Broadview detention center near Chicago. Last week Oliver Willis of Kos discussed the report by Judd Legum in his Popular Information newsletter that correlated the nasty guy’s financial disclosures with public statements showing that he praises companies while purchasing their stock. Willis wrote:

Legum wrote on X that he tracked the story’s coverage in mainstream media, with zero mentions by CBS, CNN, Fox News, NPR, PBS, Politico, Semafor, and Business Insider. Of course, Fox News is effectively right-wing propaganda, and CBS is now owned by the pro-MAGA Ellison family. NPR and PBS have been targeted by defunding legislation. But the other outlets present themselves as providers of critical, unbiased journalism, so their silence raises significant questions.

Even so, the general public is hearing about the nasty guy’s corruption. Lisa Needham of Kos wrote that the vice nasty is working hard to root out fraud. It’s strange because didn’t DOGE get rid of fraud last year? The cases he is on now (and loudly proclaiming how wonderful his efforts are) appear to be making claims of fraud where very little exists or where states have been already been aggressive in rooting it out. He also wants to make sure he takes these cases to red state judges because blue state judges are “corrupt.” Wrote Needham:

There’s no question that the anti-fraud initiative is about attacking blue states, but it’s also a pathetic attempt to recreate the DOGE era to get conservatives whipped into a froth about endless fraud without acknowledging that it was supposed to have been eradicated.

I’m sure his definition of fraud is that money is supporting the kinds of people he doesn’t like.

Boise doesn't have to "fly" the Pride flag

Two weeks ago Lisa Needham of Daily Kos reported that Mark Zuckerberg, well, the social media industry, lost two lawsuits. This was in the news a lot so likely this is old news to you. The general complaint of one suits is the design of social media platforms – not the content on the platforms – is what is addictive to preteens. In addition, the platform designers knew that the design is addictive and that is why they chose that design. Both cases prove the companies want maximum profit even if what they do is dangerous to children. In the first suit the woman who brought it was awarded $6 million. In the second, the state of New Mexico was awarded $375 million. A large number of other suits around the country have been waiting for the results of this one. Also two weeks ago Shawn510 of the Kos community discussed an article by Paul Krugman. Krugman’s basic point is that immigration to the US has collapsed and it’s not because of policy, but because of fear. It may be spun as political success, but is actually economic sabotage. The US service industry – hotels, ride shares, landscaping, etc. runs on immigrant labor. In hospitality 31% of workers are immigrants. In agriculture it’s over half. In construction it’s over 30%. This is the backbone of daily life. These workers also pay taxes and support Social Security. When the workforce shrinks, economies shrink. Immigration is about the only thing working against that. We’re sending the message the US isn’t a place of opportunity, but of risk. Workers, students – talent – goes elsewhere. That shift doesn’t reverse easily. We’re not protecting the country, we’re hollowing it out. This is not something the public is asking for. A couple days ago Lisa Needham of Kos reported that the Justice Department is on its way to becoming a ghost town. Because the nasty guy wants it as a tool of vengeance only true believers and new, inexperienced attorneys are still around. The usual stacks of applications aren’t coming in. A lot of Judge Advocate Generals are being called in as replacements. Yes, JAGs are military lawyers who don’t know so much about civilian law. Yes, this is legal, though has never been done on this scale. Having JAGs work on Justice Department cases has an advantage. Because they’re military, they can’t quit. They also can’t refuse to do the nasty guy’s building. But shortages and inexperience means cases get dropped, such as when a defendant demands a speedy trial, which comes with a deadline.

Turns out that when you fire tons of people and demand that the remainder act unethically, you end up short-staffed. Who knew?

Down in the comments of today’s pundit roundup for Kos are a couple cartoons worth mentioning. The first is by Stephen Lillie. It shows a scene similar to the end of the movie Planet of the Apes, though this time those encountering the scene are the Artemis II astronauts and the statue looks like the nasty guy. The astronauts say, “Oh my God, we’re back!” The other cartoon is by Daniel Boris. He shows Putin saying to his smiling generals, “Now we just sit back and let Trump be Trump.” Haadiya Tariq of the Idaho Press reported the Idaho state legislature wrapped up its session last week and included several anti-LGBTQ bills. One demanded that the Pride flag could not be flown on city or county property. Another would require health care providers and schools report children that express interest in gender transition. The Boise City Hall at first kept their Pride flags flying because the bill didn’t include any enforcement mechanism. The legislature quickly changed that. But the city wanted to tell its gay citizens are still welcome. So instead of “flying” the Pride flag they wrapped the flag around the flagpoles. Pictures at the link. There is also a rainbow that clings to windows with the words, “Creating a city for everyone,” that appeared en many city hall windows. And a heart shaped rainbow sticker has appeared in many storefronts. Boise? Cool!

A banner looking quite similar to Big Brother

I watched the Olympic figure skating gala, well about 30 minutes of it and mostly just the Americans because that’s all NBC showed (a disappointment). The skaters didn’t have to conform to any standards – no prescribed spins or jumps, no list of things they couldn’t do, no rules on costumes, just create whatever they want. And what they gave us was beautiful and much more heartfelt. Interesting that for this program the cameraman was also on the ice, able to give us a much closer experience. Ilia Maninin, the guy proclaimed the Quad God yet who finished 8th, did a marvelous routine. He dressed in jeans and a hoodie and portrayed his frustration with the expectations placed on him. Afterward Malinin said his purpose in skating now is to bring joy to himself and those who want to watch him. Sounds good. Alyssa Liu did the same thing and ended up with gold. So, yeah, these skaters can do a beautiful job, a meaningful job, and do it more creatively, when they’re not worrying about pressure, exactness, scores, and ranking. I also watched and enjoyed the closing ceremony, especially the references to Italian opera. I was puzzled because announcers occasionally mentioned Verona, which I thought was odd for the Milan Cortina Games. So this evening I checked out a map with street view. Yes, the closing ceremony was not held in Milan or Cortina, but in Verona, two hours east of Milan. The attraction was Arena di Verona, a renovated Roman Amphitheater that has actual seats installed and hosts a summer opera program. Quite a venue choice! Max Burns of Daily Kos reported on what the nasty guy said on Fox Business where he claimed he doesn’t need anything from Congress for the remaining three years of his term.

“In theory, we’ve gotten everything passed that we need,” Trump told Fox host and former economic adviser Larry Kudlow. “Now we just have to manage it, but we’ve gotten everything passed that we need for four years.”

Burns wrote this implies the nasty guy will do nothing for the next three years, in spite of the many problems facing Americans with the economy at the top of the list. I’ll agree that the nasty guy has done nothing for Americans in his first year except to make their lives worse and will do nothing more. But I don’t think Burns has it quite right. If the nasty guy doesn’t need anything from Congress he is implying he will rule as a dictator who no longer needs Congress to pass laws. He (or his aides) will just write them. Of course, Congress, at least while it remains under Republican control, doesn’t look like it will do anything anyway. Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos quoted GOP strategist Susan del Percio on MSNOW discussing the Supreme Court overturning the nasty guy’s tariffs and his rant against them afterward.

I'm just reminded of the old saying, you never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. So if you fast forward it to 2026, it's why would he pick this fight with the Supreme Court when there's so many other cases in front of it? And frankly, I think it gives the Supreme Court now more chance to, more freedom, to feel less beholden to Donald Trump because this is upsetting. This upsets all nine of them. No one likes to see the president do this.

In Sunday’s pundit roundup for Kos Chitown Kev quoted Jonathan Last of The Bulwark describing something that many people expected.

The latest trick of the regime has been to pretend that the occupation of Minnesota is over. Greg Bovino was removed from command and the new head of operations, Tom Homan, announced that DHS was pulling out of Minnesota. But this has not happened. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told us, point blank, “I’ll believe it when I see it.” The observers I spoke to at Whipple said they have seen no reduction in the number of DHS vehicles going in and out on a daily basis, or detainees being released ... or street abductions. Another adaptation has been for DHS to push its theater of operations outward from the cities and into the suburbs and exurbs, where the lower population density makes it harder for a critical mass of citizens to observe them.

