I’ve had a few responses to last night’s post about the identity of the maurauding pro-Israel demonstrators/thugs who attacked the Gaza encampment on Tuesday night. There are clearly a lot of rumors circulating about it. The most interesting article I’ve seen so far is one that came out yesterday afternoon from the Los Angeles Times. It doesn’t include identities but reports on the team of online sleuths trying to identify them. Think of it as broadly similar to the “Sedition Hunters” group which has identified probably hundreds of people involved in the January 6th insurrection. The article doesn’t include any identities though it does seem like the sleuths have already identified or contingently identified some people.
Continue reading “Online Sleuths”The Strangest Presidential Election Year We’ve Ever Endured
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Embrace The Uncertainty
As we come to the end of a difficult week, it’s becoming obvious that daily news coverage isn’t sufficient to capture what a deeply strange period we’re living through.
The former president is on criminal trial for making hush-money payments to a porn star he says he didn’t have sex with, while trying to stave off the three other criminal prosecutions he faces. At the same time, he is promising more post-election criminality if he loses in 2024, which is the very thing two of the remaining prosecutions are seeking to convict him for having done in 2020.
Not content to merely replay his first term, he is promising a second presidency that will be authoritarian to its core. It begins with the premise that he must exact retribution against all who have wronged him, including prosecuting the current president whom he falsely claims is behind his own legal turmoil. From there, he swears he will target disfavored classes of people – immigrants, the press, anyone whose fealty to him he perceives to be insufficient – abusing the powers of his office to inflict pain and suffering to the delight of his supporters. He is also determined to harness the full powers of the federal government in pursuit of personal political and private ends, even and perhaps especially if that means breaking government in the process.
In the meantime, the coverage of the current president is the same tired analysis, worn thin by overuse, and utterly oblivious to the looming authoritarian threat. Complexities like post-pandemic economic policy are reduced to a thin gruel of “inflation is bad for incumbents.” The nightmarishly difficult Israel-Palestine conflict is more easily covered as an American political story about law and order, and so campus protests are forced to stand in as a poor proxy for the actual conflict in the Middle East.
In the face of what almost certainly is a significant historical moment that is full of uncertainty and unpredictability, we grasp for ways to make sense of it all but what we grab ahold of for comfort and security is oversimplification, reductiveness, and cliches. Rather than rising to the moment, we just try to cover our eyes and soothe our souls so we can endure it. It’s a temptation that’s hard to resist.
It’s in moments like these that the overconfident diagnoses and simplistic solutions of someone like Donald Trump hold their greatest allure. He offers certainty amidst the chaos, even if he has no idea what he’s talking about and doesn’t have the skill or capability to do anything about it. He’s a chaos monster: the more of it he creates, the greater the need for the snake oil palliatives he offers. He’ll make you sick to sell you his bogus curatives.
This is all happening against the backdrop of the even bigger existential threat than Donald Trump: climate change. The environmental catastrophe already underway adds layers of uncertainty that we may have never encountered before as a species. It dwarfs our political chaos. It feeds the anxiousness that makes us seek solid ground, some permanence, a place above whatever the new high water mark may turn out to be. For many people, it’s easier to find immediate security in a Trump (even if that means drowning later) than enduring the uncertainty, trying to make sense of it all, and doing the hard work of piecing together solutions.
So don’t get too caught up in the day-to-day news. There lies madness. Embrace the uncertainty, live with the dis-ease that comes with not knowing, and forswear the cheap and easy fixes offered by tawdry figures who prey on the victims of the chaos they create.
Trump Trial Continues Today
TPM’s Josh Kovensky is back this morning in the courthouse, where former Trump White House aide Hope Hicks is expected to testify in the hush money trial.
In case you missed them, Josh’s two dispatches from the trial yesterday:
- Lead Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche admitted for just a moment on Thursday that his client was his own worst enemy.
- The jury in Donald Trump’s criminal trial on Thursday were introduced to a coterie of 2010-era celebrities that included Tila Tequila, Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, and Hulk Hogan.
Trump Sets Stage For 2024 Big Lie Redux
Donald Trump is still out there promising to “fight” to overturn the 2024 election if he deems it fraudulent, which is to say: if he loses.
It Can Be Done
Ari Berman: How Michigan Ended Minority Rule
Keep An Eye On This One
In the upcoming May 14 GOP primary in West Virginia, a convicted Jan. 6 rioter is trying to knock off incumbent Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV).
Rudy G Still Playing Games In Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy proceedings are offering a new – yet quite incomplete by his own design – glimpse into Rudy Giuliani’s personal finances.
No Dice
Ex-FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, charged by Special Counsel David Weiss with fabricating lies about the Bidens, must remain in jail pending trial, a federal appeals court ruled this week.
