Roasted: Fox News correspondent mocked for blaming $90 turkey on Biden

In a move reminiscent of New York Times columnist David Brooks bemoaning a $78 airport meal (80% of which, internet sleuths later confirmed, was the bar tab), Fox News correspondent and former Republican congressman Jason Chaffetz took to television on Monday night to complain about the price of his Thanksgiving turkey.

"We went to go buy a turkey today, it was $90 for a turkey!" Chaffetz, who previously served as the U.S. Representative for Utah’s 3rd Congressional District, said. "The price of stamps is up 32 percent in the last four years. But it's all a choice by Joe Biden, that's what Bidenomics is!"

However, as Newsweek reported, social media users were quick to point out that, according to numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, turkey prices had actually dropped this year — and it was more likely that Chaffetz had either simply overpaid or purchased a premium product. “Turkey costs per pound fell to $1.25 in September 2023, down 43 cents from a year earlier, according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture,” wrote former Fox News contributor Bill Kristol on X, formerly Twitter. “Unless the turkey he bought was 70 pounds, this turkey overpaid for his turkey.”

“Imagine knowing your viewers are so dumb that you can lie to them about the price of a turkey in an attempt to hurt Joe Biden after they just bought a butterball for $15,” political strategist Adam Parkhomenko wrote on X.

Israel and Hamas agree to four-day ceasefire to allow for release of hostages

The Israeli government and Hamas have agreed to a brief ceasefire in Gaza to allow for the release of 50 Israeli hostages seized during Hamas' deadly attack last month and the release of 150 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel, said Qatar, which mediated negotiations, according to The New York Times. The beginning of the ceasefire will be announced within the next 24 hours, and the measure will last for at least four days, the Qatar government said, adding that the pause will also allow more civilian aid and fuel to enter the territory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced its approval of the truce in an early Wednesday WhatsApp message. The office said women and children would be among the hostages released and that “the release of every 10 additional hostages will result in an additional day in the pause,” emphasizing that the government is "committed to bringing all the hostages home." Hamas also announced that it had reached the deal "with the help and blessing of God" in a statement on Telegram. The group added that, while it had agreed to a truce, its fighters will remain readied and "on the lookout" to defend Palestinians and "defeat the occupation and aggression."

American progressives who have demanded a ceasefire for several weeks welcomed the hostage agreement but said it's insufficient, especially if Israel resumes the bombardment after the pause ends — as Netanyahu has indicated is the plan, Common Dreams reports. "A temporary pause in the violence is not enough," Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., said in a statement. "We must move with urgency to save as many lives as possible and achieve a permanent cease-fire agreement." Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., the lead sponsor of a House ceasefire resolution, and anti-Zionist advocacy group Jewish Voice for Peace echoed Tlaib's sentiments.

Doom and gloom was the ultimate goal — and now it is working: Trump wins with voter apathy

At this point in election season, the political press starts making forays into the wilds of so-called Real America to try to find out what the voters are thinking. It can be an interesting exercise in the hands of journalists who have a feel for more than the usual "breakfast crowd at the diner" type of stories and find some insight that's helpful to understand the cross-currents that shape the electorate in any particular cycle. All too often, however, it's just a series of cliches and conventional wisdom, unfortunately.

We see tons of coverage of Iowa and New Hampshire, for obvious reasons. But when it comes to picking the brains of swing voters reporters always seem to head up to Wisconsin, the quintessential swing state. Back in 2020, just before the election, the New York Times sent a couple of reporters there to take the temperature of voters in the Badger State that former president Donald Trump barely won in 2016 to see what undecided swing voters were thinking four years later. They encountered people like this:

Ellen Christenson, a 69-year-old Wisconsinite, said she voted for former President Barack Obama twice before backing Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee, in 2016. Now Ms. Christenson said she was torn between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden and “could go either way.”

She said she was upset that Joe Biden hadn't denounced the Black Lives Matter protests strongly enough. As you can see, this is not a person who had what you might call a consistent political worldview.

We need your help to stay independent

Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism

The consensus formed by such dispatches was that though Biden was leading at that moment, people were moving toward Trump's law and order message. In the end, Biden barely won the state by 20,682 votes, almost exactly the same margin that Trump had sneaked in with four years before.

Twelve years before that, a young up-and-coming journalist by the name of Chris Hayes wrote a fascinating piece for The New Republic describing his experience as a canvasser for the League of Conservation Voters’ Environmental Victory Project in the race between Sen. John Kerry and President George W. Bush. His insights from that unique perspective were very astute, ranging from the recognition that most undecided voters don't approach politics rationally, making it very difficult to appeal to them with the usual persuasion strategies, to the fact that a disturbing number of them were "crypto-racist isolationists." Remember, this was 2004, long before MAGA was a twinkle in Donald Trump's eye.

He also found that these folks were very interested in politics although they didn't "enjoy" it and neither did they seem to be able to connect it to their own lives in ways that made sense. Hayes said he saw that the worse things got with the war in Iraq, the better George W. Bush seemed to do with these people. He explained:

I found that the very severity and intractability of the Iraq disaster helped Bush because it induced a kind of fatalism about the possibility of progress. Time after time, undecided voters would agree vociferously with every single critique I offered of Bush’s Iraq policy, but conclude that it really didn’t matter who was elected, since neither candidate would have any chance of making things better.

