Do you remember Joe Flaherty? He died yesterday at age 82, according to this obituary in the Times. I only half remembered his name. But I definitely remembered him, his various characters and even more the show he was part of, Second City TV. Did you watch this show either at the time it aired (1976-1984) or since? I’m not sure how well known it is today. But I watched it as a little kid when it first ran and even today I can remember my uncontrollable bouts of laughter. It was the kind of stuff I’d remember or play back in my head the next day in school and just start giggling in a way I couldn’t control and then get in trouble for disrupting class. Eventually I came up with a list of really sad things I would have on hand to think about if some part of the last episode popped into my mind during class or even worse during a test. Like that funny.
Continue reading “Memories of SCTV”Help Us On The Home Stretch
We’ve signed up 759 new members since we kicked off this year’s annual TPM membership drive. That’s just over 3/4 of the way toward our goal. I really want to thank everyone who has signed up so far. Truly. Thank you. If you’ve been considering signing up, please take the plunge today. We’re so close to hitting our goal of 1,000 new members. With your help we can probably get to 800 today. Just click here. We really appreciate it.
Trial Judge Rips Trump Over Attacks On His Daughter And Tightens Gag Order
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
A Judge Who Gets It
The trial judge in Trump’s hush money case has done everyone a service by properly identifying Trump’s public rhetorical attacks on his daughter as an effort to delegitimize the judicial system, attack the rule of law, and cow into submission anyone involved in holding Trump to account.
In a searing five-page ruling, New York state Judge Juan Merchan expanded the existing gag order against Trump to include family members of the judge and the prosecutor. In so doing, he conceded that the original gag order had not contemplated protecting family members, and therefore Trump had not violated it.
But it was less the expansion of the gag order than Merchan’s descriptive language that struck the right chord in this perilous time (emphases are his):
[T]his pattern of attacking family members of presiding jurists and attorneys assigned to his cases serves no legitimate purpose. It merely injects fear in those assigned or called to participate in the proceedings, that not only they, but their family members as well, are “fair game” for Defendant’s vitriol.
And:
The average observer, must now, after hearing Defendant’s recent attacks, draw the conclusion that if they become involved in these proceedings, even tangentially, they should worry not only for themselves, but for their loved ones as well. Such concerns will undoubtedly interfere with the fair administration of justice and constitutes a direct attack on the Rule of Law itself.
The peril of the current moment is that Trump’s rhetorical attacks are a precursor to and a necessary ingredient of the explosive concoction that produces political violence. Real violence. He knows. He likes it. He’s drawn to it.
While a gag order was a necessary step to protect the sanctity of the upcoming trial, it’s not going to be enough by itself to head off the political violence Trump has unleashed and keeps holding over the head of the Republic like a sword of Damocles.
Hope Hicks Expected To Testify For Prosecution
Former Trump 2016 campaign press secretary Hope Hicks is expected to be called as a prosecution witness in the hush money trial, NBC News reports.
Trump Beats Deadline With $175M Bond
I know many of you were chagrined that an appeals court let Trump off the hook by lowering the appeal bond requirement to a mere $175 million in his New York civil fraud case. But this remains a mixed bag of a result for Trump, too.
Yes, demanding he post the full $454 million would have added to his financial strain and perhaps (though not assuredly) forced him into bankruptcy.
But the $175 million bond he obtained yesterday ahead of his Thursday deadline remains a lot of money. Significantly for Trump, it is now there for the taking by state Attorney General Letitia James if Trump loses on appeal – rather than her having to fight through bankruptcy proceedings or initiate actions against various Trump properties.
As for the collateral Trump put up for the bond, an executive involved in the transaction told ABC News that it was all cash, but also said that he couldn’t remember if some investment-grade bonds ended up as part of the collateral, too. Suspicious about who would do this kind of business with Trump? Here’s some fodder for you:
Trump secured the bond through Knight Specialty Insurance Company, which is owned by the privately-held Hankey Group, whose chairman told ABC News that he considers himself a Donald Trump supporter.
“This is what we do at Knight Insurance, and we’re happy to be able to accommodate the ex-president in this situation,” Don Hankey told ABC News. “I’d say it’s more of a business decision, but I happen to be a supporter also.”
A related note: There are a huge number of issues to contest on appeal, and I suspect the final award will still be substantial but probably less than what was awarded by the trial judge. Either way, James is in a good position once appeals are exhausted many months from now.
Donald Trump Is A Living Breathing Meme Stock
Bloomberg’s Matt Levine: “A lot of people want to associate themselves with Donald Trump, and also for some reason want to make him richer, and Trump Media’s stock is a quite straightforward way to do that. Why does it have to have any relation to the underlying business?”
Double Whammy
A divided 4-3 Florida Supreme Court cleared the way for a proposed constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights to be on the November ballot.
Getting the amendment on the ballot, where it will require a 60% majority to pass, is a huge victory for abortion-rights proponents. It also fundamentally changes the politics on the ground this cycle, though it’s decidedly unclear whether it will be enough to move the dial for Democratic candidates in increasingly red Florida.
In the meantime, access to abortion in the state will be seriously curtailed, as the high court also allowed the state’s new 15-week abortion ban to go into effect, which will trigger a six-week ban in 30 days.
The End Is Nigh
The great Sarah Posner on the apocalyptic dog whistle Donald Trump is using to woo evangelical Christians:
However macabre this sounds to outsiders, to evangelicals steeped in end-times prophecy, these nightmarish scenarios are real. They believe they are waging spiritual warfare against demonic spirits bent on destroying an America God intended to be a Christian nation. For them, Trump’s accomplishments are more than just a checklist of judges and abortion policy; his entire being is a divinely ordained force powerful enough to upend Satan’s plans.
