Republicans Get to Chew on Matt Gaetz for Two Months and a Week

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emptywheel
Sure, Matt Gaetz is the worst possible pick to be Attorney General. But there are some upsides to Trump having picked the worst possible pick, especially early enough to give Republicans two months to pick him apart.
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The Orbanization of US Politics Began Years Ago

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emptywheel
The assault on civil society that we expect from a second Trump Administration already accelerated two years ago, and already had an impact on the election.

Litmus Tests Likely Explain Who the Fuck is Pete Hegseth

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emptywheel
Trump likely picked Pete Hegseth to run the largest military in the world because would be willing to do with it things that none of his qualified candidates would do.
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Russia Attempts to Collect Its Winnings

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emptywheel
Russia has been engaged in a whole bunch of dick-wagging since Trump won the election. That's likely because the last time they helped Trump get elected, he deferred on and then failed to deliver his side of the bargain.
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How Garland-Whinger Ankush Khardori's Willful Impotence Helps Trump Evade Accountability

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emptywheel
There's a telling quote from Greg Sargent in his description of Kamala Harris' difficulties in convincing voters that Trump was a bad president. Some Democrats believe that the leading pro-Harris Super PAC, Future Forward, failed to spend enough…

Two Elections: "The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact-check"

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emptywheel
There were two elections last week. A traditional political one, in which Democrats had some down ballot successes. And a far bigger propaganda one, in which Trump -- but not always the rest of his party -- had tremendous success.
Public domain
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The Mixed Emotions of November 9th

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Peterr
From the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923 to Kristallnacht in 1938 to the Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, November 9th brings very mixed emotions. On this November 9th, they are being mixed once more.
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Jack Smith Asks for Three Weeks

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emptywheel
Jack Smith has asked for three weeks -- until December 2 -- to inform Judge Tanya Chutkan what they plan to do with the January 6 case going forward.
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The Legal Cases Implicating Donald Trump's Conduct That Won't Go Away [Because of His Election]

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emptywheel
By dint of his twin prosecutions, Hunter Biden has what virtually no one else in the country will be able to get now: standing to raise questions about Donald Trump's conduct.

The Time before Confrontation

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emptywheel
Had Kamala Harris won on Tuesday, we'd likely be in an immediate crisis of political violence. Instead, we have two months before the manufactured excuse to seize authoritarian powers.

When Special Counsels Finish Up, They Must Write Reports

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emptywheel
If Jack Smith will shut down his investigation, then he must write a report for Merrick Garland. That would provide one more opportunity to disclose the findings of his investigation.
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The Upcoming Pardon-Palooza

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emptywheel
Trump's own impunity will do grave damage to the rule of law. But the pardons he will surely give will turn it into a transactional form of loyalty test. 
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Tonight's Jam Session at King David's House of Song

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Peterr
Tonight, up in heaven, along the banks of the River of Life, there's a local watering hole called King David's House of Song. It's a full house, with folks laughing and smiling as they watch the television screens reporting the results of the US elections.
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Things the Legacy Media Found Less Important than Joe Biden's Apostrophe

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emptywheel
Rather than ask about the precise nature of the business relationship between Saudi Arabia and Trump, the press spent some of the last days of the campaign season squabbling about how to punctuate a misstatement from the guy who is no longer a candidate.
Donald J. Trump wearing an apron while dispensing french fries at a McDonald's fast food restaurant in Pennsylvania as part of a campaign stunt on Sunday, October 20, 2024. Photo by Doug Mills/AP.
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Batting Down Election-Day Conspiracy Theories

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Peterr
As the voters stream to the polls today, as workers at precincts around the country welcome voters to cast their ballots, as state and county election officials prepare for the counting that will take place, it is incumbent on us at EW to shoot down rumors of conspiracies flying around on this momentous day.
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Ball of Threads: Durham Descends

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emptywheel
This installment of Ball of Thread describes how Bill Barr criminalized Hillary Clinton for being a victim of a hack-and-leak.