He noticed that this same logic applied to other issues, such as health care and the deficit. It's not that they didn't believe John Kerry could actually fix things. They didn't believe anyone could. They blamed politicians in general, so "Kerry, by mere dint of being on the ballot, was somehow tainted by Bush’s failures as badly as Bush was."

John Kerry ended up winning Wisconsin that year — by 11, 484 votes. You can see why the state is considered such a perfect petri dish to examine the polarization of American politics and the mind of the swing voter.

The simple reason why Donald Trump is escalating his Hitlerian rhetoric: MAGA demands more

The Washington Post recently sent two reporters to Door County, which they describe as "the swingiest place in the perennial battleground of Wisconsin," which has backed every presidential election’s winner since 2000. What they found is that voters are "tired of the turmoil" and chaos in our politics and don't see any improvements on the horizon:

The pandemic and inflation have already rattled folks, and the broader political backdrop — the impeachments, Trump’s torrent of falsehoods about the 2020 election, the Capitol insurrection, the band of hard-right Republicans ousting their speaker — has blocked out notice ofwhat both sides cast as accomplishments, such as the billions of dollars poured into updating the nation’s roads, bridges and ports. Even as the economy grows at the strongest pace in two years, and jobs continue to proliferate, signs of progress are easy to miss amid what voters see as screaming matches.

Right-wing pandemonium is drowning out the normal politics these people yearn for. And much like people holding Kerry as responsible as Bush for the debacle of the Iraq war, Biden is being held equally responsible for the nightmare that Trump has created of our political culture over the past six years. This is a feature of right-wing politics and it works like a charm.

It should also have been noted that of all the states in the country, this Wisconsin electorate is not only inundated with national political bedlam, but their state politics are just as crazed. The last few years have featured wild gerrymanders, recalls, radical governance by a legislative minority and more. No wonder they're exhausted.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

As the Post reports of Wisconsin voters, "They long for compromise. They want to feel heard and understood. Most Americans, for instance, desire access to abortion, tighter restrictions on guns and affordable health care. Many wonder why our laws don’t reflect that." There is a reason. Democrats back all those things but Republicans block them. Voters may miss that order or operation, however, because they are tuning out due to the disorienting cacophony of right-wing lunacy.

As David Roberts wrote in this excellent analysis on the platform formerly known as Twitter, this article could have been framed as "the right's quest to make politics toxic & to destroy citizens' trust in basic political & media institutions is working" and that would have made it more clear. But in the end, there's no way to ignore what Trump and his henchmen have done, are currently in the process of implementing in the states, and are planning to do in the future. It would be total malpractice to ignore it. But there's something deeper going on here and clearly has been going on for some time.

Trump may have taken it to another level but for years Republican politicians have been cultivating cynicism about government so that they can carry out their toxic agenda without being held responsible for it. They make politics ugly and uncomfortable so that people will see the whole endeavor as something inherently negative and unworkable. In this polarized environment, all they have to do is convince a small sliver of the electorate that this is the natural order of things and they can win it all. The Democrats and the press can't shirk from exposing the right's craven agenda but they need to ensure that in the process they remind people that it doesn't have to be that way.

about the upcoming 2024 election

“Opportunity for mischief”: Experts alarmed at Judge Cannon’s stealth delay and potential “graymail”

The Trump-appointed federal judge overseeing his Florida documents case set up a likely delay of the trial this month and legal experts worry about the potential for more “mischief.”

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon scheduled the former president’s trial date for next May but “in reality, she has run the pretrial process at a leisurely pace that will make a postponement almost inevitable,” Politico reported on Wednesday.

Delaying the trial until after the November election could allow Trump to shut the case down if he wins but even a shorter delay could push the trial into the heart of the general election campaign and potentially run up against the Republican National Convention next summer.

Cannon last week postponed several pretrial deadlines that likely make the May trial date unworkable.

“It could be seen as a stealth attempt to delay the ultimate trial date without actually announcing that yet,” former CIA attorney Brian Greer told Politico, adding that there is “pretty much no chance they could go to trial on May 20 with the current schedule.”

“Now I’m concerned”: Legal experts alarmed over “Judge Cannon’s bias” in new order setting up delay

Much of the classified evidence in the case is governed by the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) and this is believed to be Cannon’s first CIPA case, setting up additional concerns.

Prosecutors are likely to ask Cannon to allow special procedures at the trial, potentially proposing the “silent witness rule” to try to admit evidence without it being shown or read out in court, according to Politico. Under the rule, witnesses can sometimes testify on classified issues in disguise or while they are obscured by a divider, according to the report.

Trump’s team and the media will likely try to litigate against such measures, which could put special counsel Jack Smith’s team to a choice between making the secrets public and abandoning part of the prosecution, experts told the outlet.

“There are valid reasons [to object] from a press perspective and a defense perspective, but it also does provide an opportunity for mischief by the defense as part of the graymail problem that CIPA is supposed to thwart,” former DOJ national security prosecutor David Aaron told Politico. “CIPA will thwart the graymail problem, but that does sometimes take time.”

"In the bag for Trump": Expert says Judge Cannon's new order leaves other trials "in limbo"

Scheduling issues are also likely to push back the trial. Cannon has already suspended the deadlines for motions related to classified information. She took more than five weeks to hold a hearing on Trump’s request for a new schedule and nine more days to issue a new one after the hearing. Her order put off the deadlines by nearly 16 weeks.

