[NYTimes]: Live Updates: Stormy Daniels Is Expected to Testify in Trump’s Trial
Ms. Daniels, who received $130,000 in hush money to keep silent about her story of having had sex with Donald J. Trump, is at the center of the case against him.
Very, important read. [Gifted Article, The Atlantic]: Democracy Is Losing the Propaganda War
Autocrats in China, Russia, and elsewhere are now making common cause with MAGA Republicans to discredit liberalism and freedom around the world. By Anne Applebaum.
“Here is a difficult truth: A part of the American political spectrum is not merely a passive recipient of the combined authoritarian narratives that come from Russia, China, and their ilk, but an active participant in creating and spreading them. Like the leaders of those countries, the American MAGA right also wants Americans to believe that their democracy is degenerate, their elections illegitimate, their civilization dying. ..
The MAGA movement’s leaders also have an interest in pumping nihilism and cynicism into the brains of their fellow citizens, and in convincing them that nothing they see is true. Their goals are so similar that it is hard to distinguish between the online American alt-right and its foreign amplifiers, who have multiplied since the days when this was solely a Russian project.
"To state baldly what is happening: The Republican Party’s right wing is actively harassing legitimate, good-faith efforts to track the production and dissemination of autocratic disinformation here in the United States.
"These stories are symptomatic of a larger problem: Because the American extreme right and (more rarely) the extreme left benefit from the spread of antidemocratic narratives, they have an interest in silencing or hobbling any group that wants to stop, or even identify, foreign campaigns. Senator Mark Warner, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told me that “we are actually less prepared today than we were four years ago” for foreign attempts to influence the 2024 election.
"This is not only because authoritarian propaganda campaigns have become more sophisticated as they begin to use AI, or because “you obviously have a political environment here where there’s a lot more Americans who are more distrustful of all institutions.” It’s also because the lawsuits, threats, and smear tactics have chilled government, academic, and tech-company responses.
One could call this a secret authoritarian “plot” to preserve the ability to spread antidemocratic conspiracy theories, except that it’s not a secret. It’s all visible, right on the surface. Russia, China, and sometimes other state actors—Venezuela, Iran, Hungary—work with Americans to discredit democracy, to undermine the credibility of democratic leaders, to mock the rule of law.
"They do so with the goal of electing Trump, whose second presidency would damage the image of democracy around the world, as well as the stability of democracy in America, even further.
Mark 10:14 Suffer the little children to come unto me
The Visit to the Brickmaker's by "Phiz" (Hablot Knight Browne) for Bleak House, Chapter VIII, "Covering a Multitude of Sins,"
In essence, Dickens here counters the belief frequently voiced by contemporary middle- and upper-class commentators that the poor "are different from us," they do not find the death of children all that upsetting, and they therefore must be almost a separate species.
As Engles pointed out in his Condition of the Working Classes, the prosperous classes lived segregated from the poor, which prevented them from encountering their sufferings. Dickens here forces his reader to see these sufferings
This is very smart. Get educated.. [Slate, Amicus] How Originalism Ate the Law: The Trick
Part one of a series examining the theory of constitutional interpretation that has eaten the law and gobbled up a bunch of your rights with it.
America is pinned under the dead hand of Originalism
This is the correct take. [Slate]: It Was a Trap: A time-honored tactic by right-wing agitators brought on the “crisis” on American campuses. Everyone fell for it—again.By Justin Peters
May 04, 2024
[NYTimes]: Kristi Noem’s New Book Falsely Says She Met Kim Jong-un
“I’m sure he underestimated me,” Ms. Noem writes of the North Korean leader in her forthcoming book. A spokesman said the error would be corrected. By Chris Cameron
The auditor for former president Donald Trump’s media company was charged with “massive fraud” Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which accused the firm of being a “sham audit mill” whose failures put investors at risk.
Deadly. That question from Nicolle Wallace to Sarah Matthews on her support for Trump —fully knowing his histories of sexual abuse etc — that was a rapier sharp question. Good job. Matthews, to be fair, answered honestly..
[NYTimes]: Trump, who has largely avoided looking at Hicks during her testimony, locks his eyes on her as she starts to cry. By Kate Christobek
Bove has a tough job here. His client is furious with Hicks. And Bove will have to impeach her credibility or otherwise disrupt her testimony without coming off as too aggressive and alienating sympathetic jurors. The prosecutors are now leaving the room hastily, looking somewhat concerned. By Jonah Bromwich
[NYTimes]: As we mentioned earlier today, this is going to be a tricky cross-examination for the defense lawyer, Emil Bove, especially with a vulnerable witness. And Hope Hicks just began to cry. By Jonah Bromwich
[NYTimes]: Hope Hicks is now describing the initial Wall Street Journal article about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. She says she cannot recall certain facts about this period, including a conversation with Michael Cohen. But she says if the prosecution has something to refresh her memory, she is willing to look at it. She has gotten considerably more nervous-looking again, clenching her jaw and stumbling a bit in her speech.