Dean Obeidalla tweeted a comparison of the banner the nasty guy installed at his Department of Justice, which features his face, to the film 1984 showing a banner of Big Brother. Obeidallah added, “The resemblance between these two is NOT a coincidence.” Other people offered similar images: Rome’s Palazzo Braschi, 1934. Banners of Putin and Stalin. And, of course, Hitler. Lisa Needham of Kos writes a column titled Injustice for All in which she reviews the latest rulings on the nasty guy’s court cases. In this column she wrote: Two courts have now ruled that university students peacefully expressing their pro-Palestinian views does not threaten national security. There is a Religious Freedom Restoration Act that bars the government from inhibiting people from freely exercising their religion. Conservatives love it because it was used to say Hobby Lobby’s health insurance doesn’t have to cover female contraception because it denies the evangelical owners their free exercise of religion. It is now used to say that ICE and government agents can’t go into churches to abduct people because that makes people scared to go to church and freely exercise their religion. Of course, this administration will fight it. No, the administration can’t re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia. I had written about the six Democrats, including Sens. Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin, who created a video telling military service members they must disobey illegal orders. The case against them went to a grand jury where not a single jury member voted to indict. Now we know why. Jeanine Pirro, Attorney for the District of Washington, DC, has had a very bad record of getting people indicted. In this case the reasons was simple: Pirro could not identify a law those six had violated. A year ago the Department of Education to every school in the country saying a school that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion would lose its federal funding. The National Education Association sued, saying this was a violation of free speech, impossibly vague, and destroyed academic freedom. Last April a lower court blocked it. Recently a district court issued a final ruling saying the government was barred from enforcing its directive and from reviving it. So the DoE finally said it was ending the directive. Needham responded: “DEI is BACK, baby! Woke Mob Rise Up!” Scott Detrow of NPR spoke to Kelsey Piper, a staff writer at The Argument, and Martha Gimbel at the Yale Budget Lab discussing the scary thought that AI will soon (as within a decade or maybe much less than that) replace huge swaths of the workforce. This fear has come out of the tech world and into mainstream because people are quite anxious about the economy and a potential of a massive loss of jobs makes the anxiety worse. Another reason is AI is now able to do things that it couldn’t do (or couldn’t do well) just six months ago. Examples include writing computer code and doing scientific analysis a grad student used to do. But so far AI-related job loss is minimal and labor market disruption is not instantaneous. Yes, a labor disruption (see also the Industrial Revolution) is really hard on people, but, as Gimbel said, “at the end of technological change, living standards are higher, we are always better off.” Piper discussed the worries of job loss. How would a person feel if in 2028 there were 100 million students entering the workforce willing to work for free. The economy may end up being wealthier but if you are competing against those 100 million students – AI bots – you’re not going to like it and have good reason to be scared. In a crisis, such as COVID, Congress can act fast. But if the job loss is a lot slower Congress may not act at all. Gimbel said people don’t understand what is involved in AI taking over the tasks of a job and how long a company needs to figure it out. There is also how much consumers will allow AI to handle – we’re not going to turn child raising over to a robot. Piper said be wary of the promises and hysteria over AI. They’re likely trying to sell you something or to get you to gamble on AI. Don’t believe those who say you have only a few years to be a millionaire or end up in permanent poverty. There’s a ton of nonsense out there.

More money flows upward, faster, and with fewer speed bumps

My Sunday movie was an online handbell event. I originally thought it would only be of interest to handbell geeks. Then one of the people interviewed was Damian Kulash of the band OK Go. Why him? The band has played handbells to accompany at least a couple of their songs at live events. The two songs I know about are Return and Shoot the Moon and I found low-quality videos of them on YouTube. Kulash, in that 37 minute interview, said right off he and the band played with bad technique, which I saw was true. On saying that the interviewers invited him (and the band) to come to a handbell event where people would be happy to teach them better ways and show other things bells can do. Even though their technique was bad I saw in the videos the band could handle multiple bells and play syncopated rhythms while singing. Quite good! Here are the various interviews in that handbell event with Kulash’s interview a ways down the list. In my previous post I wrote about the life cycle of capitalism and that it ends in oligarchy. This was based on posts by Trenz Pruca on Daily Kos. My friend and debate partner responded with a private email. His friend side declared the post to be one of my best. Thank you, friend! Then his debate side asked, “But what is Pruca's relationship to reality?” Fair and important question. I was attracted to Pruca’s post because it added in details to what I already understand. So one way to determine Pruca’s reality is to test my own. How well have my 5,500 posts over the last 18 years (and I forgot to mark this blog’s birthday, which happened a week ago) described reality? That’s for the reader to answer. While I trust I have described reality well, saying I trust Pruca because his ideas align with my own describes a lot of conservatives, who are my opponents. In short, this is not good enough to affirm Pruca’s ideas. Pruca said he has his own blog, in addition to what he posed on Kos. I went to it and read the About page.

Trenz Pruca is the pseudonym for a retired attorney and businessman. During his career as an attorney he participated in the management of a large international law firm. He also consulted for a state legislature and drafted significant laws regarding land use and the environment. He has served as legal counsel and director of state agencies dealing with land use, planning and environmental protection. In addition, he has acted as Chairman of a state governmental authority responsible for the construction of one of the nation’s largest transportation projects. He has lectured and written widely about issues of law, economics, religion, land use, environmental protection and politics.

Which is rather evasive. If his posts are of good things why be anonymous? But I give few details about myself on my own blog. Pruca does give us a way to trust him and show he is anchored in reality. He provided sources for all four parts of his discussion. For example, the bottom of the first post lists historical books by 18th century economist Adam Smith. Karl Marx, Thorstein Veblen, 20th century economist John Maynard Keynes. For his life cycle of capitalism he references books by Giovanni Arrighi, Fernand Braudel, Immanuel Wallerstein, Hyman Minsky, Greta Kripper, and Thomas Piketty. Even more books are about corporate structure. With each book Pruca includes a link to where the book can be found online or to the publisher’s website. The other three parts have similar source lists. I hope that’s enough to see Pruca knows what he’s talking about and we can trust what he writes. With that I turn to another essay Pruca posted on Kos, this one about whether tax cuts for the rich created the Great Divergence. This is the “long, relentless widening of income and wealth inequality” that began with Reagan and Reaganomics. In 1980 the top income tax rate was 70%. Reagan cut it to 28%. It has moved up and down and is currently at 37%. Because most of the income of the wealthy comes from assets and not wage or salary income the important number is the effective tax rate. For the top 1% the 1979 rate of 37% dropped to 30% in 2019. For the bottom 20% refundable credits brought their 1979 rate of 8% to about 1% for 2019. Alas, Pruca doesn’t show the changes in effective tax rate for the middle class, saying only that they got squeezed. Yes, cutting tax rates increases inequality, though cutting taxes on capital gains has more of an effect that cutting income taxes. But so does capital mobility, decline of unions, emphasizing shareholders over workers, monopolization, and corporate capture of politicians. Another aspect is that while taxes were cut federal spending increased. The reasons for that were continued high defense spending, exploding health care costs, and the baby-boom generation claiming its Social Security and Medicare. Also there were fiscal interventions for pandemics, climate events, and geopolitical shocks, such as the Great Recession. And all that was financed through borrowing, which is now well over 100% GDP. The rich benefit from the extra borrowing (they receive the interest the government pays). And the middle class pays through higher taxes and reduced public services. Add to that the actions of the nasty guy part 2, where a major goal is to shift public wealth into private hands, especially loyal hands. His particular actions mean “More money flows upward, faster, and with fewer speed bumps.” Add to that the gutting of IRS oversight, which is a tax cut for the rich without legislation. We have shifted from the passive Great Divergence to the much more active Great Extraction. That leads to weakening worker power, undermining democratic checks and balances, deepening polarization, and tying wealth to state favor instead of market competition. Fiscal policy is both a reward and weapon. Taxes become optional for the rich and powerful and compulsory for everyone else. “Empires Don’t Fall Because the Tax Rate Is Wrong—They Fall Because the Social Contract Breaks.” And the Great Extraction becomes the Great Unraveling. Again, Pruca provides sources. Some items in the news: An Associated Press article posted on Kos reported Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the MAGA flamethrower who spoke out for releasing the Epstein file for which the nasty guy called her a traitor, has announced she will resign from the House on January 5. Her departure is causing quite a bit of consternation in the House. Another AP article reports the criminal cases against James Comey and Letitia James have been dismissed. The US District judge said the prosecutor who brought the case, Lindsey Halligan, was illegally hired, so any actions she took must be thrown out. Oliver Willis of Kos reported that the Department of Government Efficiency – DOGE – has been shut down, eight months ahead of its scheduled end. It’s quiet demise was quite different than its start that had figurative trumpets blazing. DOGE did not save the government trillions, more likely cost it millions to billions. But no one kept accurate tally. And DOGE was good at lying. There are no mourners. Lisa Needham of Kos reported a week ago that the Texas redistricting effort was ruled illegal. The new maps were to increase the gerrymandering so that Republicans would get five more House seats in next year’s election. The US District Court in El Paso said the new maps are a racial gerrymander, which is illegal (at least until the Supreme Court hears the appeal or runs it through the shadow docket). The evidence for the redistricting being racially motivated is that the majority nonwhite Democratic districts were changed and the majority white Democratic districts were not. The California redistricting effort recently approved by voters does not say it is dependent on the Texas case. There is no surprise that Republicans have taken that result to court. So how will the Supremes approve the Texas gerrymander and not the California gerrymander? That’s another indication the ruling will come through the shadow docket, where explanations are not provided. wellbillyboy posted a cartoon by Drew Sheneman. An elephant at complains to the bartender.