“She’s certainly taken her time to litigate things,” Greer told Politico.

“The signals are of a court that is proceeding slowly and methodically through the process,” added Brandon Van Grack, a former national security prosecutor who served on special counsel Bob Mueller’s team. “In order to have a trial by May, the court would just need to push the parties on a tighter deadline.”

We need your help to stay independent

Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism

But Cannon has pushed back on prosecutors’ attempts to speed up the schedule.

“I’m just having a hard time seeing how realistically this work can be accomplished in this compressed period of time, given the realities that we’re facing,” Cannon told Smith’s team at a hearing earlier this month.

The trial is expected to last weeks and could overlap with the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which is scheduled for July 15, if it is delayed.

“Could she try to squeeze it in before that? Maybe, but I doubt she’d do that,” Greer said.

Delaying it until August or later would mean that Trump is already likely the Republican presidential nominee. But pushing the trial until after the election could potentially give Trump a chance to win and appoint an attorney general willing to drop the case or even pardon himself.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

“The Department of Justice is trying to do everything in its power ahead of trial to move as expeditiously as possible,” Van Grack said. “And the court is just reluctant to or resistant to any efforts to expedite the process.”

Keeping the May 2024 schedule in place while making it unlikely that the trial would actually proceed by then also complicates matters for judges overseeing Trump’s other cases in D.C., Atlanta and New York City.

“The tricky thing is, it puts them in limbo. Another judge could schedule something for May but may not want to, because it’s possible trial will still go in May,” Greer told The Daily Beast. “If you’re a cynic—and I’m not—you might say she deliberately did this”

about Judge Aileen Cannon

One solution to fight climate change? Fewer parking spaces

This story was supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project.

In the beginning, parking lots were created to curb chaos on the road. But climate change has turned that dynamic on its head.

Since the 1920s a little-known policy called parking minimums has shaped a large facet of American life. In major cities, this meant that any type of building — apartments, banks, or shopping malls — needed to reserve a certain amount of parking spaces to accommodate anyone who might visit.

But transportation makes up almost one-third of carbon emissions in the U.S. and cars represent a significant portion of those emissions. As the country attempts to aggressively cut carbon emissions, reducing dependence on fossil fuels will also mean rethinking what transportation and public space look like, especially in cities.

Electric vehicles are a climate solution with a pollution problem: Tire particles

Earlier this month, the city of Austin, Texas, became the latest community to eliminate parking minimums and is now the largest city in the U.S. to do so.

“If we want half of all trips to be in something other than a car, then we can’t, as a city, in my opinion, mandate that every home or business have at least one parking space for each resident or customer,” said Zohaib Qadri, the Austin city council member who introduced the measure.

Reducing dependency on cars was a huge push for the initiative in Austin, said Qadri, who hopes the measure also will lead to a more sustainable city.

“Climate change is here,” said Qadri. “And we’re only going to make it worse by clinging to these very climate unfriendly and unsustainable transportation habits of the 20th century.”

"Climate change is here. And we’re only going to make it worse by clinging to these very climate unfriendly and unsustainable transportation habits."

The elimination of this seemingly innocuous law could pave the way for cities to build denser housing, increase public transit options, and reduce their carbon emissions, according to Donald Shoup, an engineer and professor of urban planning at UCLA.

“It isn’t just the housing crisis and climate change, it’s traffic congestion, it’s local air pollution, it’s the high price of everything — except parking,” said Shoup.

Climate change and air pollution are particularly costly outcomes, with both estimated to cost the U.S. billions of dollars every year. Parking spots, meanwhile, can run in the tens of thousands of dollars to construct, with one estimate putting that figure at almost $30,000 per spot.

“Even if climate change were not an issue, removing parking requirements is a good idea. But in addition to being a good idea locally, it will help the entire planet,” he said.

Momentum is building with cities like Anchorage, Richmond, and Raleigh, and states like California all eliminating their parking minimums within the last few years.

Paved parking lots not only take up valuable space, but also contribute to the urban heat island effect, where cities often experience higher temperatures than their rural counterparts. The asphalt and concrete used to construct parking lots often absorb and re-emit heat at higher rates than the natural environment. This happened amidst a record-breakingly hot summer which means that not only are parking lots contributing to the larger problem of climate change, but they also make the outcome worse in the short-term as well.

An important caveat is that undoing parking minimums does not mean that all parking will vanish overnight, but rather that any off-street parking built will not need to adhere to any minimum standard. These standards were not only outdated but often prevented meaningful conversation about how to increase housing density — an urgent need for most parts of the U.S., according to Tony Jordan, president of the Parking Reform Network.

“Imagine if all the parking was still built, but we just had another 10 apartments in every building in every city for the last 50 years,” said Jordan. “We’d have a housing abundance, like, that’s a lot of apartments that would have just been built that we basically prevented.”

Every time parking took precedence over other land uses, that was a deliberate choice, even when it was the result of relying on decades-old policy to avoid active decision making about public space according to Jordan.

“The cities just need to take an active role in managing what they own — the street and the curb.”

The most important effects of undoing parking minimums probably won’t be seen right away, it will take time for cities to build up their housing stock, or to increase investment in low-carbon transit options but repealing parking minimums represents an important step in building more climate-friendly cities.