Abortion Watch
WaPo: Texas man files legal action to probe ex-partner’s out-of-state abortion
Methodists Play Catch Up On Inclusion
What remains of the United Methodist Church has voted to end its anti-LGBT policies, including its ban on gay clergy and its penalties against clergy who conduct same-sex marriages.
Warmest April On Record
It was the 11th consecutive month of record-setting global temperatures …
Approaching 2,200 And Counting …
Nearly 2,200 people have been arrested nationwide this week in the crackdown on campus protests over Israel-Gaza
Try To Have A Good Weekend!
It was a tough week. We end it with Pokey LaFarge’s ode to Michael Brown:
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Details on Identities of the Violent Pro-Israel Protesters at UCLA?
This is a brief follow up on my post earlier that touched on the violence on Tuesday night at UCLA. As I noted, and has been widely reported, on Tuesday night a small contingent pro-Israel counter-protesters attacked the Gaza encampment on campus. This group appears to have been willfully violent and focused on tearing down the barricades of the encampment, throwing various projectiles at pro-Gaza demonstrators, throwing anywhere from one to four firecrackers into the encampment and using something like pepper spray or other similarly noxious spray on people in the encampment. In short, a group of vigilantes or thugs who went in to break up the encampment and terrorize the protestors.
But as far as I can tell there’s no clear information on who these people were. And I’ve seen no evidence that any of them were or have been arrested.
Continue reading “Details on Identities of the Violent Pro-Israel Protesters at UCLA?”Trump Sets Himself Up For Election Denialism 2.0 In Wisconsin This Fall
Fresh off an interview with Time magazine published this week, during which he would not rule out the possibility of violence if he doesn’t win in November — “If we don’t win, you know, it depends. … It always depends on the fairness of the election” — Donald Trump is giving himself wiggle room to cry “rigged” in a key swing state this fall.
Continue reading “Trump Sets Himself Up For Election Denialism 2.0 In Wisconsin This Fall”Trump Defense Details Sleaze In Life Of An Attorney to the Porn Stars
NEW YORK — The jury in Donald Trump’s criminal trial on Thursday were introduced to a coterie of 2010-era celebrities that included Tila Tequila, Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, and Hulk Hogan. It came as attorneys for Trump sought to discredit the latest witness for the prosecution.
Continue reading “Trump Defense Details Sleaze In Life Of An Attorney to the Porn Stars”More Thoughts on the Campuses
I wanted to do an update to my post on Monday about the situation in Israel-Palestine as well as on campuses on the United States.
A few of you asked, what was the response to the post? It was, I think, overwhelmingly positive. I did have one longtime reader say he was quitting the site and ending his subscription over it. If I interpreted his message and what I’ve known about his viewpoints generally, he thought I was being too critical of Israel. But people are entitled to their opinions and viewpoints and feelings. And I say that not as a throwaway line but as a statement of fact and a recognition of the right way to live in the world. But the overwhelming and almost universal response was positive.
Continue reading “More Thoughts on the Campuses”Listen To This: Trump Split Screen
A new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast is live! This week, Kate and Josh discuss the Trump immunity case, the latest in the hush money trial and a well-timed announcement from the Biden administration about a major drug policy change.
You can listen to the new episode of The Josh Marshall Podcast here.
Blanche Briefly Recoils While Defending Trump
NEW YORK — Lead Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche admitted for just a moment on Thursday that his client was his own worst enemy.
Continue reading “Blanche Briefly Recoils While Defending Trump”Another Wave Of Campus Arrests Overnight As Police Intervene In Protests
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
Campus Protest Watch
The latest developments:
- UCLA: Police dismantle pro-Palestinian camp and makes numerous arrests.
- Dartmouth: 90 protesters arrested at a pro-Gaza encampment on campus
- Yale: Four people were arrested at pro-Palestinian protests.
- UW-Madison: 34 people were arrested when police dismantled a pro-Palestinian encampment.
- Fordham: 15 people were arrested when police cleared out the campus’ pro-Palestinian encampment.
- Stony Brook: 29 people were arrested early this morning after a pro-Palestinian protest.
- UT-Dallas: 21 people were arrested after police broke up the pro-Palestinian encampment
‘I Have Never Seen Anything So Terrifying’
What happened last night at UCLA was similar to the efforts to arrest protesters on other campuses, but it was different from what happened at UCLA two nights ago, when police eventually intervened to separate protesters and aggressive counter-protesters who seemed eager to provoke a clash. Before law enforcement acted, UCLA professor David N. Myers inserted himself between the two sides and writes about his experience here.
A Sense Of Proportion
Stone Cold Assassin
What Delay Over Trump’s Immunity Might Look Like
While we wait for the Supreme Court to rule on Trump’s claim of presidential immunity in the Jan. 6 case against him, NBC News’ Lisa Rubin found a potentially useful parallel case that shows how long it could take to resolve the immunity issue if it gets sent back down to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to sort out what is official v. personal.
