A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo. Sign up for the email version.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1486723
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1486723
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With his decision to move Ukraine aid to a vote, Speaker Johnson has joined that most rarefied club, ‘The League of Unlikely Heroes’. The club is populated by conservative men (gender reference intentional) who routinely do things that enrage liberals and Dems, but who suddenly: for reasons known only to themselves, take great political and personal risks to do the right thing. 2 other figures in recent history I would add to the club are John McCain (For saving Obamacare even though he personally loathed President Obama) and Mike Pence for saving American democracy (Even though he had shown slavish devotion to Donald Trump).
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Now Biden has made too much damn solar WaPo of course
Rooftop solar panels are flooding California’s grid. That’s a problem. (msn.com)
In sunny California, solar panels are everywhere. They sit in dry, desert landscapes in the Central Valley and are scattered over rooftops in Los Angeles’s urban center. By last count, the state had nearly 47 gigawatts of solar power installed — enough to power 13.9 million homes and provide over a quarter of the Golden State’s electricity.
But now, the state and its grid operator are grappling with a strange reality: There is so much solar on the grid that, on sunny spring days when there’s not as much demand, electricity prices go negative. Gigawatts of solar are “curtailed” — essentially, thrown away.
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Jon Stewart in great form, back to his criticism of cable news coverage:
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I’m hoping for some really brilliant news today. I’m out of pocket during most of today’s trial, but I’m hoping to check in occasionally to see the updates.
Nothing significant will happen, I expect, on the gag trial, because the process has to go through channels, the first of which is fines (which he won’t pay out of his pocket, so no deterrent). But with the prosecution starting with Pecker and moving through the process, it could get interesting.
And to Jesse Watters, I say, don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
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I am waiting right now for acceptance of a contract from our utility to allow my solar installation to proceed. I am not worried…but…the neighboring big power company that runs the Twin Cities and some of Western WI stopped approving such home installations.
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The no sex claim is perfectly consistent with Trump’s contempt for the courts. They are but obstacles or opportunities. As is every other object and individual in this mad toddler’s path.
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I have seen this quoted a few times since yesterday. But I don’t know what it means. A little help?
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My guess is that they’re sticking with the “no-sex claim” because the prosecutors brought up the doorman payoff, which everyone now agrees, was a false claim (but he still got his $30,000). But Trump wasn’t running for office when that $30,000 check was paid out. So, no crime. Just a perfectly legal NDA contract with someone who they didn’t even check out a claim about.
Anyway, the problem for them is, it doesn’t matter if the sex actually happened or not. The payment was made, and all applicable, indictable laws still apply. They paid this particular person, $130,000 to stop her from mentioning anything about sex with Donnie. Then they broke several laws, by making it seem those payments were for something else.
I assume David Pecker will provide a copy of the NDA contract in court today. And she was paid (with Trump’s knowledge) for a sex CLAIM. A claim that Pecker didn’t check out himself, and left it to Trump/Cohen to decide. The prosecution will lead the jury through all the “distancing” shenanigans Cohen and Trump went through, to hide the true purpose of that $130,000 payment. And $130,000 is a lot of money for “sex that never happened.”
And…Cohen’s got the audio recording of him and Trump discussing that scheme.
I would have thought Trump’s lawyers would have prepared for all this in advance.
The prosecutors certainly prepared for Trump to lie about the sex.
Hopefully the judge’s jury instructions will include all of this.
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Trump’s Mar-A-Lago dinner party guest and Neo-Nazi Christian nationalist Nick Fuentes ranted about how the conservative moment is now dominated by women who aren’t in fear of their lives any longer.
NICK FUENTES: Even these toughest guys or those that pretend to be the most tough or the most masculine? They’ve got their dumb bitch wife right behind them in their ear.
And we both know that guy is never going to punch her in the face, he’s never going to kill her… There’s, it’s just like the woman knows that’s not even in the cards. It’s not in the deck, okay?
She’s going to open up that pack of cards and it’s not in there.
Zero percent chance, okay? It’s never going to happen.
He’s never going to cheat, there’s no rape there’s no, in other words there’s no there’s no actually male power coming from the man.
Like the man is not a beast… the man is not an animal… he doesn’t have power, because he would never abuse whatever power that he has, and therefore he doesn’t have it.
And so because the woman knows the man [she] totally doesn’t fear him, doesn’t feel completely comfortable and kind of bored with him, she doesn’t ever really respect him.
And that’s when the power dynamic, I think, changes.
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Watch this until the end…
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It means he regretted making the deal to kill the stories when he saw that TFG won. Seems like they all thought he’d lose, and it would be no harm no foul, and some money for his client.
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Isn’t Davidson noting the success of their ‘catch & kill’ efforts?
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As the first real day of trial unfolded yesterday, it became apparent that Trump wasn’t merely going to argue that this was a bullshit application of the business records law and that nothing he did amounted to criminal conduct. Rather, he was going to continue with the maximum denial: No sex, no affairs, no hanky-panky period.
That sets up the challenge of having to overcome the expected testimony of Daniels about the sex, in addition to all the testimony from Michael Cohen, David Pecker and others about how this transaction worked, what it was for, who was involved, etc.
This will turn those official transcripts of testimony into interesting reading indeed.
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Good Luck With That One!
It hadn’t fully occurred to me until opening statements yesterday that Donald Trump was going to stick with his claim that he never had sex with Stormy Daniels or, by extension, Karen McDougal.
As the first real day of trial unfolded yesterday, it became apparent that Trump wasn’t merely going to argue that this was a bullshit application of the business records law and that nothing he did amounted to criminal conduct. Rather, he was going to continue with the maximum denial: No sex, no affairs, no hanky-panky period.
Easy explanation for that:
“[I]n the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.”
– Adolf Hitler
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I’d add Liz Cheney to the list. Not that she has exceptional integrity but she did knowingly sacrifice her political career to defend old-school conservative republicanism and call out the danger to our country posed by tfg and his minions. I realize the Cheney family has long despised tRump, but still - credit where credit is due.
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