May 7, 2024

Kristi Noem doubles down on Puppygate -- can MAGA's endless trolling go any lower?

Kristi Noem doubles down on Puppygate — can MAGA's endless trolling go any lower?
When your sole purpose and only political tactic is to trigger the "libs," there's no limit to the depravity

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED MAY 7, 2024 6:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) By any normal political standards, the reaction that Kristi Noem, the MAGA-friendly governor of South Dakota, got to her recent revelation that she'd once shot a pet dog named Cricket was bad. It wasn't just liberals who were horrified, either, but pretty much the entire political press and most Republicans. Even some of the nastiest trolls of the MAGA-sphere could not countenance her story, and at least one fundraiser meant to feature Noem was canceled. Any political expert would have advised Noem to take one of those long vacations that Fox News hosts indulge in whenever the on-air racism becomes too blatant. Instead, Noem just keeps on digging herself deeper.

On the Sunday talk show "Face the Nation," Noem was asked about another passage in her portentously titled book "No Going Back," in which she "jokingly" threatens Joe Biden's dog, Commander, writing, "Commander, say hello to Cricket for me." Among many other things, this supposedly humorous remark undercuts Noem's post-publication claims that she killed Cricket reluctantly, suggesting that she thought the whole thing was a big laugh. When pressed about this during the Sunday interview, Noem refused to walk it back, arguing that Biden's dog has bitten people and the only way to hold the president "accountable" is to insist that he kill the dog. After this latest debacle, Noem played the victim on Twitter, complaining that the host had "interrupted" her and it was all some kind of liberal plot.

Saying nothing is always a free and available option, so it's a notably odd choice for Noem to keep on talking about how many dogs she wants to kill. It's possible or likely that she suffers from the narcissistic delusion common to Donald Trump and his leading sycophants — essentially, that if they keep on talking they can wiggle out of any bad situation. But whatever is going on in the governor's head, this bizarre behavior is a clear result of the "always be trolling" mentality that dominates the MAGA-fied Republican Party.

....(snip)....

Trolling is a lot like an addictive drug, however: To get the same high, you have to keep upping the dosage. What got the liberals in a tizzy a year ago (or eight years ago) now barely gets a reaction. We now live in a world where Trump gives lengthy interviews in which he validates election violence, brags about turning the Justice Department into his personal vengeance engine and agrees that states can monitor women's pregnancies — and that stuff barely cracks the headlines. The constant assault of right-wing provocation has built up emotional callouses on liberals as well as the mainstream press. It once seemed like a dark joke to say that Trump would eventually resort to kicking puppies to get a rise out of people. Noem skipped that step entirely and went straight to shooting them. ...........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/05/07/kristi-noem-doubles-down-on-puppygate-can-magas-endless-trolling-go-any-lower/

May 7, 2024

Galveston sea levels rising faster than almost anywhere else, study finds

In a city that once built a 17-foot seawall to keep Mother Nature in check, Galveston is slowly but steadily bracing itself against the inconvenient truth of climate change and the rising seas that result. But the clock keeps ticking, and time can be cruel.

Last week the Washington Post released the results of its analysis of tide-gauge and satellite data measuring sea levels since 2010, which found that the Gulf of Mexico’s have risen twice as fast as the global average. Apart from the North Sea off Great Britain, “few other places on the planet have seen similar rates of increase,” the article reported.

And of all the locations recorded in the study, Galveston had by far the biggest increase. Its 8.4 inches easily outpaced other locations along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, including Charleston, S.C. (7.1 inches); Wilmington, N.C. (7 inches); and Jacksonville and Miami, Fla. (both 6 inches). The Post’s data jibes with a NASA study last year that found sea levels on the island could rise as much as 18 inches by 2040, according to the Galveston County Daily News; and see more than 200 days of flooding per year a decade after that. .............(more)

https://www.lmtonline.com/gulf-coast/article/galveston-rising-sea-levels-venice-19441565.php

May 7, 2024

"They're going to blame the accountant": Expert says Trump lawyers set up witness to be "fall guy"

(Salon) As the third week of testimony in Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan begins, prosecutors are launching into the financial nitty gritty of the catch-and-kill scheme that quashed salacious stories about the then-presidential candidate as the 2016 election approached.

