A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Our Last Thanksgiving Without Trump?
By the time we sit down for turkey again next year, Donald Trump may be the president-elect for a second time. That persistent thought soured my holiday like spoiled deviled eggs. If this was the last Thanksgiving before the end of democracy as we know it, I hope you made it a good one.
What Matters Most
The rule of law is on the ballot in 2024, and it trumps every other political and policy consideration.
It is the umbrella under which every other issue is addressed: Want to restore abortion rights? Want to openly debate Israel and Palestine? Want to accelerate the energy revolution to head off the worst of climate change?
Good luck. Because if Trump, as promised, harnesses the power of the federal government to attack his perceived political enemies, exact retribution for slights, overturn elections, eviscerate the right to vote, and continue the effort to lock in GOP minority rule, he will break the democratic mechanisms for adjudicating policy preferences, enacting new laws, and enforcing them.
Trump is promising a fundamental break with the rule of law and from that will flow a fundamental breakdown in democratic processes and institutions. It is as simple as it is hard to stay at maximum threat level for years on end.
If elections don’t count, if Trump and the GOP won’t accept defeat as an option, if a majority of the electorate can’t make its voice heard at the ballot box, then nothing else really matters. It’s as stark a choice as the United States has ever faced.
A Very Trump Thanksgiving
- Joyce Vance on the holiday attack Donald Trump launched on prosecutors, judges, and that poor law clerk in his New York fraud trial.
- Marcy Wheeler on how not to turn into a data mule for Trump.
Hundreds Of Threats Targeting NY Judge And Clerk
Trump’s rhetorical attack on Thanksgiving came the day after a new revelation about the consequences of those kinds of attacks. The judge in the New York fraud case against him defended his gag order in a filing that revealed that he and his law clerk had received hundreds of credible threats in response to Trump’s attack. Among other things, the law clerk’s cell phone number and personal email address have been compromised.
Jack Smith Uses NY Threats To Boost Case For Gag Order
Special Counsel Jack Smith seized on the revelation in the New York fraud case to press the DC Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the gag order in the Jan. 6 case against Trump. With the appeals court having already heard oral arguments and poised to rule any day now, Smith filed a rare Thanksgiving Day supplement to the appeal alerting the court to the New York filing detailing the threats against the judge and law clerk. Trump responded that the filing was “impermissible” and “irrelevant.”
What Trump Can Do With The Insurrection Act
AP: Trump hints at expanded role for the military within the US.
I Can Never Get Enough About The Trump Pardons
NYT: A Troubling Trump Pardon and a Link to the Kushners
Trump Has Master Plan For Destroying ‘Deep State’
Donald P. Moynihan unpacks Trump’s three-part plan to transform the federal government into an instrument of his personal power:
- “put Trump loyalists into appointed positions”
- “terrify career civil servants into submission”
- “create a legal framework that would allow him to use government resources to protect himself, attack his political enemies and force through his policy goals without congressional approval”
A Primer On The Rule Of Law
Kim Wehle with part one of a four-part series on Trump and the rule of law.
Conservative Group Accidentally Reveals Its Secret Donors
Daily Beast: “A conservative nonprofit tied to a controversial ‘White House-in-waiting’ for a second Donald Trump presidency has apparently unintentionally revealed its top donors—and two of them are foundations famously associated with liberal causes.”
Congress Is Back This Week
Aid to Israel and Ukraine are the most pressing end-of-the-year matters.
Santos Expulsion Vote As Soon As This Week
Rep. George Santos (R-NY) is now expecting to be expelled by the House.
George Floyd Murderer Stabbed In Prison
Ex-cop Derek Chavin, convicted in the murder of George Floyd, was stabbed and seriously injured Friday by a fellow inmate at a federal prison in Arizona.
When All Else Fails … Fax It?
The Kansas state court filing system has been offline since a mid-October cyberattack, reducing lawyers to filing via fax and in-person visits to courthouses.
Trump Thinks He Can Run As An Abortion Moderate?
In a new Rolling Stone report, Trump is reported as having said he can pivot toward a more moderate position on abortion in the general election because anti-abortion leaders have no leverage over him.
COP Gets Underway This Week In Dubai
The spectacle of the UN’s annual climate change conference being hosted by a petrostate and taking place in a largely artificial man-made environment in the desert gets underway this week. Set your expectations low.
- NYT: How Electricity Is Changing, Country by Country
- WSJ: Costs for renewables have plummeted and growth is exceeding expectations
- In a confirmation that no major news will be announced, President Biden will not be attending.
Arrest Made In Vermont Shooting Of Palestinian Students
Jason J. Eaton, 48, of Burlington has been arrested in the Saturday shooting of three students of Palestinian descent in front of his apartment building. Police have not yet publicly confirmed any motive for the shooting.
Self-Fulfilling Punditry
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FOX!
How Fox Went From Car Crash to Terrorist Attack to Train Wreck in a Matter of Hours | Watch (msn.com)
Fox News blames CNN and MSNBC after falsely claiming ‘terror attack’ in bridge crash - Raw Story
Fox News Whitewashes Its False Reporting On ‘Terror Attack’ | Crooks and Liars
Fox Desperately Tries To Paint Johnson’s Abortion Views As Mainstream | Crooks and Liars
Fox News Repeats Trump’s Lie: ‘No American Hostages’ Released By Hamas | Crooks and Liars
He is not wrong.
“Christianity in America Is Just a Money Making Scheme”: Pope Slams American Catholics for Turning Faith into a Cash Cow and Ideological Circus (msn.com)
Dear lord. All of these stories are killing my holiday vibe. Good grief.
Ah, the bad-faith volleys of the weekend’s shites.
Oh Monday.
Becha you never heard of this
The insidious rise of “tradwives”: A right-wing fantasy is rotting young men’s minds | Salon.com
It’s a neat marketing trick from tradwives to position themselves as a dangerous threat that feminists are desperate to take out. It helps sell the central, lucrative fantasy to credulous audiences: That female submission is a woman’s natural desire, one that’s being stolen from them by sinister feminist forces
But these brave women of YouTube, with their picture-perfect make-up and slender-but-curvy physiques, will stand up to those bitches and restore your birthright: A smoking hot 22-year-old housewife who never talks back, never gets tired, never says “no,” and never gains weight, no matter how many children she has.
By feeding conservative audiences a largely imaginary war with feminists, the tradwives are also pulling off another sleight of hand: distracting from how their content preys upon men, especially young men, by selling them a silly fantasy as reality
Unlike porn, which positions itself as fantasy, most of the women creating “tradwife” content online claim it’s a window into their real lives. Even though, if you ask any real housewives, you’ll find few find it necessary to put on a full face of make-up, get a professional blow-out, and don a push-up bra in order to wash dishes.
Hawley offers conservative politics as a solution to male malaise, but in truth, the last thing a young man who is adrift needs is right-wing content. These materials, especially the tradwife videos, teach young men to expect young women to be placid vessels, who exist only to be pretty and to serve. For instance, one video by popular vlogger “Mrs. Midwest” is titled “10 Way to Bless Your MAN!” and has chapters like “Cooking!”, “Compliments!” and “Anticipate needs!” The comments on the video suggest that the viewers are unaware that this is not for real, and that flesh-and-blood women are not, in fact, perfectly coiffed sex-robots here to read your mind and fluff your pillows