“Austin is the same city that it was two weeks ago,” said Jordan. “It’s gonna take quite a while for that city to really reap the benefits of their parking mandate reforms. And so it just removes a roadblock and a barrier to other reforms.”

about climate change

Marjorie Taylor Greene and Mike Lee get Jan. 6 footage — but trying to blame the FBI could backfire

No surprise from a guy who took the lead defending Donald Trump's attempted coup, but the newly appointed Speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., moved quickly to abuse his power in an effort to spread lies and disinformation. He's pretending to do so under the guise of "transparency," by releasing over 40,000 hours of security footage from the January 6 insurrection online this week. Of course, Johnson does not actually expect people to watch the footage, especially as pretty much every American already knows what happened that day: attempted murder, vandalism, bashing cops, and limitless jackassery from people dumb enough to listen to Donald Trump. But of course, the MAGA movement — now indistinguishable from the Republican Party — wants to rewrite history in gaslight, claiming that our lying eyes deceived us and that the Capitol riot was merely a tickle.

The purpose of this release is not subtle. Propagandists can soon cherry-pick a few moments where rioters were not beating up cops, and pretend that somehow negates the rest of the time that they were beating up cops. As I noted in Tuesday's newsletter, the tactic is familiar to anyone who has survived a trash boyfriend, the kind who whined, "Why don't you talk about all the days I didn't cheat on you?"

This post is an example of why timestamps matter on the videos, this one is being used to say "police excorted them in" This is 3:00 PM 2 hours after the riot started. The man leading this group in hallway fought his way in at 2:39:52 PM after spraying officers with a chemical pic.twitter.com/QkiLcfk4xK

— SeditionHunters (@SeditionHunters) November 18, 2023

Relitigating a day that makes Republicans look like fascists and cowards doesn't seem like the smartest electoral strategy. But the GOP now is primarily composed of professional trolls who cannot turn down an opportunity to spew noxious gases online. Sure enough, some of the most annoying people in Congress tweeted conspiracy theories about the footage in language so fevered you could practically hear them panting as they typed. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, a man who is only spared from being the biggest dweeb in the Senate by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, retweeted an image of a Capitol rioter with captions falsely implying he was an undercover FBI agent. "I can’t wait to ask FBI Director Christopher Wray about this at our next oversight hearing," Lee wrote, with a junior high student's enthusiasm for being annoying to adults.

I can’t wait to ask FBI Director Christopher Wray about this at our next oversight hearing.

I predict that, as always, his answers will be 97% information-free. https://t.co/m3rRE4Byfu

— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) November 19, 2023

Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her newsletter Standing Room Only.

And, of course, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., repeated the same obviously silly story, because the woman never met a conspiracy theory she doesn't like.

I’m calling on @SpeakerJohnson to create a January 6th Select Committee.

Releasing the tapes is not enough!

There needs to be investigations and ACCOUNTABILITY for ALL of the lies, deceit, and lives ruined.

Every member of the Jan 6th committee, Nancy Pelosi, FBI, DOJ, DC… pic.twitter.com/1dMd1S7piS

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) November 19, 2023

In the end, they may have wished they'd pushed it down the memory hole, instead of constantly reminding people what happened that day.

NBC News reporter Ryan Reilly immediately debunked the lie.

In a shocking twist, this managed to embarrass Greene just enough that she deleted the screenshot and rewrote the tweet to erase the mention of a badge. (The above tweet is her original draft.) Of course, she's still shameless enough to continue pushing the flat-out falsehood that January 6 was anything but the Trump-inspired effort to overthrow an election it was. But Lee was able to do what was previously unthinkable, and exhibit more brazen dishonesty than Greene, by doubling down and bickering with former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., when she correctly noted he's a "nutball conspiracy theorist."

"Blatant disinformation": Mike Lee gets slapped down for pushing Jan. 6 conspiracy theory

What's crucial to understand here is that there is almost no chance that Lee believes a single word of the conspiracy theory. Nor do most, if any, of his followers. The person who originally tweeted the image, after all, is another convicted rioter, Derrick Evans. We can say with certainty that the convicted rioters know they are not, in fact, secret FBI agents. Nor did Lee apologize when confronted with irrefutable evidence that the man in the photo is Kevin Lyons, who has admitted his guilt and is sitting in prison for his crime. Instead, a spokesperson for Lee reiterated the implication that there's an FBI conspiracy afoot.

But mostly, we know Lee is lying because, while Lee may not be the smartest man, almost no one is stupid enough to believe this "FBI did it" conspiracy theory. This isn't like those conspiracy theories of old, where people actually believed it, like claims about the moon landing being fake or JFK being murdered by the mob 60 years ago today. MAGA conspiracy theories are, more often than not, a collective exercise in knowing B.S. The point of these conspiracy theories is not to believe them, but to sucker liberals into go-nowhere arguments with disingenuous actors. The end game is to overwhelm their opposition with so many lies and bizarre digressions that people eventually just get exhausted and give up.

Taking advantage of people's goodwill and presumption of good faith is a tactic that reactionary forces have used forever. Jean-Paul Sartre famously wrote in 1945 about how fascists would bait decent people into faux-debates with similar tactics, noting that they "know that their remarks are frivolous" so they "seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert." The hope is that you, the well-meaning liberal, will take at face value their claim to sincerely believe the FBI did January 6. And that you, in your earnest desire for a better level of discourse, will provide time and energy to trying to reason with the unreasonable. But of course, people like Lee don't believe their own words and are simply playing games. The end goal is to "win" the argument by wearing everyone else down into submission.