....(snip)....

On Monday, former Trump Organization controller Jeff McConney testified that he was told Trump was reimbursing Cohen for an unknown reason. McConney said former Trump chief financial officer Allan Weisselberg told him the payments should be “grossed up” to help cover Cohen’s state, federal and city taxes, NBC News reported.

....(snip)....

Rahmani said that leaves Trump's lawyers with their main argument: "I think what they’re going to say is: Trump had nothing to do with them. Someone else created the records.”

"One important takeaway from the defendant's opening is, they're going to blame the accountant," Rahman said. "The accountant is going to be the fall guy. I think they're going to say that Trump had no involvement in booking these payments to Cohen as legal expenses, that that was something the accountant did." ...............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/05/06/theyre-going-to-the-accountant-expert-says-lawyers-set-up-witness-to-be-fall-guy/

May 6, 2024

Trump's lawyers are trying to use his trial to generate conspiracy theories -- but it's not working

( Salon). Donald Trump's lawyers famously spend a lot of their time placating their client's narcissistic delusions, even at the expense of their purported priority of keeping him out of prison. It's not just the over-the-top belligerence that Trump demands from his lawyers, which runs the risk of angering both the judge and the jury, Trump wants his lawyers to stick to his preposterous claims that he's never done anything wrong. He wants to pretend that he's the most perfect man who ever lived and that anyone who says otherwise has some secret agenda to victimize him.

....(snip)....

The most obvious and frankly hilarious example: The defense team is sticking by Trump's story that he never had sex with Stormy Daniels. I can hear readers scoffing, but it's true, they're really going that route. Even in his opening statement, defense attorney Todd Blanche argued that Daniels' story is a "false claim of a sexual encounter" with Trump, one she made up as part of an extortion scheme.

....(snip)....

Telling such an obvious whopper to a jury seems like it will backfire by making them believe the defense attorneys are just liars. Trump's claims of sexual virtue seem more aimed at the outside audience, as if he hopes his supporters will start parroting his ridiculous notions that he's never done anything wrong. There were a couple of half-baked efforts to do this. The far-right network OAN even tried to float the conspiracy theory that it was Cohen, not Trump, who had sex with Daniels — but they were quickly forced to retract the story and apologize to Cohen. That's highly unusual for the network, which seems to exist primarily to spread right-wing disinformation. Part of this is because Cohen threatened to sue. But OAN didn't even bother to put up a fight. It suggests that even the folks at OAN are a bit embarrassed by this.

....(snip)....

But what's fascinating is that the MAGA media doesn't seem to be biting. Instead of trying to discredit the allegations against Trump, the right-wing press has gone with a deflect-and-distract strategy. As Media Matters chronicled, Fox News is doing lots of "look over there!"-style segments making a big deal out of Trump's press events at bodegas, rather than grappling with what's going on inside the courtroom. The network is also pushing the idea that Trump should get "immunity" for all his crimes, which feels like a tacit admission of guilt. Even those who are trying to get conspiracy theories going, like Steve Bannon at War Room, are focused on attacking the prosecutors for having "political" motivations. Denying the truth of the allegations is not a priority, because even the MAGA audiences won't buy it. ..........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/05/06/lawyers-are-trying-to-use-his-trial-to-generate-conspiracy-theories--but-its-not-working/

May 4, 2024

Boris Johnson couldn't cast vote without photo ID, due to his own election integrity law

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who passed a controversial law requiring a photo ID to vote, was turned away from a South Oxfordshire polling place Thursday for leaving his at home.

The former Conservative Prime Minister couldn’t cast a ballot for the district’s police and crime commissioner as polling place staff were legally mandated to deny him, AP News reports.