Moral bankruptcy is a wild ride. One day you’re voting for Reagan and smaller government, the next you’re condoning pedophilia and pretending vaccines don’t work.

In Monday’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted Indrees Kahloon of The Atlantic discussing Republicans showing why the consternation of Greene’s resignation is possible:

The reality that Donald Trump’s presidency will end in January 2029 is already making Republicans restless. Normally, Trump angers, exhausts, and eventually prevails over elected Republicans—not vice versa. Just this week, though, rebellious Republicans forced the release of the so-called Epstein files in defiance of Trump, who had spent months trying to suppress them before abruptly reversing course. Plenty of other cracks are showing too: Staunch allies of the president are mouthing critiques that would have been unfathomable a year ago. These disputes are the prelude to an ugly battle over the post-Trump Republican Party.

Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post discussing the House vote to release the Epstein files

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) had joined Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) to introduce the bill in July and then lead the signature-gathering exercise to force a vote. Massie said in an interview that his own party’s leadership in the House has ceded too much to Trump. “Basically, Mike Johnson has handed the keys to the House of Representatives to the president, and we took the keys back this week,” Massie said. “They weren’t driving very well, and we were able. We didn’t crash the car. We got it right to the destination.”

Benjamin Strick on Bluesky tweeted:

X rolled out a new feature overnight showing where accounts are based. This network of “Trump-supporting independent women” that claimed to be “real Americans” are based in Thailand. The photos [of examples] were stolen from European models & posts pushed pro-Trump lines while targeting Islam and LGBTQ people.

Jay in Kyiv added:

How much of MAGA twitter is being run out of Russian troll farms in Russia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Thailand? Today's revelations Likely put it around half. They're now quickly changing their stated locations to US.

In the comments Nikki Reale responded to a tweet by Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas complaining about Biden’s inaction on immigration. The tweet and response are a couple year’s old, but Reale’s conclusion still holds.

Here’s why we don’t have immigration reform: 1. In 2023 Democrats passed a bi-partisan immigration reform bill in the Senate. 2. House Republicans REFUSED to allow the bill to even be debated. 3. Obama asked Republicans to propose THEIR OWN immigration bill. 4. Republicans REFUSED. 5. Then Republicans demanded Obama do something about illegal immigration! 6. So Obama used his executive authority to enact some immigration reforms. 7. Republicans were outraged and called Obama a tyrant for doing exactly what they asked him to do. Republicans don’t really want reform. They want a problem to scare you with!

In the comments of Tuesday’s roundup are a few memes commenting on the revelation that many bot farms influencing the right aren’t in the US. A meme posted by thisjoshsmith:

Genuinely shocked at how many are just now discovering that MAGA is a psyop designed by Russia and grown in foreign bot farms before finally being perpetrated by some of the biggest loser cucks the world has ever known. Like, y’all really thought that this s--- was legitimate? It took 10 years and Elon displaying the location on Twitter accounts for you to figure it out? Welcome to the resistance, I guess?

And a meme by the_pesky_liberals

All the final pieces are falling into place this week: MAGA was never a grassroots American movement. It was a foreign-influence, billionaire-funded psychological operation that hollowed out a major political party and compromised U.S. foreign policy – and we’re only now seeing the full extent because the walls are starting to crack.

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow! I hope your day is pleasant. I’ll spend the day with Sister and Niece. And I won’t eat one of the Recession Recipes mentioned in a cartoon by Brian McFadden. One idea is mash potatoes sculpted to look like a turkey and covered in brown gravy. Another is:

Means Test Meal Cook an inadequate amount of food. Have guests complete forms to see who qualifies to eat it. Serves 1, maybe.

A law trapped in amber

Last September Anna Liz Nichols of Michigan Advance wrote about “gay panic” as a defense used by those who committed violence against an LGBTQ person. It was in the news then because the Michigan House began hearings on banning its use. Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, who is bisexual, is leading the effort. Pohutsky said this defense is based on LGBTQ people being considered inherently less human. Research out of St. Edward’s University found that 104 cases across 35 states attempted to use a “gay panic” defense between 1970 to 2020. Yeah, that’s only about two cases a year (which is still too many). Michigan had four cases and ranked sixth among the states. Examples of gay panic are an 18 year old getting bludgeoned to death when her attacker realized she had male anatomy. A 15 year old boy wore a dress and heels to class and the next day was shot in front of other students. That the “panic” happened the next day is one of the absurd parts of its use. Back in 2013 the American Bar Association asked federal, state, and local governments to ban the use of the “gay panic” defense. Even so the majority of states still allow its use. That article was posted before the House voted to approve the ban. Yesterday, Jon King of Michigan Advance reported that it did pass the House, though King didn’t say how long ago. It passed with a vote of 56-53 along party lines. King wrote about it because it has now passed the Senate, 24-14, and included four Republicans joining all the Democrats. The bill now must return to the House for one more vote, then on to Gov. Whitmer for her expected signature. Mark Sumner of Daily Kos reported that Moody’s Analytics analyzed the economic plans of both Biden and the nasty guy. It tempered its forecasts with “and can implement his plans.” Then it went on to say under Biden inflation would drop below 2% and the economy would continue steady growth. Under the nasty guy and because of his plans for mass deportation there would be a sharp increase in inflation and interest rates, followed by depressed growth and a recession next year. That would happen because mass deportation would choke a labor market that’s already tight. Disrupting immigrant lives would be especially hard on agriculture, leading to food shortages and high food prices. One reason for this analysis is Florida is already trying it. Republicans limited immigrant workers on farms that are now unable to get the help they need. Sumner concluded:

This is just one more area where it seems like the choice should be blindingly obvious. And that’s before even considering the other effects, like the damage done by tearing apart immigrant families and destroying environmental progress.

Sumner also reported on current campaign fundraising in May. Biden did quite well, pulling in $60 million. The nasty guy pulled in $141 million, $53 million on just one day after his conviction. The nasty guy’s haul didn’t come entirely from the little people enamored with him. One check of $50 million came from Tim Mellon, whose wealth is in banking and was begun three generations back. Mellon also donated another $25 million to the nasty guy and $25 million to RFK Jr. That means he may be the first person in history to donate $100 million in one election cycle. There was also a $10 million check from Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein. Their money comes from beer and also began three generations back. That means neither one of these families has experience with why people are poor, so their comments about the poor are rather stupid. Yet, their donations to the nasty guy are a pretty big bribe for him to trash the already shaky social safety net. Aldous Pennyfarthing of Kos has yet another post on all the Ten Commandments the nasty guy has violated, even though he say how much he loves them. In the comments of a pundit roundup by Greg Dworkin for Kos are a few good cartoons and memes. Phil Hands has Ten Commandments by the nasty guy for Christians who support him. A few of them:

1. Thou shalt have no other politicians before me. 4. Remember my Supreme Court nominees and keep them holy. 7. Thou shalt not admit adultery.

Rambler797 posted a tweet by Thomas Horrocks with a quote by Kurt Vonnegut that essentially asks why the commandments of Moses and not the Beatitudes of Jesus? These are the verses that include “Blessed are the merciful,” and “Blessed are the peacemakers.” exlrrp posted a meme showing when it gets really hot in New York City, as it is now, the Statue of Liberty drops the robe and stands there in her bikini. And way down in the comments is a tweet by Jane of the North showing a woman holding a protest sign that says, “‘He who hath not a uterus should shut the fucketh up.’ ~Fallopians 13:13” For my non Christian readers, the Bible doesn’t have that book but it does have a book with the name “Philippians.” Now back to one of the pundits. Dworkin quoted CNN writing about the Supreme Court upholding the ban on domestic abusers having guns.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative who has been raising concerns about the Supreme Court’s approach on history in recent cases, penned a brief concurrence criticizing how some lower courts were looking for near-identical historical gun laws when examining modern regulations. “Imposing a test that demands overly specific analogues has serious problems,” Barrett wrote. “It forces 21st-century regulations to follow late-18th-century policy choices, giving us ‘a law trapped in amber.’”

Dworkin added:

Amy Coney Barrett is clearly the sharpest of the court’s conservatives. I would not be surprised to see her as Chief Justice some day. That’s an observation, not an endorsement.

