The verdict found him guilty of sexually abusing and defaming Carroll to the tune of over 5 millions dollars. The verdict was unanimous (which it does not have to be in a civil trial) and the jury included at least one MAGA wingnut who admitted that a far right youtuber was his main source of news, which says something. Trump was not found guilty of rape, however. According to legal commentary on MSNBC, it was probably because while she clearly knew he penetrated her with his fingers, she felt something else but she couldn’t see if it was his penis. (Fingers don’t count in a rape charge, I guess.) He has been found guilty by a jury of sexual battery and defaming his victim. This is how the right is dealing with it: Trump hasn’t gotten the memo: Here’s how Trump’s Christian followers are dealing with it:
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I think we’ve all probably pored over Timothy Snyder’s little booklet “On Tyranny: 20 lessons for democracy” more than a few times over the past few years. (If you haven’t, get it. It’s worth it.) Anyway, I was intrigued by this piece by William Saletan for the same reason: This is part of Saletan’s super interesting deep dive into what happened to Lindsey Graham. It’s not about what a servile fool he is — he is used as a representative for the entire Republican party: Many other journalists have written about Graham and Trump. Most of them have focused on the personal relationship between the two men. They examine the ways in which Graham’s evolution was distinctive. I’m not interested in what’s distinctive about Graham. I’m interested in what isn’t. How does his story illuminate what happened to the whole Republican party? How did the poison work? We need to answer these questions because the authoritarian threat is bigger than one man. Donald Trump’s ascent to the presidency destroyed the myth that the United States was immune to despotism.
Every single day he rolls out another one. Here’s the latest: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Tuesday that he signed a major piece of legislation aimed at weakening public sector unions by making it harder for them to collect dues from members. Senate Bill 256 forbids most unions representing government employees from having dues deducted directly from workers’ paychecks. It also requires that affected unions maintain at least 60% membership in their bargaining units, or else they could face decertification and lose their contracts. The new law will force public sector unions to develop new ways of getting dues from members — such as setting up electronic bank transfers — and will also imperil the existence of those unions that don’t meet the 60% threshold. Although DeSantis and other Republicans have cast the bill as “paycheck protection” for workers, they excluded unions representing police, firefighters and corrections officers — i.e., the unions that are typically more likely to support Republicans. The unions that are subject to the law tend to represent teachers, sanitation workers and other government employees.
Good for her: Former congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who has vowed to do everything she can to keep Donald Trump from returning to the White House, launched a television ad Tuesday warning viewers that the former president “is a risk America can never take again.” The ad is running on CNN before and during a high-profile town hall scheduled Wednesday night on CNN featuring Trump — now a 2024 candidate — taking questions from voters in New Hampshire. The 60-second spot, which Cheney narrates but in which she does not appear, is funded by her political action committee. It recounts Trump losing the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden and lying to his followers about the results. Then, Cheney says, “he mobilized a mob to come to Washington and march on the Capitol” on Jan. 6, 2021. “Trump was warned repeatedly that his plans for January 6th were illegal,” Cheney says, as images of the Capitol being overrun are shown. “He didn’t care, and today he celebrates those who attacked our Capitol.
Has there ever been a bigger baby? Ever??? Update: Still ranting at 1 am: He also put out two more of those whiny videos. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was on drugs. Too many diet cokes?
He was also a Nazi We know now that he was a white supremacist incel. Here’s one of his posts on social media: It sounds like some kind of joke. (He even mentions that Hitler got Germany out of an economic recession!) But it’s not. This guy’s social media is full of stuff like this. He hits all the talking points. I hope that monster “Libs of Tik Tok” feels good about herself today. She really helped save the children last weekend.
Biden may have no choice There’s a lot of talk these days about Biden citing the 14th amendment to unilaterally lift the debt ceiling if it comes down to that. (Actually it’s just him directing the treasury dept. to pay the bills the government has incurred.) I thought you might be interested in this analysis of the subject by legal expert Garret Epps: John Perry, a wealthy patriot, boosted the American war effort in 1918 by subscribing to the Fourth Liberty Loan. For $10,000, he bought a bond payable in 1934 “in United States gold coin of the present standard of value.” By Perry’s calculation of the price of gold, that meant that in 1934 he was entitled to a payback in the value of $16,931.25. Unfortunately for Perry, U.S. dollars were no longer backed by gold in 1934, and there were no legal gold coins. Among the effects of the Great Depression was radical deflation—as money got scarcer, those who still had dollars could buy more goods and services than before the crash. So, on June 5, 1933, Congress passed a Joint Resolution declaring such “gold clauses” invalid.
If you want to understand what’s wrong with out politics, look no further than this chart YouGov survey: The only news the right fully trusts are propaganda outfits, Breitbart, The Federalist, Fox News, OAN and Newsmax. Astonishingly, more Democrats than Republicans trust right wing rags like the National Review, Washington Examiner and the Daily Caller. These people are living way down deep in the wingnut rabbit hole and they have completely lost touch with reality.
Q: When is an abortion ban not a ban? A: When it’s dressed up as a 12-week limit. “They’ve dressed this up as a 12-week ban, but it’s really not,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. The GOP-controlled legislature, suddenly with supermajorities in both houses can, with no defections, pass SB 20 over Cooper’s expected veto. “It will effectively ban many abortions altogether because of the obstacles they have created for women, for clinics, and for doctors,” Cooper told host Margaret Brennan. “This bill has nothing to do with making women safer.” No more than Republican-sponsored “election integrity” measures are about safeguarding elections. Politico: “North Carolina has become an access point in the Southeast,” he told Brennan. “And what this legislation is going to do is going to prevent many women from getting abortions at any time during their pregnancy, because of the obstructions that they had put here.
No, buying another gun won’t help When is today’s mass murder scheduled? Is there an online calendar of coming tragedies for those wishing to be elsewhere when the shooting starts? This article from the Miami Herald is a week old, but These countries have issued travel advisories for their citizens towards the United States is timely nonetheless: Due to a rise in crime and fatalities, travel advisories are not uncommon. Travel advisories are the most efficient way for officials to provide safety information to their citizens about potential risks when visiting other countries. Despite the media portrayal and opinions of others, the U.S. is not immune to travelers questioning their safety. Several countries have advised citizens to take standard safety precautions when entering the U.S., but some have increased the level of alarm. Increased hate crimes, violence, sexual assault and other forms of criminality, have countries warning their citizens about travel to the United States. Travel Noire revealed why New Zealand, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Venezuela and Uruguay encourage their citizens to stay diligent when visiting America.