Johnson, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2019 to 2022, pushed the 2022 Elections Act through the Conservative-led parliament. Thursday was the first election in which the bill governed vote-casting, two years after fielding criticism from the U.K.’s Electoral Commission and advocates for the potentially discriminatory effects of such a scheme. ...................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/05/04/boris-johnson-couldnt-cast-vote-without-photo-id-due-to-his-own-integrity-law/?in_brief=true

May 3, 2024

Trump's Big Lie is hurting Republicans' efforts to get out the vote

Trump’s Big Lie is hurting Republicans' efforts to get out the vote
Mail-in-ballots used to be the GOP's best election weapon. Trump's lies have Republicans now second-guessing voting

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
Columnist
PUBLISHED MAY 3, 2024 9:36AM (EDT)


(Salon) Donald Trump was all over the place in his big Time Magazine interview this week but there is one issue on which he's never wavered. When asked if he thought there would be violence around the election this fall he said, "If we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election.” On Wednesday he went even further, telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “If everything’s honest, I’ll gladly accept the results. I don’t change on that. If it’s not, you have to fight for the right of the country.” It's pretty clear that in his mind and the minds of his followers, there is no such thing as an honest and fair election that doesn't result in a Donald Trump victory so there's little doubt about what to expect if they don't get their way in November.

Over the past three years, Trump's Big Lie has become the main organizing principle of the Republican Party. There had been a festering sense of grievance and resentment among the GOP base for decades which Trump skillfully tapped into. But ever since his flukey win in 2016, his insistence that the succession of losses the party has suffered under his leadership were all the result of rigged elections, has taken a toll. Among the Republican faithful these days are quite a few who question whether it's even worth it to participate.

"The skepticism is hurting us," local Pennsylvania GOP organizer Milo Morris told Antonia Hitchens of the New Yorker. "A lot of people are disenfranchised by the fraud allegations," Morris said, explaining that he is often confronted with suspicion and distrust from voters who say, "This whole game is just ridiculous and I’m not going to participate anymore." Gosh, I wonder where they are getting those crazy ideas.

....(snip)....

Trump has been disparaging early voting and mail-in voting since before the 2020 election when he correctly surmised that he was going to have trouble getting re-elected. States were changing some of their election procedures to deal with difficulties getting to the polls due to the pandemic and if he lost, he saw that he could use that as an excuse to challenge the election. He and his henchmen (like Attorney General Bill Barr) spent months suggesting that the mail-in votes were rife with fraud and told his voters not to use that method or trust the results where it was used. This formed the basis for his claims that the election was stolen despite no evidence that anything untoward had happened. ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/05/03/trumps-big-lie-is-hurting-republicans-efforts-to-get-out-the-vote/

May 3, 2024

Donald Trump is using campus protests to stoke right-wing violence for the election

Donald Trump is using campus protests to stoke right-wing violence for the election
Disinformation about leftist "violence" is used by MAGA to justify their own, very real crimes

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED MAY 3, 2024 6:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) Despite all the hysteria in the punditry about campus protests against the war in Gaza, by and large, the student activists have been peaceful. Even at Columbia University, where an ill-advised police crackdown caused an inevitably angry reaction from protesters that led to a building occupation, this has been true. As former Washington Post journalist Paul Waldman explained in his newsletter, "People who have actually reported from the protests (see here or here) have by and large found them to be well-behaved." The vast majority of scary, violent images stem not from the protesters themselves, Waldman argues, but from the police crackdowns. "At the universities where the administrators had the sense to just let the students have their say, there has been almost no violence."

As the cable news has breathlessly covered, there was violence this week at UCLA. But even then, it was not the leftist protesters to blame, but a gang of far-right counter-protesters who rushed in and started to attack students. As ABC 7 reported, violence only broke out "when counter-protesters tried to break down the encampment." Unfortunately, this was framed by much of the media as "clashes" between protesters and the right-wing assailants. Any good faith reading of the situation is clear: The far-right demonstrators stormed the encampment and started the violence. The student protesters were defending themselves.

Why a group of right-wingers decided to swarm on the UCLA students hasn't been thoroughly investigated yet, but here's one likely factor contributing to the choice: The Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump, told them they were entitled to assault unarmed, non-violent protesters. And he did so with his favorite tool: dishonest whataboutism.

....(snip)....