Enough of that guy. Let’s talk about his opponent. Sumner wrote that one of Biden’s greatest achievements is one no one knows about. I’ll try to summarize. Back in 2020 as the economy was heading into recession and the highest unemployment rate in 90 years the nasty guy went to Saudi Arabia and demanded they cut production to keep oil prices up. When Biden took office prices rose sharply as renewed demand outpaced supply. In 2022, as Russia began to be sanctioned, Biden went to Saudi Arabia to ask them to keep the oil flowing. They refused. The US is both the world’s largest oil producer and has the largest reserves. And Biden was able to manipulate the reserves. He released oil to counteract the price surge from Russia’s war, then bought back reserves and made a profit for the US treasury. And for US oil companies. Who look to be supporting the nasty guy. Back at the start of the month Dartagnan of the Kos community reported that Biden’s 200th and 201st nominees for the federal judiciary had been confirmed. That’s a lot of nominees (though there are still seats to fill). It also means Biden has nominated and gotten confirmed more black women to Courts of Appeal than all prior presidents combined. While the nasty guy’s appointments were 65% white men, Biden’s appointments have been just 13% white men. This article doesn’t say the number of LGBTQ people appointed, also much larger than before. Biden said, “Judges matter.” They can uphold basic rights or roll them back. Over the last four years (and longer than that) we can see judges are not totally objective and unbiased. The difference between judges appointed by Democrats and Republicans have been stark. Alito, Thomas, and district judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, appointed by Republicans, routinely make the news. The headlines are about denying rights and often are abrupt departure from law or precedent. But judges should not be making news. They should be upholding laws and the Constitution. And the ones appointed by Democrats don’t seek or attain notoriety. Dartagnan then reviewed how much judges and justices have strayed from that job into having the only goal of upholding Republican goals and domination.

So it’s important that Americans appreciate what Biden has done. He has nominated judges not simply to correspond to the racial demographics in this country, and not simply to give more deference and representation to women, though he’s done both of these things. More importantly, he is appointing jurists whose vocation is to simply apply the law fairly, not in the service of some radical dogma they feel they must adhere to. Put simply, Biden is appointing judges who are doing their jobs. And that’s a very, very good thing.

When they talk about freedom, they mean freedom from empathy

A couple weeks ago I listened to an episode of Gaslit Nation hosted by Andrea Chalupa. It was sufficiently worth discussing that instead of trying to take notes from the audio I decided to wait until the transcript was available, which it was a few days later (as in a couple weeks ago). Some of the main points: Merrick Garland is the worst choice for Attorney General, head of the Department of Justice. He let two years go by before getting serious about bringing cases against the nasty guy and this accomplices. In the meantime coup plotters are free, enriching themselves and working how to complete the coup that started with the Kremlin’s help in 2016. That the nasty guy still walks free and maybe getting only probation is an absurdity that has disillusioned America. It erodes faith in our institutions, which are crumbling and complicit. Paul Manafort, a Kremlin asset, had worked to destabilize Ukraine as he had done here in America as part of the nasty guy campaign and administration. The difference is that Ukraine removed the traitors from power and in America we gave them power. Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon (who will soon be spending four months in jail) are getting the storm troopers ready should the nasty guy go to prison. These troops will intimidate and terrorize poll workers in close precincts. The precincts important only because of the Electoral College,which is a major national security vulnerability that makes election stealing too easy.

So what do we do? Round up all the traitors and throw them in prison as Ukraine did? Ban all disinformation TV networks and media, like Fox News, like Ukraine did. I wish. That's one of the many reasons MAGA hates Ukraine because Ukraine forces accountability. Ukraine stands up to the Kremlin and exposes it for the terrorist state that it is, and has the moral courage to stand up to their traitors. Whereas we're continuously getting steamrolled by ours. And I've been saying for years now, what's long hurt Biden's approval ratings is worthless Merrick Garland and the impotent DOJ enabling all this.

President Ford pardoned Nixon to keep the national tranquility that had developed. But that tranquility was there because people knew the wannabe dictator Nixon had been indicted and faced trial. Proceeding with the trial would have kept that tranquility, not broken it. Ford established the precedent that criminals that threaten our democracy could go free.

So the warning is loud and clear. Trump must go to prison. No accountability leads to larger and more dangerous crimes. Trump and his crime machine are worse than Nixon because Nixon escaped prison. Nixon crawled so Trump could run. That is why Trump must go to prison, for the safety of our future of every American, the world. This isn't complicated.

There’s a question: Is America better off to avoid the violence that will happen if the nasty guy is put in jail with the certainty that if he regains the Oval Office, with violence to help him get there, he’ll become a dictator? Or is it better to put him in jail and be ready for the violence?

The thing Trump fears most is accountability. Getting away with crimes is a literally Trump's brand. That's what he's campaigning off of. His supporters throw money at him, even to pay his legal bills because they all get off on seeing him live above the law because that's what they want to do. That's why they support him. It was the same with Hitler. They got a surge of pride and power, feeling invincible, feeling free of societal norms. That's the appeal. When they talk about freedom, they mean freedom from empathy, freedom from the collective good freedom from having to care about others. ... That is the entire appeal of Trump and that is why he must go to prison to show consequences for trying to live above the law.

No, house arrest isn’t good enough. Manafort committed crimes under house arrest. Also, Mar-a-Lago is a pretty big house with a lot of visitors, including foreign adversaries. Once in prison the nasty guy should not get the big suite. He needs to be treated like everyone else. “You don't coddle criminals or you end up with more criminals in the White House.” Perhaps the nasty guy will flee? Great. Make sure the ticket is one way. And goes to Russia. All that grievance the nasty guy spews is being fed by the Kremlin. Prison is the only option. It also tells Putin the Hague is waiting. The talk turned to a third member of the transnational crime syndicate (Putin and the nasty guy being first and second), Israel’s Netanyahu. Protests in Israel are demanding he accept Biden’s cease fire deal. But if he does the far-right members of his governing coalition threaten to leave, bringing down his government. Netanyahu would rather cling to power than end the war. And yet Netanyahu may soon be speaking to the American Congress. That leaves many Democrats with a dilemma. Boycott the speech or use it as a time to confront Netanyahu? One way to confront is to stand with their back to the podium. Bernie Sanders issued a statement explaining why he won’t go. While Israel does have the right to defend itself against Hamas, it does not have the right to go to war against the entire Palestinian people, killing huge numbers and destroying massive amounts of housing and infrastructure. Netanyahu’s speech was scheduled for a week ago and hasn’t happened yet. Towards the end Chalupa said:

Congratulations to Mexico for electing your first female president as well as the first Jewish president, climate scientist Claudia Scheinbaum, a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors who was part of the intergovernmental panel on climate change that won the 2007 Nobel Prize for its research into the climate crisis. Scheinbaum brings with her a master's degree from UC Berkeley, a progressive agenda and a mandate to stand up against the brutal corruption across Mexico where a female mayor, Yolanda Sanchez was just gunned down after facing death threats and kidnapping.

That’s good news! In the comments of a pundit roundup on Daily Kos are a few good cartoons. One by Ted Littleford shows Justices Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito with Thomas saying, “I don’t see why Trump shouldn't have total immunity. After all, we do.” Below Thomas are bags representing four million dollars in gifts and three million behind Alito. The comments include a tweet my Rev. Benjamin Cremer in response to a new law in Louisiana.

“When I was hungry” you put up posters of the Ten Commandments in my classroom while making sure I didn’t get lunch at school. “Whatever you do for the least of these, you do unto me.” –Jesus

Just below it is a tweet of a new ad by the Lincoln Project showing that the nasty guy has broken five of the Ten Commandments. This is the guy the Christian Nationalists, the ones putting up posters of the Ten Commandments, are supporting.

I don’t care about you. I just want your vote.

Gregg Matson of the Daily Kos community discussed why Republicans don’t like public education. A few days ago I had added this to a list of Republican reasons, “this” being laid out in a quote Matson used to begin his piece. I was a bit surprised by the date on the quote.

“Republicans don’t like the educated because the educated don’t like what the conservatives are selling: simplistic, ahistorical, sometimes hate-driven topical solutions to sophisticated, often systemic problems.” Max Taves, THE SACRAMENTO BEE, 2/24/1924

Corporate bosses want the populace educated only enough to operate their businesses. They do not want a populate educated enough to be able of critical thinking and able to challenge their rule. The slide began when Reagan was governor of California and proposed “simplistic, marketplace-centered solutions to all society’s problems.” Students reacted with demonstrations and disruptions of teaching. That reinforced the opinion on the right that “free or cheap college education only produced whiny troublemakers.” They branded public education as a major cause of civil rights riots and general animosity to revered cultural traditions. Of course, the revered cultural traditions include the claim that corporate bosses are supposed to be at the top of the social hierarchy and in control of everything with solutions that were best for the country (meaning, of course, themselves). That brought a reduction in government support of education. Requiring students to pay would make them take it more seriously and not squander it on parties and “destructive ‘anti-American’ politics.” Less educated voters can be convinced that law and order is better than expanded democracy. But these days keeping people unaware that things aren’t as simple as the rulers want us to believe is getting harder. Matson concluded:

We are still confronted with realities that our rulers would rather we avoid learning about, even though ignoring them will lead to disaster. Congratulations to America’s plutocrats. But with college protests in the 2020’s echoing the 1960’s, we again must realize that if we want our children to inherit an inclusive society wherein all people can live comfortably, the solutions are the same now as then. We need to know our rights and responsibilities, and how to effectively use them. In essence, we need a modern education infrastructure that prioritizes teaching people how to learn.