We need your help to stay independent

Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism

The good news is that it doesn't seem to be working. It's hard to measure these things, but the online reaction showed that folks seemed aware that arguing with Lee is beneath their dignity. Some, like Reilly, offered the correcting facts, but mostly people avoided getting sucked into "debates" over whether or not things like photographic evidence, court records, and the insurrectionist's own confession count as evidence. Most importantly, the tone and tenor of the response showed that people grasp that Lee is not confused, but rather lying. So the focus was mostly on calling out what he's doing, and indicating that no one is fooled.

This matters, because the trolling tactics that Sartre identified nearly eight decades ago only have power if people give in to them. This isn't an "ignore the trolls and they go away" argument, as we know that never works. But one can choose not to argue on a troll's turf. It's not up for "debate" whether January 6 happened or why it happened. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar. By keeping these realities in mind, the public discussion can shift away from disingenuous rabbit holes and back to what matters: How people like Lee and Greene are actively fighting to destroy American democracy. If people can stick with it, there's a strong chance the effort to relitigate January 6 will backfire on Republicans. In the end, they may have wished they'd pushed it down the memory hole, instead of constantly reminding people what happened that day.

As an added bonus, there's one group of people who may actually bother to watch the Capitol footage, a group Johnson probably didn't consider when he elected to release the tapes: The sedition hunters.

A community of online sleuths has spent the past couple of years combing through the publicly available photos and videos of the riot and using social media profiles and facial recognition software to figure out the identities of the insurrectionists. As Reilly wrote in his book on the subject, their all-volunteer work has already led to hundreds of arrests by the FBI. Still, the work isn't done and there are many rioters that the sedition hunters haven't yet been able to identify. Being handed a ton more footage will probably aid them in digging up more names and addresses. So for the short-term goal of making noise on Twitter, MAGA leaders likely just ensured that the news will have a regular injection of stories reminding voters of Jan. 6 and how bad it gets when Donald Trump is in charge.

about the GOP's struggle against democracy

The simple reason why Donald Trump is escalating his Hitlerian rhetoric: MAGA demands more

Hillary Clinton was right — again.

If more Americans had heeded her 2016 warnings about the so-called MAGA deplorable and their leader Donald Trump, we could have avoided this reality of neofascism as a dagger to the heart of the American experiment. Instead, we have a rapidly worsening crisis. During a recent appearance on ABC's "The View," Hillary Clinton warned Americans again:

I think it would be the end of our country as we know it, and I don't say that lightly…When I was secretary of state, I used to talk about ‘one and done’. What I meant by that is that people would get legitimately elected and then they would try to do away with elections, and do away with opposition, and do away with a free press….Hitler was duly elected. All of a sudden somebody with those tendencies, dictatorial, authoritarian tendencies, would be like ‘OK we’re gonna shut this down, we’re gonna throw these people in jail.’ And they didn’t usually telegraph that. Trump is telling us what he intends to do.

Clinton is part of a small and diligent chorus of public voices who, for at least seven years, have boldly told the truth about how Trump and the larger “conservative” movement represent an existential threat to American democracy. Others, such as former US Attorney Joyce Vance have correctly described Trump and his acolytes’ plans to end American democracy. Blueprints like Agenda 47 and Project 2025, which call for martial law, imprisoning the MAGA movement’s "enemies", mass deportation of “illegal aliens," ending the rule of law, gutting the First Amendment, criminalizing the LGBTQ community, and taking away the civil rights of other marginalized groups, have been correctly called out by some as “Stalinist."

As Hannah Arendt so insightfully observed in her landmark work “The Origins of Totalitarianism”, Stalinism and Hitlerism were the two major totalitarian movements of the first half of the 20^th century. Given Trump’s admiration of such leaders and his desires for total power and control like a type of God, the following passage from Arendt's book is ominous in how it accurately describes Trump and his MAGA people and the larger neofascist movement:

… Intellectual, spiritual, and artistic initiative is as dangerous to totalitarianism as the gangster initiative of the mob, and both are more dangerous than mere political opposition. The consistent persecution of every higher form of intellectual activity by the new mass leaders springs from more than their natural resentment against everything they cannot understand. Total domination does not allow for free initiative in any field of life, for any activity that is not entirely predictable. Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.

We need your help to stay independent

Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism

Hillary Clinton made her comments on "The View" before Trump amplified his channeling of Hitler and Nazism. In a series of recent speeches, interviews, and posts on his Truth Social platform, the former president called nonwhite migrants and immigrants monsters who were the equivalent of serial killers. On Veterans Day, Trump basically told his followers that their "enemies" (meaning the Democrats) are “vermin” and a threat to the country who should be eradicated. He also publicly threatened to prosecute anyone who opposed him.

Trump even went so far as to declare that special counsel Jack Smith and the other members of law enforcement who are attempting to hold him responsible for his obvious crimes are afflicted with “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and that he is going to have them put in “mental institutions." This is a common practice in authoritarian and totalitarian states.

