The Failing New York Times reported that the number of pro-Trump protestors outside his trial this afternoon was in the “mid single digits,” which I’m going to shorten to “five.” (It could have been four or six. Seven is right out). But thousands upon thousands were turned away: Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump Thousands of people were turned away from the Courthouse in Lower Manhattan by steel stanchions and police, literally blocks from the tiny side door from where I enter and leave. It is an armed camp to keep people away. Maggot Hagerman of The Failing New York Times, falsely reported t ..read more

In contrast to Republicans laying siege to even modest worker protections, the Biden administration has announced two policy changes that provide major material benefits to workers. First, the FTC has banned non-compete clauses over Republican opposition: And the two Republican commissioners voted against banning non-competes, which offers up an opportunity for any Dem candidate to ask their opponents why they believe an employer should be able to effectively trap people who are working for them. — Helaine Olen (@helaineolen) April 23, 2024 Non-compete clauses are completely indefensible, an ..read more

Republican nominee Donald Trump and campaign manager Paul Manafort do a walkthrough at the Republican National Convention on July 20, 2016, in Cleveland. Brooks Kraft/Getty Images Russia’s attempts at interference in American politics aren’t going away. We see only bits and pieces of them, though. most recently, Marjorie Taylor Green was explicitly quoting from Russian and Hungarian propaganda, but she’s not alone. The effort seems to be distributed across Russian agencies as well, with the FSB (civilian intelligence agency), GRU (military intelligence agency), and probably individual oligarch ..read more

Donald Trump is begging to be put in jail for contempt of court. Whether this is eleventydimensional political chess, or non-existent impulse control after a lifetime of constant indulgence of his oppositional defiance disorder is probably a dumb question. Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump HIGHLY CONFLICTED, TO PUT IT MILDLY, JUDGE JUAN MERCHAN, HAS TAKEN AWAY MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH. EVERYBODY IS ALLOWED TO TALK AND LIE ABOUT ME, BUT I AM NOT ALLOWED TO DEFEND MYSELF. THIS IS A KANGAROO COURT, AND THE JUDGE SHOULD RECUSE HIMSELF! Apr 23, 2024, 9:00 AM Trump’s main defense lawye ..read more

Like the sum of 2 and 2: Only idiots think like this pic.twitter.com/FtFhnj0U3X — evan loves worf (@esjesjesj) April 23, 2024 “But if he agrees about Ron DeSantis about literally everything except whether it’s good to buy electric cars, and DeSantis is a raving reactionary lunatic, and I like Ron DeSantis because I didn’t have to wear a mask in Boca Raton during the pandemic, what does that make me?” The post Elon Musk’s politics are an unfathomable, impossible-to-classify mystery that will never be explained appeared first on Lawyers, Guns & Money ..read more

Any kind of music Hall of Fame that features Foreigner and not Warren Zevon is a self-refuting absurdity. Imagine, say, if the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame had Freddie Lindstrom and Highpockets Kelly but not Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens? Ridiculous, I know, but it’s vaguely possible if you try. Anyway, if you’re wondering how the arena-rock mediocrities — who, hilariously, have been touring for years with literally none of their original members because some music is so inessential that the cover band can be easily swapped in for the original — got the call, the answer is good old-fashi ..read more

I had the pleasure to talk to our friend Michael Hiltzik from the Los Angeles Times about the significance of the UAW’s victory in Chattanooga. The vote opens the door to further votes and organizing drives across the region, where political leaders have kept unions weak in part through anti-union right-to-work laws — all 14 Deep South states, as well as 12 others, have those laws. Next on the schedule is a vote by 5,000 workers at a Mercedes plant in Alabama, scheduled to take place May 13-17. “The real importance of this election is not just the organizing of this factory,” says labor hist ..read more

Minouche Shafik not only completely rolled over for Congress at hearings, she literally called the police to arrest peaceful protestors while also evicting them. Which leads us to the inevitable next stage of the story, “if you treat Elise Stefanik as a good faith actor you will get exactly what you deserve“: Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) issued a statement on Sunday calling on University President Minouche Shafik to resign immediately and the board of trustees to appoint someone “who will protect Jewish students and enforce school policies.” “Over the past few months and especially ..read more

Climate change is horrible enough in the United States. Summers in New England are so much hotter than they used to be, as we turn into Virginia, Virginia turns into Miami, and Miami disappears into the ocean. But it’s one thing to have humid, gross summers. It’s another to have be next to the Sahara Desert, not to mention the warm ocean currents that traditionally made Europe habitatable. So in Europe, climate change is worse than every other part of the world, in a place where the infrastructure in uniquely incapable of handling it because of the old buildings that trap heat and a lack of c ..read more

The Supreme Court case today over criminalizing homelessness has a lot of interest to me, largely because it comes from Grants Pass, a small town I know well in southwestern Oregon. As I’ve talked about a good bit, these issues of homelessness have multiple factors and a lot of the conversation around this tends to focus on a single-issue that is supposed to solve everything. The Build More people are fundamentally correct, yes, but when you are talking about fentanyl addicts and people who have untreated mental illness, which is a non-negligible part of the homeless population, you aren’t so ..read more