A week ago Mark Sumner of Kos reported the nasty guy wants to restore “presidential impoundment.” That’s a president refusing to spend money authorized by Congress, and the Constitution says Congress determines spending. The practice dates back to Thomas Jefferson, but a law was passed back in 1974 restricting its use because Nixon abused it by refusing to spend money on subsidized housing. The nasty guy has already said how he will bend the federal government to his own will, including dismantle agencies, purge insufficiently loyal employees, and turn the FBI and DoJ into agents of retribution.

Unlimited use of the Impoundment Act goes well beyond even the authority of a line-item veto. It would allow Trump to halt funds at any time to inflict pain or apply pressure. It’s easy to see how this program might be used to force a weakened Congress into signing on to legislation provided by Trump, to slice out programs that had fallen out of favor, or to destroy whole departments. It’s hard to see how Congress could negotiate any kind of meaningful legislation when Trump could come in and selectively block funding. It’s not hard to see how this could be an extension of Trump’s ability to punish his enemies, especially in the wake of calls to “defund” the entire state of New York following Trump’s felony conviction on 34 counts in a Manhattan courtroom. It’s an idea that seems laughable ... until you add impoundment. ... An unlimited presidential impoundment authority isn’t a “budgetary issue.” It’s full control of the entire government. Which is exactly why it’s on Trump’s agenda.

Also a week ago Sumner reported that the nasty guy was on Dr. Phil’s show. Part of the discussion went like this:

“I think you have so much to do,” said Phil McGraw. “You don’t have time to get even.” Trump didn’t exactly agree. “Well, revenge does take time, I will say that,” Trump admitted. “And sometimes revenge can be justified, Phil. I have to be honest. Sometimes it can.” Anyone who thinks they're going to talk Trump out of scoring some sweet revenge has somehow missed the fact that vengeance is Trump's personal philosophy, his campaign theme, and his deepest desire. Vengeance “R” him.

Sumner said every time the media talks about the nasty guy’s agenda and doesn’t mention revenge they’re missing the most important component of his plans. Earlier this week Sumner discussed another nasty guy first – meeting with a parole officer. Sumner wrote it before the meeting and it was private so there is no report afterward. As part of the meeting he should have been asked whether he has been associating with anyone with a criminal record. That could violate the conditions of parole. Which could be touchy since so many of his associates are convicted felons: Bannon, Stone, Flynn, and at least 10 more. Also on Monday Sumner reported on one statement the nasty guy said at his Las Vegas rally that Sumner says the nasty guy actually said the truth, yet the media will ignore it.

“We need every voter. I don’t care about you. I just want your vote,” he said.

And the media is ignoring it, the same way they’re ignoring what he says at every rally and crafting a story about what they want their readers believe was said at the rally. Aldous Pennyfarthing of the Kos community discussed conservative media complaining about an item in a report of expenses of District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of the nasty guy. The item is $1 million to hire outside lawyers to respond to Congressional inquiry of the trial. Conservative media wasn’t upset with so much Congressional inquiry (read: Congressional meddling in attempt to thwart the trial) that the DA’s office needed $1 million to respond to it. They were upset that such a gaudy sum was spent in pursuit of the nasty guy while the rest of the New York City budget was facing cuts (not that they actually cared about the things NYC wasn’t spending money on). Pennyfarthing concluded:

So what we have here is yet another example of extreme GOP chutzpah. Let’s break it down: 1. Conservatives forced Bragg to defend his case—which he eventually won with a unanimous verdict—against their interference. 2. They then attacked him for successfully defending his case with the help of a $1 million appropriation, which he wouldn’t have had to make had it not been for their meddling. 3. Their chief rationale for exempting Trump from any and all state prosecutions involves the outright lie that crime is spiraling out of control in New York. 4. Finally—and this is the coup de grâce—their solution for addressing what they claim is rising crime but is actually falling crime is to elect a convicted felon president. So that’s your modern Republican Party in a nutshell. Nice, huh?

Today Sumner reported the next level of cult worship by Republicans. Since the attempt to rename a Washington airport after the nasty guy failed, they need something bigger. There is an Exclusive Economic Zone that extends 200 miles out from every American shore (including American Samoa). It is a zone where the US claims special economic privileges for things like fishing and oil. A bill may have been introduced by Rep. Greg Steube of Florida today to rename the 4,383,000 square miles of EEZ after the nasty guy.

It’s not quite stamping every map with Trumplantic, Trumpacific, and Gulf of Trump ... but it’s every bit as ridiculous. Like other Republican efforts to show their loyalty to Trump, this proves that there really is no limit. Now that Steube has raised the ante, stand by for the Trumpissippi River, the great state of Trumpessee, in the United States of Trump, on planet Trump, in the Trumpar System, in the outer arm of the Trumpy Way galaxy of the Trumpiverse. But it does have its upsides. Think how much easier geography will be when all of the answers are the same

. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted David Rothkopf of the Daily Beast. Rothkopf’s topic was about the first time the nasty guy came to the Capitol since the attack. He met with Republicans behind closed doors. Even so, word got out:

After having led an assault that put many of them in peril, Trump demonstrated his control over the party and the complete lack of character of virtually all of its members, by demanding that they publicly bend the knee before him. They slavered. They sang his praises. They collectively sought to wash away his sins in one of those most repugnant displays of public ass-kissing in American history.

Down in the comments exlrrp shows a doctored photo of the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh is wearing his red beer hat, Alito is holding his tackle box. Thomas his holding bags of money. And Roberts is asleep in his reclining chair. Sumner, in his weekly 7 stories to know column for Kos, wrote about the nasty guy being scheduled for a virtual visit with the Danbury Institute, a Christian Nationalist group. Yeah, there are all kinds of things wrong with that statement. I want to focus on one particular thing. The Danbury Institute says abortions are “child sacrifice.” They also complained that the murder of Trayvon Martin got too much attention at the time, meaning they saw nothing wrong with the murder. So why is abortion equivalent to child sacrifice, yet the murder of Trayvon Martin isn’t?

There is still one party that respects the law

Mark Sumner of Daily Kos wrote about the Republican response to the nasty guy’s guilty plea. Some Republican senators vowed to block judicial appointments – which they were already doing. The House vowed to investigate DA Alvin Bragg for bringing the case and they’ll add Special Counsel Jack Smith too. They claim the charges were because of the defendant (New York has charged 9,793 others with falsifying business documents since 2015). They say the DA should have settled (but settling means the defendant pleads guilty which the nasty guy would never do). They claim the conviction helps the nasty guy. They suggest Biden should pardon the nasty guy to show Biden is the better man. They call for no federal funding of New York (would be nice if NY residents also don’t need to pay federal taxes because more money goes to red states than comes home)

Because in buying into Trump’s claims that his prosecution was political, Republicans appear to have concluded that the only answer to Trump being prosecuted for his crimes is to make sure that the judicial system is as unfair and political as their dear leader claims.

Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott, and Alex Mierjeski, in an article for ProPublica posted on Kos, report that nine witnesses in the various criminal cases against the nasty guy have received significant financial benefits – large raises, cash, better jobs, and more. This could be seen as witness tampering, though a list of conditions would need to be met to be able to prove it. An Associated Press article posted on Kos discussed some of the things that go into determining the appropriate sentence for a case. One of them is whether the defendant has taken responsibility for their actions. But the nasty guy has always refused to acknowledge wrongdoing. Instead, he attacks the court, the jury, the judge, and the prosecutors. That doesn’t sit well. There is another important societal interest. Should a former and potentially future president go to jail? (To some of us the answer is obvious that he should – and should have for crimes committed back in the 80s and 90s.) Kerry Eleveld of Kos discussed how busy Republicans are to portray the nasty guy’s conviction as a good thing, that it will make him a sure winner in November. As part of that they are crowing that the Never-Trumpers are returning (which is news to the Never-Trumpers).

"It’s a common tactic in politics, and something Republicans used successfully in 2022," [Democratic strategist Simon] Rosenberg wrote over the weekend in his Hopium Chronicles Substack. "By trying to convince everyone the election is over, that they are going to win and there is nothing any of us can do about it, they are attempting to suppress our enthusiasm, our commitment, our work, our voting. 'Trump is winning' is a volunteer and electoral suppressant, as the 'red wave' was in 2022."

The next story reminded me of a comedy album Jeff Foxworthy released in 1993. I heard excerpts, but never the whole thing. Part of the album has Foxworthy saying, “If you... you might be a redneck.” In that gap he says something about Southern rural white people and their supposed unsophisticated way of life. The album sold more than three million copies. I mention all that because, as Walter Einenkel of Kos reported, Rep. Eric Swalwell, Democrat, used that sort of pattern when the House Judiciary Committee brought AG Merrick Garland in for questioning (perhaps to distract the public from the nasty guy conviction). He must have hit a nerve because Republicans strongly objected. Which is good. Here’s some of what Swalwell said:

If you believe in states’ rights, except when a jury in that state convicts your nominee for president, you might be in a cult. If you claim you back the blue but want to defund the police, when the police go to your nominee's house to retrieve national security secrets, you might be in a cult. If you're supporting a guy whose felony convictions prevent him from getting a security clearance, you might be in a cult.