Trump’s ex-wife has told reporters that he kept a copy of Hitler’s speeches in a cabinet near his bed. It is increasingly clear that Trump, who for decades has shown himself to be a casual antisemite, did in fact read from and internalize Hitler’s words and evil. In a Truth Social post last Saturday, he took another next step on his journey towards Nazism by invoking the evils of the Holocaust and the “final solution”:

2024 is our final battle. With you at my side, we will demolish the Deep State, we will expel the warmongers from our government, we will drive out the globalists, we will cast out the Communists, Marxists, and Fascists, we will throw off the sick political class that hates our Country, we will rout the Fake News Media, we will evict Joe Biden from the White House, and we will FINISH THE JOB ONCE AND FOR ALL!

This is not the first time Trump has promised a final battle and apocalypse where he and his MAGA people take revenge on the Democrats and their other “enemies." These most recent threats by Trump are deadlier and more menacing given the ex-president’s growing Hitler and Nazi energy.

Unfortunately, the American people, the news media, and the country’s political class have mostly become numb to the danger, preferring denial, happy pills, hope peddling, and being drunk on American exceptionalism and bromides like “It can’t happen here."

Trump's holy crusade: Christian evangelicals flock to his version of a "final solution"

In his new essay, “Listen to the Cassandras," Reed Galen, who is one of the co-founders of the pro-democracy organization The Lincoln Project, summarizes these failures and surrender:

Trump’s reality, after all he’s said, done, and what he promises to do in a second White House term, still haven’t awoken enough people from their collective slumber. Republicans have heard MAGA’s siren song and are drawn closer to the rocks. Many voters who’ve managed to strap themselves to the mast have chosen the lotus eater’s life; seeing nothing, hearing nothing, hoping to disappear into their phones and realities of their own creation….It's time to listen to the Cassandras. We must not be a nation who is unwilling to heed warnings. America’s democracy headed for a Thelma and Louise-like trip into the abyss. We’re headed for the cliff, we must apply the brakes while there is still time. When democracies die, there is no soft landing.

In a 2022 essay, Thom Hartmann makes the following intervention:

First, and essential to American fascism, Republicans envision a strong-man Leader who will hold power for as long as he (it’s almost always a “he”) chooses, with the transition to the next Leader determined by The Leader himself.

This has been the primary characteristic of every fascist-type of government to emerge in the 7,000-year written history of the modern world….

For example, in a fascist state the way that you as an average citizen ensure your own advancement and economic, personal, and political security is by sucking up to that one man (albeit often through one of his factotums). You either become an acolyte/follower or you find yourself on the outside looking in.

Hartmann continues:

You end up doing things on The Leader’s behalf, whether you’re supporting his party, working at a private corporation, or engaged in the nonprofit sector like teaching at a university or medical center.

Defying or challenging The Leader brings opprobrium; supporting The Leader is the path to career advancement. The Trump White House and DeSantis Governor’s Office are filled with examples.

Everything is done for The Leader because The Leader is the state. The state and The Leader have become one.

If you challenge The Leader, you’re challenging the state, and that’s treason….Whatever The Leader says becomes the law. This is called “rule by decree” and it’s where every fascist in history — including those for the thousands of years before Benito Mussolini “invented” the word — has ended up.

One of the reasons that the American people have not responded with the correct amount of alarm and energy to the dangers of Trumpism is that the mainstream news media and the political class have not explained in direct, consistent, and clear ways what life will be like for the average American under a second Trump regime. Even though they are consistently sounding the alarm and trying to rouse the American people to defend their democracy and nation, Hillary Clinton and other pro-democracy leaders are not placing enough emphasis on how Trumpism and American neofascism – and today’s version of “conservatism” more broadly – are a type of religion for the followers which in turn makes them largely immune from reason and other forms of rational intervention.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Moreover, many of Trump’s most diehard followers are White Christians, who see in their Dear Leader’s evil, profligate sinning, transgressions, and other wicked behavior, as a type of role model and outlet for their own foul desires to hurt those people who they view as “the enemy” of their “real (White) America." And like other forms of fascism, Trumpism and the MAGA movement is a space for wish fulfillment and cathartic violence; this is mass sociopathy as politics.

The mainstream news media and respectable political class are afraid to voice that alarming truth – assuming they even comprehend it – about the intersection of emotions and the political in a failing democracy. To wit. Here is an excerpt from the Washington Post’s coverage of Trump’s recent trip to Iowa:

“Joe’s gotta go,” said Lori Carpenter, 59, as she left the Fort Dodge event. “And the ho shouldn’t have been there in the first place.” The “ho” was Harris, she clarified, before offering another nickname for Harris that was even more vulgar.

“It doesn’t bother me,” she said of Trump’s insults and crudeness. Her relative,

71-year-old Marsha Crouthamel, agreed. “It doesn’t bother me either because his policies are strong,” she echoed, adding that Trump got a lot of laughs and added, “Sometimes you just gotta excite people a little bit.”

“We’re Christians, and we can look past that,” Carpenter said. “We see the good that he did our country when he was in.” Asked what she thought of GOP rivals arguing they could deliver Trump-like policies without the baggage, she said: “They’re weaker than him.”

In a recent conversation with me here at Salon, Robert P. Jones, who is the president of the Public Religion Research Institute, highlighted the larger context of White Christianity and its relationship to Trumpism, neofascism, white supremacy, and political violence:

What they see is a society adrift from where they think it ought to be. That explains the reactionary language about "taking America back" and "(Re)Awakening America." It's basically a narrative of loss and decline. Trump repeats those themes of decline and American carnage and how he is the only person who can save America.