Texas Federal Judges Defy New Anti-Judge-Shopping Rule
Federal judges in the Northern District of Texas are vowing to defy new guidance from the Judicial Conference that is intended to blunt the blatant judge-shopping the right-wing legal movement engages in to land friendly judges in one- or two-judge districts. The Northern District of Texas includes the notorious Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, the lone federal jurist in Amarillo, who has been a magnet for right-wing legal cases.
Peter Navarro Extends His Streak Of Legal Losses
Jailed Trump White House official Peter Navarro failed again in his quixotic quest not to comply with the Presidential Records Act by turning over to the National Archives his work-related Proton emails from his time in the administration. This time a federal appeals court rejected his absurd interpretation of the Watergate-era statute.
This Guy …
The 2024 wannabe spoiler Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared on CNN last night that Joe Biden is a greater threat to democracy than Donald Trump.
Hunter Biden Loses Bid To Dismiss Criminal Tax Case
A federal judge in California rejected several of Hunter Biden’s long-shot bids to get his criminal tax case dismissed.
Last Survivor Of USS Arizona Attack Dies
Lou Conter, a 20-year-old quartermaster, was standing on the main deck of the USS Arizona when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor began. He died yesterday at the age of 102, the last survivor of the crew of the battleship whose sinking during the attack claimed the lives of 1,177 of his fellow servicemen.
Do you like Morning Memo? Let us know!
A Few Thoughts on Florida
I wanted to share a few thoughts with you about the pretty big news out of Florida this afternoon. If you haven’t already heard, the state Supreme Court signed off on two ballot initiatives which will now appear on the ballot this November: one legalizing abortion and another legalizing marijuana. This is a big deal both for the rights in question and the potential impact on the general election. So starting with the correct assumption that this is a big deal I want to note a few complexities and complications.
Continue reading “A Few Thoughts on Florida”Once You’re In Trump’s GOP, He Won’t Let You Leave Without A Fight
Embodying his mob boss cosplay to a cartoonish degree, Donald Trump over the weekend went after two of the handful of House Republicans who have opted to leave Congress early because being a member of the House Republican conference has become too annoying. (There are plenty of official reasons for these retirements and resignations, but many of the lawmakers who were once bright-eyed about legislating have also expressed exhaustion with operating in a perpetual state of near-shutdown while ostensibly in the majority.)
Continue reading “Once You’re In Trump’s GOP, He Won’t Let You Leave Without A Fight”Help Us Build Journalism To Confront Authoritarianism And Withstand The Media Apocalypse
I have been in the absolute thick of it. As a campaign trail reporter and White House correspondent throughout Donald Trump’s rise and presidency, I had a front row seat to the tsunami of paranoia, racism, and political violence that now threatens to consume American society as we knew it. The experience brought me back to TPM after nearly a decade away.
As we are in the final stretch of our membership drive, I’d like to tell you the story of my back-and-forth journey with TPM and why I hope you will join me here.
Continue reading “Help Us Build Journalism To Confront Authoritarianism And Withstand The Media Apocalypse”Kari Lake’s Default Judgment Request In Defamation Suit Borrows From MAGA Playbook
Last week, election denier and failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake announced that she would not defend her statements in a months-long defamation suit brought against her by Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer.
Continue reading “Kari Lake’s Default Judgment Request In Defamation Suit Borrows From MAGA Playbook”Understanding Papa Don’s New Pump and Dump 8-K
I mentioned last week that Truth Social — Trump’s social network — only had a bit more revenue than TPM. And needless to say, TPM doesn’t have a multi-billion dollar stock valuation. (If anyone disagrees on this point, contact me.) Today the company released its first 8-K, basically one of the many SEC-mandated disclosures for public companies in which lying means committing a crime. There’s a bit more there on the inflows and outflows. TS brought in about $4.1 million last year and spent $58 million. So that means that TS had about 30% more revenue than TPM and roughly 20 times the expenses. Not great! There’s some other interesting details, like the fact that $39 million of that $58 million went to interest payments. Go figure.
These data points are pretty good evidence that this company is a joke. And they make for good fun. But it’s not proof. A social network in its early stages can be bleeding lots of money and still be legitimately worth a ton of money. This isn’t just hypothetical. Facebook had already become a force of nature before Mark Zuckerberg turned his attention to monetizing the engine of value he created. So there was a time when Facebook was also spending way more money than it made and investors were dying to buy in. Those who did made tons of money.
So the revenue and expenses aren’t the proof. But the proof is there.
Continue reading “Understanding Papa Don’s New Pump and Dump 8-K”Chief Judge Of Kacsmaryk’s District Will Ignore New Anti-Judge Shopping Policy
The chief judge of the northern district of Texas, home to infamous Trump judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, has informed Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that the district will not change its case assigning practices, in repudiation of a new anti-judge shopping policy.
“The district judges of the Northern District of Texas met on March 27, 2024, and discussed case assignment,” Chief Judge David Godbey wrote to Schumer in a letter dated March 29. “The consensus was not to make any change to our case assignment process at this time.”
Continue reading “Chief Judge Of Kacsmaryk’s District Will Ignore New Anti-Judge Shopping Policy ““We All Saw It”
Along with seven or eight other papers, which tend to be in swing or swingish states, I subscribe to The Cleveland Plain Dealer. So I get various emails from them. And one is an email that comes from their editor, Chris Quinn. I glance at these occasionally but they normally deal with local issues or issues about the paper that are more for local residents. But one came Saturday that grabbed my attention. The headline was “There aren’t two sides to facts” and, as Quinn explains, it’s an answer to Trump supporters who complain that the paper judges Trump and Biden by two separate standards.
Continue reading ““We All Saw It””