At the start of Hunter Biden’s trial Sumner wrote that there is a law and order party – and it isn’t Republicans. Hunter had plenty of family support. He didn’t threaten the judge, prosecutors, witnesses, or jurors. “Instead, the president’s family provided a powerful example of trusting in the law and submitting to the judicial process.” Hunter kept quiet even through there is plenty to complain about. The US attorney was appointed by and acted on a call from the nasty guy. The judge was appointed by the nasty guy, who blew up a plea agreement and ruled out witnesses and evidence Hunter saw as critical.

In his New York criminal trial, Trump repeatedly claimed that the investigation had been instigated by Biden. That wasn’t true. But it is true that the investigation into Hunter Biden was instigated by Trump. ... Hunter Biden, and his family, will allow this to play out as the law demands. They may be disappointed by the results, but they won't blame the outcome on a corrupt system. Because this is America, and there is still one party that respects the law.

Dartagnan of the Kos community discussed Republicans and abortion. They used to be quite specific about how severely they were willing to restrict abortion because with Roe in place they could say what they wanted and it wouldn’t happen. But with Dobbs overturning Roe, allowing each state to do what it wanted and getting a furious female response, Republican candidates now have to scrub websites and be very careful what they say. Some of them took a year or more to figure that out. But what they said in the past doesn’t stay in the past.

These sad efforts by Republicans to “soften” their radical and reactionary positions won’t work. Because when voters who care about their reproductive destinies realize someone is trying to deceive them—particularly now, in this post-Roe environment—it just makes them more angry. So highlighting this deceitful behavior early—as Planned Parenthood did with a series of ads in the 2023 race for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, for example—seals the deal for such voters almost immediately. For these voters, Republicans’ advocacy for these radical, harmful, and sometimes deadly policies is bad enough. But being lied to about their real positions is absolutely infuriating.

Dartagnan included a long list of Republican politicians with their before and after statements. For some of them their “after” views are pretty much a word salad. Dartagnan concluded:

These Republicans have all warmly embraced anti-abortion extremism in the past. Whether it was out of genuine belief or political convenience, that’s what they are. What they want now is power, and they’re clearly prepared to say or do anything to attain it, no matter whose rights they’ve trampled on or simply disregarded. The only reason they’ve changed their position is because they feel they have to. They deserve absolutely no credit or consideration for that, and they certainly don’t deserve any votes for it.

In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted a tweet by Ben Wexler:

(During impeachment) This should be decided at the ballot box! (He loses at the ballot box) (incites a violent mob to storm the capitol) If he broke any laws, that’s up to a jury to decide! (A jury decides he broke a ton of laws) This should be decided at the ballot box!

Down in the comments are some good cartoons. Jimmy Margulies posted on with a man at the bar watching a baseball game. He says, “Can you believe the umpire’s shirt says ‘Go Yankees’?” The bartender replies, “How is that a problem for you, Justice Alito?” Mike Luckovich has a cartoon showing the nasty guy as the emperor with no clothes. A couple look at him and the wife says, “Does an ankle monitor count as pants?” exlrrp posted a meme of Snoopy writing his novel: “And, after all the dust settled, they suddenly realized American had been saved by a porn star. The End.”

Two nightmares in life: being broke and being in jail

My Sunday movie was Absolute Beginners episodes 3 and 4. This series is rated TV-MA – very much for mature audiences. I need to give a spoiler alert. So if you intend to watch, skip to the next section of this post. Lena and Niko are creating a movie they hope will get them into film school. Niko refused to do a sex scene with Lena because she is like a sister. So they recruit Igor to be in their movie. In episode 3 Lena and Niko work to become friends with Igor and make him comfortable with the idea of acting. Lena begins to show that Igor would do quite nicely as her partner in the sex scene. Niko and Lena are good friends because their parents share a vacation cottage by the seashore. But the friendship and Niko’s parents’ marriage are falling apart. Episode 4: As the student movie progresses I see why this is tagged as an LGBTQ story (which is why I started watching), though one relationship surprised me. Episodes 5 and 6 this weekend. Reactions to the nasty guy’s conviction began being posted shortly after the convictions were announced. Walter Einenkel of Daily Kos collected several. At the top is Dark Brandon with an ice cream cone in one hand and holding out a big “L” with the other. We also get such things as Derek Guy noting “First sneaker designer to be convicted of 34 felony counts.” And Discussing Film noting “‘Home Alone 2: Lost in New York’ star Donald Trump has been found guilty of 34 felony counts. Of course, the nasty guy used it as an opportunity to fundraise. JekylInHyde of the Kos community posted a bunch of editorial cartoons. Denise Oliver-Velez tweeted, “Trump’s appeal oral arguments will be in front of the first All-Black women Appellate bench. On Saturday, not quite two days after the conviction, Kos of Kos noted that punditry and conservative gaslighters claim these felony convictions are good for the nasty guy’s campaign and is energizing his supporters. First, those supporters don’t need to be “energized.” And they won’t decide the election. Kos looked at a poll by Morning Consult done after the verdict: + 54% approve of the conviction. + 34% disapprove of the conviction. That’s only a third. + “Just 15%” of Republican voters want him to drop his White House bid. “Just”? That’s a big number in a tight election. + 49% of independents think he should end his campaign. In the two previous races the nasty guy hasn’t gotten 47%. Last time around Biden got 51.3%. Of course RFK Jr. is a wildcard. Also, this really is a race in just a few battleground states. The math doesn’t look good for the nasty guy and the conviction will make the math worse. Kerry Eleveld of Kos wrote:

Republicans added a new litmus test to the list of loyalty pledges they must make to Donald Trump following his criminal conviction: Do they believe in the U.S. justice system? Before Trump's guilty verdict, Republicans were already required to say they don't believe in U.S. elections (2020 was stolen!) and that they wouldn't accept the 2024 election if Trump loses (no peaceful transfer of power!). Now the GOP has officially thrown "law and order" on the MAGA pyre too.

Larry Hogan, Maryland Republican running for the Senate, urged people to “respect the verdict.” The nasty guy campaign told him “You just ended your campaign.” But Maryland is reliably blue in presidential elections, so he has to please more liberal voters. But the Republican edict to fall in line is clear. Eleveld then listed many Republicans who did fall in line. At the top of the list is Speaker Mike Johnson. He asked the Supreme Court to force a do-over. Of course, those auditioning to be Vice Nasty spouted their condemnation of the verdict as fast as they could. At least Moscow Mitch didn’t complain about the entire legal system. David Nir of Kos noted the curious case of Republican House members from districts that voted for Biden yet who called the verdict shameful. Aldous Pennyfarthing of Kos wrote about 11 times the nasty guy was in legal or political peril (the list is not exhaustive nor in a particular order) when he was pulled out of the fire and allowed to continue. 1. “Access Hollywood” tape, rescued by the James Comey letter about Hillary Clinton. 2. His campaign launch where he declared Mexican immigrants were criminals and rapists, rescued by primary voters who didn’t think that was offensive. 3. He mocked a disabled reporter, rescued by primary voters. 4. He disrespected Gold Star families and John McCain. 5. The Mueller probe, rescued by Bill Barr’s spinning. 6. He called Nazis very fine people in Charlottesville, rescued because Nazi apologia isn’t a problem for Republicans. 7. Extorting Ukraine and first impeachment, rescued by Republicans. 8. He believed Putin over his own intelligence at the Helsinki summit, saved by dissolving Republican spines. 9. The Capitol attack and second impeachment, rescued by Moscow Mitch and Rep. Kevin McCarthy. 10. The E. Jean Carroll judgment, rescued through Republican indifference. 11. Four felony cases with 91 felony charges, rescued through Republican indifference. Last Friday Eleveld discussed the nasty guy’s apparent mental deterioration. Eleveld referred to a podcast by Chris Christie to explain the situation. The podcast was recorded before the verdict was read out. Christie recounted a discussion with the nasty guy two decades ago, summarized as:

Christie said Trump is haunted by two nightmares in life: being broke and being in jail. If Trump were to be found guilty, Christie predicted, "He will get angrier and angrier and more paranoid.”

