Yet, one of the items on Tacopina's laundry list of unfairness stood out as especially absurd. It dealt with literature, a controversial subject in the book-banning GOP these days. And it provides a lesson about one work Republicans might want to keep on the shelves.

Tacopina pointed to an exchange with Carroll on cross-examination about a reference in her book to sending all men to Montana for retraining. When he pressed her, Carroll pointed out that it was satire, suggesting that Tacopina was an idiot if he didn't understand that. Then Kaplan interjected to note that Carroll's satire comes from Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal," a satirical essay from the 18th century that "proposed" poor Irish parents sell their children as food.

In his failed mistrial letter, Trump's lawyer argued that it was inappropriate for the judge to chime in and provide this context. Tacopina's letter went further by actually going through the trouble of distinguishing between Carroll's and Swift's satires, observing that Carroll referred to men while Swift referred to children. The point, Tacopina wrote, is that it was inappropriate for the judge to get involved because it showed favoritism.

Of course, Tacopina ran the risk of Kaplan's interjecting when he touched on such an obvious point. Indeed, Carroll's 2019 book is titled "What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal." The Swift reference is clear, and lawyers need to remember that the judge is always the smartest person in the room.

Kaplan didn't need to weigh in on the literary point, but his doing so doesn't create a mistrial.

— As part of the strategy to get President Joe Biden re-elected, West Wing advisers in recent months have developed a plan to better promote the work of Vice President Kamala Harris amid Republican efforts to turn her into a liability, two people familiar with the conversations said.

There is a growing view among White House aides that Harris’ work needs to be more prominently displayed to the public to earn her more recognition for her role in the administration, the sources said.

Biden is trying to tamp down public concerns about his age and whether he could complete another four-year term as Republican increase their attacks against Harris to cast her as the real candidate at the top of the ticket.

“I know that the president sees the vice president as not only a historic leader, but a true partner to him, and she’s really been at the forefront of a lot of the work that we’ve done politically,” said Jaime Harrison, the chair of Democratic National Committee. “I really do believe that she’s going to be at the forefront and a crucial component of the re-election process.”.....

Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain said Harris will continue to help Biden as the election gets closer.

“She’s a very effective part of the administration and will be a critical part of the campaign once it gets underway,” Klain said. “She is great on the stump. You have a lot of advantages as president running for re-election, but one disadvantage is you have to be president. So he will have to continue to govern and lead the country, and there will be times when he won’t be able to go out and campaign but she will. And she will be a very effective spokesperson and very effective doing a lot of events around the country.”

At first blush, The Washington Post’s new reporting on Donald Trump hiring researchers to uncover election fraud, only to come up empty, might seem familiar. But don’t click away just yet, because this is going somewhere.

Ken Block, founder of the firm Simpatico Software Systems, studied more than a dozen voter fraud theories and allegations for Trump’s campaign in late 2020 and found they were “all false,” he said in an interview with The Washington Post. “No substantive voter fraud was uncovered in my investigations looking for it, nor was I able to confirm any of the outside claims of voter fraud that I was asked to look at,” he said. “Every fraud claim I was asked to investigate was false.”

The Republican operation paid the company $750,000.....

In February, the Washington Post reported on the Berkeley Research Group, which is well known in legal and corporate circles as a leading consulting firm with prominent clients. As we’ve discussed, when Trump’s political operation set out to scrutinize the 2020 presidential election, and it sought out expert researchers to bolster the former president’s conspiracy theories about voter fraud and election irregularities, it turned to BRG to do the heavy lifting.....

The Post reported in February that the BRG’s “Project 2020” report is now in Justice Department’s hands, as part of the Jan. 6 investigation, and Simpatico’s founder added that he recently received a subpoena from special counsel Jack Smith’s office and met with federal prosecutors in Washington.

“My advice to the corporate CEOs of America is to stay out of politics,” the Kentucky Republican said in April 2021, despite McConnell’s extensive record of trying to drag corporations into politics.

All of this came to mind watching House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on CNBC yesterday, as co-host Aaron Ross Sorkin asked the California Republican about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ intensifying fight with Disney. The GOP leader suggested the governor was on the wrong track. “I don’t think the idea of building a prison next to a place that you bring your family is the best idea,” McCarthy said. “I think it’d be much better if you sat down and solved the problems.”

But moments later, the House speaker chided Disney, too.

“If you’re going to be a large employer inside this state, you should also abide by the rules and run your business and don’t think you should get into politics.”

......The model McCarthy seems to prefer is a three-step process:

Corporations give Republicans money.
Corporations agree not to say anything Republicans don’t like.
Repeat.