Even though his supporters are ignoring Trump's pleas to descend on his criminal trial, they do seem far more interested in heeding the call for election violence. As with the attack on college kids, the reason is that election violence is about their grievances, not just Trump's. It taps into the ongoing MAGA outrage that they are a minority, even as they identify as the only "real" Americans. Politico reported Wednesday that 38% of local election officials surveyed "have experienced threats, harassment or abuse due to their jobs." Large numbers of officials are quitting rather than putting up with these threats, which stem mostly, if not exclusively, from Trump's lies about "stolen" elections. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/05/03/donald-is-using-campus-to-stoke-right-wing-violence-for-the/

May 2, 2024

"Losing all credibility": Trump's hush money lawyer the latest to torch his reputation for nothing

"Losing all credibility": Trump's hush money lawyer the latest to torch his reputation for nothing
Todd Blanche was once regarded as a great lawyer, but now he's making embarrassing arguments to please his client

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED MAY 2, 2024 6:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) Going into Donald Trump's Manhattan criminal trial for fraud and election interference regarding "hush money" payments to an adult film actress, the world of legal experts worried that, this time, Trump might mount a strong defense. Unlike many of the lawyers he used in his civil trials, who are widely regarded as MAGA hacks, Trump hired Todd Blanche to beat the 34 felony charges brought by New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Blanche, as the Washington Post reported, "previously worked at the prestigious federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan," even working alongside Bragg before going to a private law firm. And as Andrew Rice of New York magazine explained, Blanche has long drawn accolades from "the lawyers who know him best" in New York. They say things like, "He’s an extraordinary trial lawyer" and "very good at reading people."

Before the trial started in April, Blanche had, in fact, deftly maneuvered in many ways to delay various Trump trials, a strategy likely employed out of a deep understanding that Trump is unlikely to do well once a jury sees evidence of his alleged crimes. But now that he's actually trying a case in the court of Judge Juan Merchan in Manhattan, much of Blanche's defense strategy seems puzzling at best and downright foolish in many cases. Sometimes it's hard not to wonder if he's trying to alienate the judge and jury that hold his client's fate in their hands.

....(snip)....

But it was really the battle over Trump's refusal to obey the judge's gag order that exposed how much Blanche seems unmoored from his past as a respected, professional litigator. Trump flagrantly violated the judge's order to avoid speaking publicly about the jurors or witnesses, to the point where one potential juror had to be sent home because of Trump's threatening messages. Rather than do the smart thing and tell his client to knock it off, Blanche beclowned himself in court, trying to argue that because Trump was quoting a Fox News video instead of using his own words, it didn't count. To compound the bad faith of the argument, it turned out that Trump made up part of the quote.

....(snip)....

Blanche's bad choices in trial largely seem driven by a need to placate his famously narcissistic client, who believes belligerence and lies are a superior strategy to more well-regarded tactics like being diplomatic, showing respect, and staying within the facts. Trump is even reportedly insisting that Blanche stick to the ridiculous story that a sexual encounter with Stormy Daniels never happened, a claim so preposterous it could make the jury assume everything else the defense says is a lie. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/05/02/losing-all-credibility-hush-money-lawyer-the-latest-to-torch-his-reputation-for-nothing/

May 1, 2024

"College was called 'Babylon'": A former "stay-at-home daughter" exposes Christian patriarchy

"College was called 'Babylon'": A former "stay-at-home daughter" exposes Christian patriarchy
In her memoir "Rift," author Cait West describes Christian radicalism that is scarily powerful in the modern GOP

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED MAY 1, 2024 6:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) Christian fundamentalism is a competitive sport, with adherents often trying to outdo each other by escalating their extremism. Author Cait West is a survivor of this toxic dynamic, having grown up in a church and family seemingly intent on generating ever more stringent rules governing people's sexuality, education, and life choices — especially those of girls and women. In her new book, "Rift: A Memoir of Breaking Away from Christian Patriarchy," West details a childhood under a father who spent years trying to tighten his grip on his family, denying his children ordinary life experiences like dating, education, or even the barest amount of autonomy.

....(snip)....