After the verdict a reporter asked if the nasty guy was worried about going to jail. He ignored the question. But mentally he’s in a very dark place. To me it means during his campaign speeches he will emphasize violence and retribution more than he usually does while making a lot less sense. Kos of Kos wrote about whether the conviction would hurt the nasty guy in the election. He looked at several polls. Then concluded:

But you want to know how we really know that the felony conviction is hurting Trump? Because he hasn’t shut up talking about how rigged it is, demanding his entire party—the supposed “law and order” Republican Party—endorse a convicted felon as their nominee. If it didn’t hurt him, Fox News and the rest of the conservative ecosystem wouldn’t be in overdrive trying to paint the conviction as a politically motivated hit job by hostile nefarious forces. If it didn’t hurt him, he’d be bragging about the conviction, rather than attacking it

. At the top of a pundit roundup for Kos, Greg Dworkin put a montage of newspaper headlines, most of them with the words “Guilty” or “Convicted” in large font. People who don’t read the stories do read the headlines. Dworkin included a tweet by Brian Klaas:

Interviewers: I beg you. Stop asking Republicans if they think the trial was “rigged.” Ask them if they believe that candidates should be allowed to make illegal hush money payments to further their campaign. Ask them, specifically, which evidence they think the jury got wrong.

In the comments of this post there are a lot of cartoons showing the nasty guy in prison. There are a lot of variations on that theme. The only one I’ll mention is one by Ben Jennings. It shows the nasty guy having been in the communal shower for a while and the orange bronzer still washing away. Below that is a cartoon by Mike Luckovich related to Justice Alito’s scandal. There are a few women dressed in Handmaid Tale robes and bonnets. One says, “But we still have control over out flags...” Megan Herbert posted a cartoon of the orange crayon saying between the orange bronzer and the orange jumpsuit he’s going to be worn down to a stub, so he quits. Mark Sumner of Kos wrote:

Hints that Elon Musk and Donald Trump are working their way toward an alliance have been increasing for months. Trump has wanted to tap Musk’s billions to solve some of his fiscal problems—like the hundreds of millions he owes after being found liable for fraud, sexual assault, and defamation. ... Musk and [billionaire Nelson] Peltz are conducting regular soirees with other billionaires to convince them to turn against President Joe Biden. Musk isn’t satisfied with cutting a massive check for Trump; He’s trying to cut any support out from under Biden by putting pressure on other members of his billionaire boys club. ... It doesn’t matter if Trump and Musk secretly hate each other; Neither of them is interested in making friends. They’re interested in money and power, they want more of both, and they want to lock in a plutocracy that means no one can ever get in their way.

Pennyfarthing reported that Bill Pruitt, producer of the TV show The Apprentice, had a nondisclosure agreement that expired this year. So he told many of the shows secrets in an essay for Slate.

Pruitt goes on at length about the smoke and mirrors the show employed to make Trump look competent and sane, and he doesn’t mince words. He confesses that “The Apprentice” was essentially a “long con played out over a decade of watching Trump dominate prime time by shouting orders, appearing to lead, and confidently firing some of the most capable people on television.” Pruitt stresses that the con wasn’t malicious (it was just a TV show, after all), but admits that “we played fast and loose with the facts, particularly regarding Trump, and if you were one of the 28 million who tuned in, chances are you were conned.” Gee, ya think?

One way they did it was re-record his dialogue. They would put him in a boardroom set and feed him lines over the phone, which he would then say into a microphone. They did that because he couldn’t remember the contestant’s names and couldn’t describe the task the contestants were to do. That sounds quite a lot like many media outlets who cover for his many verbal stumbles. Just after the 2016 election I listened to a group of guys talk about it. One of them was not at all surprised the nasty guy won. He had traveled through America and listened to how the locals gushed over him. They said the reason for their gushing was how forceful he was on The Apprentice and we needed a president like that. Yep, they were among the conned. Also, a few years ago on Gaslit Nation hosts Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa discussed that The Apprentice was specifically designed and practically forced onto a network for the purpose of rehabilitating the nasty guy’s image. Meaning that bit about “just a TV show” wasn’t true. Dartagnan of the Kos community challenged the nasty guy’s campaign claims (going back to 2016) that he was the cause of the greatest economic turnaround in history. He said inherited an economic disaster from Obama and cleaned it up and that Biden has squandered it. Of course, the truth is nothing like that. Obama cleaned up Bush II’s economic disaster and the economy was humming along quite well, so well that former White House communications director Jen Psaki explained, “A buffoon could have kept the recovery going.” As for everyone being wealthier, that was true for pretty much only the billionaires, or .000006% of the population. After the nasty guy left Washington Biden cleaned up the pandemic’s economic mess, which has been humming along so well it has prompted the stock market to reach new highs.

As economists are fond of pointing out, the performance of the economy is mostly a consequence of events that presidents cannot control. Thus, most presidents tend to operate as stewards, carefully managing all the various unexpected crises and the domestic and global repercussions that befall their terms in office, with a view toward maintaining the nation’s economic growth. Obama governed in this manner, as has Biden, and both have the numbers to show for it. Trump, however, has shown no such forbearance, either in his appalling response to the COVID-19 pandemic or in his pet policies before that catastrophe occurred. His specific economic plans should he be elected again have been characterized as potentially disastrous. Americans’ memories may be short, but there is one basic fact they ought to keep in mind. This country has sustained two successive economic calamities during this century, in 2008 and 2020, both occurring under Republican administrations. In both circumstances, it was the Democrat—Obama in 2009 and Biden in 2021—who succeeded in pulling the economy and this nation out of a very deep, dark hole left to them by their Republican predecessor. So Americans ought to ask themselves, which party has proved itself competent at managing the economy, and which has not?

TheCriticalMind of the Kos community discussed a podcast by media personality Colin Cowherd. He’s normally known for his sports analysis, though after the conviction he had a few things to say about the nasty guy. In particular, he had a rebuttal to the dystopian fantasies the nasty guy likes to declare. Here are excerpts of what Cowherd said:

I get on planes. There’s people in normal clothes. They don't look rich to me. And the planes are all full. And the hotels are all full. And the freeways are all full. That means people are going to work.” ... Trump’s entire game plan is that the country is in a free fall. Maybe in the Trump-centric neighborhoods, it is. It’s not anywhere for my sister, who lives rurally. Doesn't have a lot of crime in her neighborhood. I don't. My friends don’t. We live all over Los Angeles in one of those big scary cities that voted for liberals. ... Stop trying to sell me on everything's ‘rigged’. The country’s falling into the sea. The economy’s terrible. The economy is OK. It's not like ‘on fire.’ But get on a plane. Find all the empty seats. I don't see them. Those aren't cheap. Either are hotel rooms over Memorial weekend.

Sumner addressed the claim by the nasty guy, Republicans, and conservative media that America has become a very violent place.

Preliminary statistics for 2023 indicate the lowest levels of violent crime ever recorded, dropping below previous records in 2014 and 2019. And that’s still not all, because right now it appears that 2024 is still trending down. Americans are safer now than they have been in decades, and the numbers have only gotten better under Biden. But you won’t hear that from Republicans, or Fox News, or much of the media. Because pushing fear is all they know. There are fewer violent crimes now than there were in 1971 under Richard Nixon, despite a population that has increased by over 100 million people. Today we are experiencing not simply fewer crimes per person, but fewer crimes overall. According to FBI statistics, there were over 5 million fewer violent crimes in the United States last year than in the final full year of Ronald Reagan's “tough on crime” administration.

In the comments of another pundit roundup Captain Frogbert discussed the requirements for getting a governmental security clearance. Summary: With a felony conviction the nasty guy does not qualify for a security clearance and, because of that, cannot execute the duties of president. That’s the big reason why he wouldn't get clearance. There are also many more: mental instability, foreign entanglements with America’s enemies (Putin), massive debts, shady business practices, long-term association with mobsters, and a history of cavalier treatment of classified intelligence (that one has 11 subpoints). And this is the guy Republicans intend to nominate. That shows they believe the rules of a civil society, morality, and rule of law do not apply to them. Sumner, in his weekly 7 stories post for Kos discussed the start of the Hunter Biden trial. Which refutes the big Republican claim that the nasty guy’s trial was rigged. If Biden had that much control over the judicial system why is Hunter on trial? In the second story for the post Sumner reviewed the effects of 20 years of same-sex marriage. He worked from an article in the Los Angeles Times. The quotes are from the Times:

“If there were negative consequences in the last 20 years of the decision to legalize marriage for same-sex couples, no one has yet been able to measure them,” researcher Benjamin Karney told the Times. ... The headline from our new analysis is no negative impacts and some positive ones. We see an increase in marriage, and that increase is driven not just by newly marrying same-sex couples, but also by an increase in marriage among different-sex couples. That was a bit surprising to us.