Fox’s firing of the most-watched host on cable news, Tucker Carlson, is still roiling Leftists and patriots alike, but now Carlson himself has said that it didn’t actually happen at all. In a text message to the news analysis site 19FortyFive, Carlson said flatly: “I’m still employed by Fox.” This doesn’t mean, however, that all is forgiven and that his show will be back on the air Monday. On the contrary, it could hinder Carlson’s plans to take his truth-telling elsewhere.

In his message to 19FortyFive, Carlson was actually confirming what another former Fox host, Megyn Kelly, revealed on Thursday: “I want to, I think, break some news for you. Tucker Carlson hasn’t actually been fired. He’s still an employee of the Fox News Channel. What happened was, Suzanne Scott called him, she’s the CEO, on Monday, morning, and said, um, he was not going to be allowed to do any more shows, and that he had been kicked out of his company email, and now they’re going to have to negotiate an exit. Um, some reporting to me, uh, suggests that she said it’s going to be an amicable parting. Right? Isn’t it?” That would be nice, but Scott’s own behavior, if Kelly’s report is accurate, makes it more unlikely.
https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1651659830803701760
If Tucker Carlson was so peremptorily told that he wasn’t going to be allowed to do any more shows and couldn’t even access his company email, he couldn’t say a proper farewell either to those who watched his show or to his staff. This was an odd way for Suzanne Scott and Fox to treat their principal attraction, and it doesn’t seem likely that it would allow for a friendly separation. Of course, stranger things have happened......

Spite seems to be playing a large role in this curious case. Kelly continued, “They pulled his show off the air. They also fired his executive producer, Justin Wells. And though he tried to find out why, they wouldn’t tell him. They refused to tell him why. I mean, to me that’s so disheartening. He’s been at the — at the company for years. He’d been in the prime time for seven years and saw Fox News through one of the most difficult times in its history: the immediate era post-Roger Ailes, where they really didn’t know left from right, they didn’t know up from down. They really didn’t have strong management leading the company, and they had lost two of its biggest stars, Bill O’Reilly and me.” A bit self-aggrandizing, but nonetheless, point taken. Why were Fox executives so hostile to Carlson when they should have been grateful? That question remains unanswered.

President Joe Biden and his campaign are fully embracing a term once meant as an insult and using “Dark Brandon” to move merch for his newly announced 2024 reelection campaign.

The Biden campaign website is selling a Dark Brandon coffee mug ― which they call the “Dark Roast Mug” ― and a Dark Brandon T-shirt, which it says is “best worn while vanquishing Malarkey.”

Twitter users have also spotted Dark Brandon in the campaign’s 404 error page, the page users are shown when they click on a broken link or mistype part of the URL.

“You’re lost, Jack,” it says at the top, above an image of a laser-eyed Biden in full “Dark Brandon” mode:
?ops=scalefit_720_noupscale&format=webp
.....Now, it seems, even Biden himself is all aboard the “Dark Brandon” train.

Adding to the gravity of these historic events of the day was Trump’s literal embrace, while campaigning in New Hampshire, of a woman convicted of resisting police efforts to clear the grounds after the insurrection.....

It’s an important reminder not only as we await a verdict in the Proud Boys seditious conspiracy trial, but for cases like the misdemeanor conviction of the woman Trump hugged in New Hampshire, Micki Larson-Olson, a member of QAnon splinter group Negative48, who has called for executing members of Congress who certified the 2020 election for President Joe Biden.

https://twitter.com/VaughnHillyard/status/1651919311286542338
Trump told Larson-Olson, who was sentenced to 180 days in jail last year, that she’d “been through too much” and would end up “happy.”
https://twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1651956548514754561?s=20
......That the former and potential future president literally embraced his mob on the day that his vice president, whom that mob wanted to kill, testified in the investigation into Trump’s plot to hold power by extralegal means, does well to encapsulate the man who’s sought and will seek to bend or break the law to his will.

Disney’s official Pride Nite event at Disneyland sells out of tickets as the company is attacked by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over LGBTQ rights.

“The event is promised to be full of exclusive offerings, dance parties, character experiences, photo ops, themed treats, after-hours access to attractions, and more. Mickey and all of his pals will even be debuting new looks for the party; colorful outfits with nods to gay artist Keith Haring in their design. Guests of all ages are also encouraged to arrive in style and “Dress with Pride” as long as their outfits follow Disney’s costume guidelines.

Pride Nite is scheduled to be held on June 13 and 15, 2023, with admission priced at $139 per Guest ages 3+. As of April 30, the June 15 party is completely sold out, leaving only a limited number of tickets for the June 13 party. Fans are over the moon about Pride Nite at Disneyland, and the ticket sales show that this is something Guests want more of.”