Many of our readers are quite familiar with the Christian right, their strict gender roles, and even their abstinence-only teachings. But what you describe in your book is next level. You even say that the book "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" was considered too liberal. What is being a "stay-at-home daughter?"

I grew up in the Christian patriarchy movement, which teaches that because God is masculine, he's the ultimate patriarch. That means that men are the best representation of God. Men are supposed to be leaders of the family, the church and the government. Women were created to submit, either to their fathers or their husbands. Growing up as a girl, I was told I would never leave the home until I got married. I wouldn't get a higher education. I wouldn't have dating relationships. I wouldn't have a career. My job was to learn homemaking skills and prepare to be a stay-at-home wife. And that's why they called girls like me "stay-at-home daughters," because we were living very differently from the outside world. We were proud of that fact.

....(snip)....

In your book, you really get into maddening and contradictory expectations around courtship. You were told that a young man was supposed to ask if he could court you and your father would say yes. It was supposed to go smoothly into marriage. But that was not your experience. What happened when you actually tried these courting relationships?

First off, I wasn't allowed to really be friends with boys. I was allowed to be friendly or polite, but not to have real friends who are boys. So I didn't know the men who were interested in me. In the specific case of my first courtship, he asked my father if we could have a courtship. My dad said yes. We had quite a long relationship, but because this man wasn't quite meeting my father's standards in terms of like income and job stability, he ended it. We followed a courtship guide called the "Pathway to Christian Marriage." It had all these questions that we would go through every week with my father. All of our time together was chaperoned. I never really got to know him very well, but I also thought I was going to get married to him and that we would eventually get to know each other after that. When my father ended the courtship, I felt heartbroken. I was really upset because I had no choice about it. I didn't even really get to say goodbye.

....(snip)....

It seems very ironic to me. People raise children in these rigid fundamentalist spaces because they're afraid to lose them. And then what they do is they end up driving them away. Have you ever talked to your father about that?

Well, the last time I talked to my dad was like five years ago. But when I left I tried to explain to him how I was feeling and my belief that my emotions weren't sinful. That I thought he was emotionally abusing me. That didn't go very well. He rejected that and he was very hurt that I would even say that. He's never taken accountability for anything that I talk about in the book. He thinks that he was following God the whole time. We don't have contact anymore. .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/05/01/college-was-called-babylon-a-former-stay-at-home-daughter-exposes-christian-patriarchy/

May 1, 2024

Trump's disturbing Time interview shows he has no idea abortion is a ticking time bomb for the GOP

Trump's disturbing Time interview shows he has no idea abortion is a ticking time bomb for the GOP
Donald Trump thinks he's brilliantly found a way to evade responsibility for the backlash to overturning Roe

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
Columnist
PUBLISHED MAY 1, 2024 9:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) Donald Trump has said many things that should have chased him out of politics a long time ago. But in an interview with Eric Cortellessa of Time Magazine this week, he finally said something so outrageous that it could make a difference in this campaign. When asked if states should monitor women's pregnancies so they can know if they've gotten an abortion after the ban, Trump replied:



In other words, he's fine with whatever medieval torture a state might want to inflict.

....(snip)....

Support for abortion rights has grown since the Supreme Court issued the Dobbs decision and there is no evidence that this fatuous "states' rights" rationale means anything, especially since we all know that the extremists are planning to exhume archaic laws like The Comstock Act to further restrict reproductive rights on a federal level.

The Time interview comes on the heels of a flurry of belated reports in the press about his second-term agenda, which many of us have been screaming about for months. Project 2025 and Agenda 47 among other plans being pulled together by the MAGA establishment, which now includes venerable institutions like the Heritage Foundation and the Club for Growth, have been public for months but the media seemed to be reluctant to take them too seriously. Perhaps this was because Trump campaign officials Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita put out several statements insisting that none of these plans were official campaign policies and that any lists of personnel or plans were mere suggestions. But the election is just six months away now and it is long past time that Trump is confronted with what we've been hearing. This interview makes it clear that the candidate is on board with all of it and even has some extreme ideas of his own to add to the list. ...........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/05/01/disturbing-time-interview-shows-he-has-no-idea-abortion-is-a-ticking-time-bomb-for-the/