Guilty! (x34)

Mark Sumner of Daily Kos was one of many news outlets reporting that the jurors of the nasty guy’s election interference trial found him guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying campaign records to illegally influence an election. Yay! We can now call him a convicted felon. So celebrate! Then Sumner gives a few reasons to temper our glee. The nasty guy will appeal. That could take years. Considering that and that he’s been out on bail, don’t look for the photo of him in handcuffs. Since this is the nasty guy’s first conviction (but it’s also his 34th!) he is unlikely to get jail time. He’s more likely to get a fine, community service (which I can’t see him actually doing), and probation (how does a probation officer visit the Oval Office?). Sentencing comes four days before the Republican Convention, where he’ll be renominated. Influencing the sentencing will be extra factors, such as how does the Secret Service protect him in jail (baffles me why they would need to)? Also there is the threat of violence from his minions – but that should be compared to how many times he threatened the judge, prosecutors and their families, and the jury. There have been convicted felons who ran for president. Lyndon LaRouche did it five times, once from prison. The effect of this conviction on the election are unclear. What to think depends on which poll you read. There are three big trials (and, if I did the math right, 54 more charges) to go, though none likely before election day. These convictions are not going to slow the nasty guy down. He’s still a threat to the nation and democracy. In remarks after the verdict he said the only decision that matters is the ballot box in November. And for once he’s right. In a post before the verdict was announced Sumner wrote that the language the nasty guy has been using at the courthouse, and also by his Republican proxies, has hinted of violence. And, as is his way, what he has said was misinformation – about the legitimacy of the trial, that it was a witch hunt, and that Biden was behind it. Republicans have been taking up the call. Though the mob hasn’t shown up at the courthouse (and he had to lie about why they hadn’t) there is still a threat of violence ahead.

Republican allies and right-wing media figures are playing a crucial role in Trump’s effort to erode faith in the trial by spreading false claims about [Judge] Merchan, jurors, and court proceedings. This coordinated attack on the judicial process undermines trust in the legal system and poses a significant threat to public safety.

On to other articles about the nasty guy that have accumulated over the last week. Mark Kreidler, in an article for Capital and Main posted on Kos, discussed why a group of 48 health care leaders are warning about the disasters of a second nasty guy term in the Oval Office. They are speaking out because they feel the consequence are dire and nobody is listening. Their basic argument: Under the nasty guy health care will get more expensive and less accessible, and worst for the marginalized. Their evidence is his repeated attempts to overturn Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) – don’t let his lack of success fool you. There are lots of ways to mess it up even if it isn’t repealed. The nasty guy also wants to defund or bring under political control the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration. They may not have been great during the pandemic, but we don’t want to hear them recommend injecting bleach. Kreidler likes that they wrote the letter, but thinks they need to write more than one. Greg Sargent of the New Republic wrote a couple days ago that the nasty guy’s threats are becoming more aggressive. The nasty guy posted a rant by one of his followers and then commented on it. The rant was directed at liberals in general. This isn’t the first time he has used or elevated violent language, though Sargent says this round is more aggressive through the phrase “get rid” of. It also isn’t the first time he has threatened using state power to persecute the large and not well defined class of his enemies. That class now includes media (the ones not for him), his ideological enemies (presumably liberals and Republicans not sufficiently loyal), immigrants, and even student demonstrators.

What if some subset of Trump supporters continues backing him not in spite of his efforts to place himself above our institutions and the law—not in spite of his threats to unleash punishment and suffering on other large groups of Americans—but precisely because of those things? ... If Trump voters are sticking with him through all these [threats], we should be asking whether these factors are key drivers of some of this support, not credulously treating them as self-evidently incidental to it.

Kerry Eleveld of Kos discussed how we might counteract the media that has a bias against Biden and for the nasty guy. Far right outlets manufacture controversies that support the nasty guy. We can counteract that by talking directly with fellow voters. The tactic depends who you are talking to. If an independent, talk about the nasty guy promising he would never leave office. If their big worry is the economy, talk about what Biden has been doing compared to the nasty guy’s promise of more tax cuts for corporations. If a young voter talks about abortion protections, LGBTQ protections, gun rights, and voting rights and which candidate will do what. Talk about how their issues align with Democrats. Or talk about how scary a second nasty guy term would be. In a pundit roundup Chitown Kev of Kos quoted Cat Zakrzewski, Joseph Menn, Naomi Nix, and Will Oremus of the Washington Post about efforts at neutralizing misinformation leading up to important elections around the world.

Modeled after vaccines, these campaigns — dubbed “prebunking” — expose people to weakened doses of misinformation paired with explanations and are aimed at helping the public develop “mental antibodies” to recognize and fend off hoaxes in a heated election year. In the run-up to next month’s European Union election, for example, Google and partner organizations are blanketing millions of voters with colorful cartoon ads on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram that teach common tactics used to propagate lies and rumors on social media or in email.

Down in the comments are several good cartoons for Memorial Day. I’ll share one by Mike Luckovich. It shows Arlington Cemetery with the caption, “Gave their lives for their country.” Beside it is the Senate GOP with the caption, “Gave their country for Trump’s lies.” Extending my little break from the nasty guy for a bit more on Memorial Day, here is a cartoon posted by missLtoe from WaPo showing a photo of a military cemetery. One of the tombstones says, “Book bans, anti-science, authoritarianism, sexism, loss of bodily autonomy... I thought we already fought a war against fascism.” Aldous Pennyfarthing of Kos wrote the nasty guy is trying to do one better than the Gipper. A week ago...

Trump promised that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who’s currently being detained in Russia and has been jailed for a year, would be released “almost immediately” after the November election—but only if Trump wins.

If this isn’t another lie (likely) it is another violation of the Logan Act, conducting diplomacy outside of official government channels. Putin denied any contact with the nasty guy about Gershkovich. But he’s also known for his lying. The nasty guy may be hinting at a deal once he’s in the Oval Office again. A hostage might be a fair swap for Ukraine’s freedom and independence. So this might be a request to meddle in our elections. Or this clumsy attempt at diplomacy (he announced it to the public) might assure Gershkovich is never released. That mention of the Gipper is about the 1980 election, when the Iranian hostage crisis was in the news every day. A year ago in March the New York Times confirmed that Reagan sabotaged Carter’s efforts to secure the hostages’ release before the election. He did this by sending Ben Barnes and John Connally to several Middle East capitals to pass along the message that if the hostages are released after the election Reagan will win and give them a better deal. The big difference is that Reagan said nothing in public. Please remember the nasty guy is toying with an actual person’s life. In another pundit roundup Greg Dworkin quoted Seth Masket of “Tusk” on Substack, written after Nikki Haley said she would vote for the nasty guy:

So why is Haley backing him now? I doubt there’s any sort of deal that’s been worked out. Trump doesn’t need her support. She’s backing him for the same reason virtually every other public figure in the party does: she wants to still have a career as a Republican, whether in the next Trump administration or otherwise, and she’s seen the very visible examples of what happens to those who fail to bend the knee. And despite all the concerns she’s raised about Trump, she likely still sees another term by him as better than another by Biden. ... Why would Trump be smart to reach out to Haley and her supporters? That requires effort, and she just demonstrated that he would have her vote despite him exerting no effort at all. Haley is repeating a pattern that we have seen time and again from nearly all Republican officials, that despite some modest protestations, there is quite literally nothing he can do that will keep them from supporting him over a Democrat.

Down in the comments of a third pundit roundup, this one posted a month ago, are a couple cartoons to mention. One by Ted Littleford shows an Arab American saying, “Because of Gaza my conscience simply won’t let me back Biden.” Behind him the nasty guy is tapping his shoulder and holding a deportation order. A cartoon from Canada that would be appropriate here and elsewhere around the world and for a great deal of human history. A man has bottles of rage, fear, malice, spite, blame, and hate. He says, “Hey, I’ll stop selling it, when they stop buying it.” In a fourth roundup Kev quoted Jennifer Ruben of WaPo, discussing historian Ken Burns’ commencement speech at Brandeis University. I think these are Ruben’s words:

The media should collectively recognize that the pretense that “an unequal equation is equal” amounts to an in-kind gift to authoritarians who crave the appearance of normalcy and respectability. Sharp contrasts and moral judgment are kryptonite to MAGA forces, who would love nothing better than months more of fantasy politics (“What if Biden backed out?”) and poll obsession (that only now begin to reflect the views of likely voters). The media would do well to focus on the authoritarian threat. A candidate such as Trump, who lies about his crowd size, the results of past elections and the sentiments of certain voters, intends to convey inevitability, strength and the futility of resistance. Trump assiduously follows the totalitarian playbook to demoralize opponents and condition the public to believe only he can possibly win. (He also sets the stage for election denial: How could I lose with such big crowds?). The false premise that President Biden is destined to lose (because Trump says so? because of premature, irrelevant polling?) is not news; it’s Trumpian propaganda. The press can avoid Trump’s manipulation by explaining the playbook and refusing to present his braggadocio as fact.

In the last couple days of the trial the nasty guy claimed it was so crooked that “Mother Theresa could not beat these charges.” Monty Wolverton has a cartoon imagining her reply:

Well, I don’t remember falsifying business records to conceal criminal activity and damaging information from voters and violating state and federal election laws. But if you say so...”