There is a real belief in Apocalypticism among conservative white Christians, specifically, and white conservatives and the right, more broadly. That is very much tied to changing demographics: we are no longer a majority white Christian country, and we were just 20 years ago. That has set off a visceral reaction, and a kind of panic among conservative White Christians in particular. As I document in The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy, most white evangelicals sincerely believe that God designated America to be a promised land for white European Christians. That is not a joke to them. If a person sincerely believes such a thing and the country is changing and is not in agreement with that vision, it opens the door to political extremism and violence to secure that outcome. Many conservative White Christians truly believe that they have a divine mandate and entitlement to the country.

In the end, Trump wants to create a Fourth Reich in America.

Hitler’s dreams of a thousand-year Reich lasted only twelve years and ended with the destruction of the regime and loss of life measured in the many tens of millions. Trump’s Fourth Reich will not be a copy of Hitler’s (or Stalin’s regime). Instead, it will be crafted to fit the American mold. But even then, that crafting will be done by similar forces of cruelty, misery, and unnecessary death and destruction.

The American people have a choice to make on Election Day 2024 and in the year or so preceding it. Will they make the correct one by first stopping Trump and then confronting a Republican fascist party and larger white right that is much bigger than any one man or leader? Or will the American people surrender to what feels like the near-inevitable tides of history and a growing dread that “what’s past is prologue”?

60 years after the assassination of JFK: The guns are winning

Today marks the 60^th anniversary of JFK’s assassination and the first real traumatic event of my life that ended my eight-year-old universe of innocence.

For me, the oldest of six in an Irish Catholic family, John Kennedy, was the embodiment of what a hero was supposed to be. In the years since his killing, there’s been a string of similar national atrocities culminating most recently in the violent Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. These days, it’s hard to maintain any semblance of my third-grade self’s optimism in a country where grade schoolers have to drill for the possibility of a mass casualty shooting in their school. When I was in third grade, our survival drills required us to sit with our little faces pressed against the pastel cinder block walls of our school hallway to contemplate the nuclear apocalypse. We did get to pick a book to read as a diversion. I picked “You Will Go to the Moon” which seemed like a good plan B at the time.

It is sixty years after JFK’s murder and the guns are winning with the nation’s children and their families who are increasingly losing.

What is it with American culture and death, anyway? Could it be a nation built on bloody violent conquest just can’t stop even after all the territories have been subdivided?

Since JFK’s murder, more Americans have died from civilian gunfire than the well over one million American soldiers killed in all of our wars, according to a flyer circulated by the Virginia Center for Public Safety back in January of 2016. A PolitiFact review of the claim noted that the federal Centers of Disease Control and Prevention analysis “of yearly gunfire deaths in the U.S. from 1968 to 2014” all added up to 1.5 million gun-related deaths, greater than the 1.4 million lost to armed conflict since the creation of the nation.

We need your help to stay independent

Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism

Between 2015 and 2020, the United States had an additional 237,000 gun deaths. In 2021, the United States set a record with 48,830 gun-related deaths, with 54 percent flagged as suicides and 43 percent as murders. Overall, that reflected a 23 percent spike since 2019, according to the Pew Research Center.

It is sixty years after JFK’s murder and the guns are winning with the nation’s children and their families that are increasingly losing.

Earlier this month the family and friends of Jillian Ludwig, 18, gathered to hold candles in the wind outside her church in Brielle. They were mourning the talented young musician’s death from a random gunshot to her head while she was walking in a park in Nashville, where she attended Belmont University. A 29-year-old was arrested.

Since the start of the pandemic, there’s been a 50 percent increase in the number of children and teens under 18 killed by gunfire with the death toll spiking from 1,732 in 2019 to 2,590 in 2021, according to data from the CDC.

When it comes to guns and dead children, it’s another example of American exceptionalism. These gun crimes make a mess all the way around. Yet, our national government is completely incapable of doing anything meaningful to address the issue because just enough of our elected leaders are captives of the firearms industry that market their deadly wares with a survivalist mindset that feeds on fear.

“In 2020 and 2021, firearms contributed to the deaths of more children ages 1-17 years in the U.S. than any other type of injury or illness,” reported KFF (Kaiser Health News). “The child firearm mortality rate has doubled in the U.S. from a recent low of 1.8 deaths per 100,000 in 2013 to 3.7 in 2021.”

The KFF analysis continued:

The United States has by far the highest rate of child and teen firearm mortality among peer nations. In no other similarly large, wealthy country are firearms in the top four causes of death for children and teens, let alone the number one cause. U.S. states with the most gun laws have lower rates of child and teen firearm deaths than states with few gun laws. But even states with the lowest child and teen firearm deaths have rates much higher than what peer countries experience.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

The Washington Post reports that last year there were 46 school shootings, more than any year since the 1999 school shooting in Columbine when 12 students and a teacher were murdered by two high school seniors who committed suicide. There have been 389 school shootings since Columbine, according to the newspaper.

“Through 2017, the country averaged about 11 school shootings a year, never eclipsing 16 in a single year,” according to the Washington Post. “But starting in 2018, violent incidents started climbing.” In 2020, with instruction mostly remote, just nine school shootings were reported but in 2021, with in-school instruction resumed, there were 42 school shootings.