The Specter Of Political Violence
- CNN: Trump doesn’t rule out political violence if he loses
- Brian Beutler: Donald Trump Sees The Threat Of Violence As A Skeleton Key To Unchecked Power
- TPM’s Khaya Himmelman: Majority Of Election Officials Face Threats, And Significant Number Fear Assault, Survey Finds
Trump Trial Resumes Today
The first order of business today is a hearing on additional alleged violations by Donald Trump of the gag order against him. These alleged violations occurred before the trial judge ruled Tuesday that Trump was in violation of the gag order for a separate batch of out-of-court statements, so it’s unclear how the judge will handle these add-on statements.
The hearing isn’t expected to last long before the trial testimony of Stormy Daniels lawyer Keith Davidson resumes.
The big suspense in the trial right now centers on when Michael Cohen will testify. Stay tuned for reporting from the courthouse from TPM’s Josh Kovensky.
Talk To The Hand
A judge rejected a bid by former Trump campaign attorney and Jan. 6 figure John Eastman to delay her ruling suspending his law license.
The Antisemitism Comes So Easily
On the occasion of the House passing a new bill to combat antisemitism, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) took the opportunity to trot out a well-worn antisemitic trope to justify their opposition to the bill.
Pass The Damn Popcorn
A defamation lawsuit by Georgia election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman is offering a glimpse of the internal operations of the notorious Gateway Pundit website.
The Hunter Biden Laptop Saga Continues …
A former Secret Service agent is suing the New York Post and The Daily Mail for defamation, claiming they published stories based on fabricated texts from Hunter Biden’s laptop that falsely tied him to Biden.
Abortion Watch
- Arizona: Enough Republicans bolted for the state Senate to vote to repeal the state’s newly revived Civil War-era abortion ban. The repeal measure had already passed the state House, but won’t go into effect until 90 days after the legislative session ends.
- Florida: The state’s new six-week abortion ban went into effect Wednesday.
- Louisiana: Lawmakers are trying to quietly criminalize possession of the most commonly used abortion pills, Rolling Stone reports.
Party Of Lincoln?
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MTG Cites Antisemitic Fable Jews ‘Handed Over’ Jesus To Be Killed
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) cited one of the most prominent historical antisemitic narratives as her reason for not approving legislation aimed at combating antisemitism on Wednesday. Greene posted on the site formerly known as Twitter to explain her thinking.
“Antisemitism is wrong, but I will not be voting for the Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023 (H.R. 6090) today that could convict Christians of antisemitism for believing the Gospel that says Jesus was handed over to Herod to be crucified by the Jews,” Greene wrote.
Greene’s comment was accompanied by a photo of the bill text, which said it would use the “definition of antisemitism” adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in 2016. The text noted this includes “claims of Jews killing Jesus,” which it described as “classic antisemitism.”
The belief apparently espoused by Greene is indeed one of the most well known forms of antisemitism. Various experts have described efforts to collectively blame the Jewish people for killing Jesus Christ as one of the major drivers of antisemitism for centuries. It is also — particularly in the way it was described by Greene — a false narrative.
Christ, who Christians revere as the son of God, was a Jewish religious figure who lived in the ancient Roman province of Judaea, which was largely located in what is currently Israel and the Palestinian territories. His teachings and growing following caused tensions with the established Roman and Jewish religious leaders in the province. Christ was ultimately crucified in the first century by the province’s Roman governor, Pontius Pilate.
While some Jewish religious leaders and people in the province urged on the crucifixion, it was ordered by the Roman leader. The Christian Bible also describes many Jews who were distressed by Christ’s execution.
Nevertheless, claims like Greene’s collectively blaming all “Jews,” rather than focusing on individuals or including the Roman role, have persisted.
The role the narrative Greene cited as inspiring her opposition to the legislation has played in driving antisemitism — including violence — has led some Christian leaders to specifically clarify the matter. For example, in 2011, the late Pope Benedict XVI declared that there was no scriptural basis for the claim and wrote that “Jews are not responsible for killing Jesus.”
None of that stopped Greene, whose version of the classically antisemitic narrative was inaccurate on another level as well. Greene suggested Christ was “handed over” to be “crucified by the Jews” by Herod Antipas, who was the leader of a northern province that Christ was from. In fact, the Christian Bible’s Gospel of Luke specifies that Herod “sent him back” to Pilate, who ordered the crucifixion, which was carried out by Roman soldiers.
The Antisemitism Awareness Act was led by Rep. Michael Lawler (R-NY) as a response to the protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, which have rocked college campuses in recent weeks. The legislation was mostly driven by Republicans, but it had 15 Democratic co-sponsors.
According to the Washington Post, backers described the bill as designed to help the federal government crack down on the protests, which they see as having antisemitic elements. Some Democrats objected and argued it was an effort to restrict political protest.
The measure passed by a vote of 320-91 on Wednesday.
Correction: Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story referred to King Herod the Great rather than Herod Antipas, who was his son.