New Jersey is not immune from the scourge of gun violence like the case of the 15-year-old charged with opening fire at the Brunswick Square Mall back in May or the teen shot leaving school in Newark earlier this month.

But our relatively low level of gun ownership and tight regulation pays off. New Jersey ranks 48th in the nation in terms of our gun death rate, just ahead of New York, and only behind Hawaii and Massachusetts, according to the Violence Policy Center, a national educational organization working to stop gun death and injury.

VPC reports that in Mississippi, where over 50 percent of the households own a gun and the lack of firearm regulation is a source of state pride, the gun death rate per 100,000 is 32.61, the deadliest in the county. Here in New Jersey, where just over 15 percent of households have a gun and our gun laws are stringent, our gun death rate per 100,000 is only 5.13.

Unfortunately, our national addiction to gun violence is holding the entire nation back no matter where you live. Consider that in addition to the tens of thousands of men, women and children lost to gun violence each year, there’s a $557 billion economic consequence annually, according to Everytown, a national alliance of leading anti-gun violence groups.

“This $557 billion problem represents the lifetime costs associated with gun violence, including three types of costs: immediate costs starting at the scene of a shooting, such as police investigations and medical treatment; subsequent costs, such as treatment, long-term physical and mental health care, earnings lost to disability or death, and criminal justice costs; and cost estimates of quality of life lost over a victim’s life span for pain and suffering of victims and their families.”

That’s more than ten times the budget of the Marine Corps. It’s $300 billion more than what it takes to float the Navy, and more than the Army, Air Force and Marines combined. It’s equal to five times the country’s budget for the U.S. Department of Education.

Think of it as a killer tax that targets children.

Susan Sarandon dropped from agency after comments at a pro-Palestine rally

Oscar winner and progressive activist Susan Sarandon has been dropped by the agency UTA after her comments at a pro-Palestine rally, reports LA Times.

At a rally in New York City on Nov. 17 the actress said, “There are a lot of people that are afraid, that are afraid of being Jewish at this time, and are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country, so often subjected to violence.”

Some have criticized the comment as antisemitic while others have lauded Sarandon for publicly showing Palestinian support whilst calling for a ceasefire. Regardless of Sarandon's history of activism for progressive causes, she was dropped by UTA after being a client since 2014.

These are not the only comments without consequences though as Hollywood grapples with the tense social and political fallout of the ongoing war waging between Israel and Palestine. Deemed a humanitarian crisis by the United Nations with a death toll of upwards of 11,000 Palestinians and more than 1,200 Israeli deaths, the industry struggles to address the war.

Industry figures like CAA agent Maha Dakhil, who represented A-list clients like Tom Cruise, Natalie Portman and Reese Witherspoon, has resigned from the agency's board for her comments criticizing Israel. "Scream" lead actress Melissa Barrera was also just dropped from "Scream VII" after a series of social media posts denouncing Israel.

Why does red wine cause such debilitating headaches? A new study may have the answer

Scientists may have figured out why so many people suffer from awful headaches after drinking wine, particularly red wine. Writing in Scientific Reports, researchers honed in on phenolic flavonoids, which are chemical compounds found in grapes that affect the taste, color and mouthfeel of wine.

Various types of wine contain various levels of flavonoids. Red wine, specifically, can contain 10 times the amount of flavonoids than its white counterpart, thus making the compounds a major culprit for causing immediate wine headaches.When consumed, the alcohol in wine is metabolized in the liver by enzymes to create acetate. First, the alcohol is converted to acetaldehyde. Then, acetaldehyde is converted to acetate.After running lab tests on more than a dozen compounds in red wine, researchers found that quercetin glucuronide (which is processed in the body from quercetin, a flavonol almost exclusively found in red wine) could effectively block the enzyme that converts acetaldehyde into acetate.

When the enzyme is blocked, toxic acetaldehyde builds up in the bloodstream, the researchers said. High levels of acetaldehyde, in turn, causes headaches, nausea, facial flushing and sweating. As for why some people are more prone to wine headaches than others, researchers said that information is still unclear. They are looking to conduct clinical trials soon in hopes of finding that answer.

“We think we are finally on the right track toward explaining this millennia-old mystery,” Morris Levin, the director of the Headache Center at the University of California, San Francisco, told The Guardian. “The next step is to test it scientifically on people who develop these headaches.”

6 celebs you didn’t know play the flute

People are ever-evolving surprises. Even the most under-the-radar celebrity has a magic trick up their sleeve.

Someone like perpetual funny stoner Seth Rogan is actually really good at pottery and has a ceramic brand called House Plant. Funny enough, the comedian who is known for his pothead tendencies now makes weed paraphernalia like ashtrays and weed stash jars. He also makes funky vases and other home decor. But Rogan isn't the only multi-talented celebrity. John Cena speaks Chinese, and it's always a little bit shocking when the former WWE star breaks out his bilingual skills.

But no one does multi-talent like André 3000. He had a fruitful career as one-half of the rap group OutKast. He's scored himself No. 1 hits and Grammys with his southern-styled gangster rap. But post-OutKast hype, the musician fell off the face of the planet and transformed into a wanderlust-bitten hippie, only ever being spotted in random places around the world in hand with a flute.

The former rap star has even just released his new album "New Blue Sun" which is entirety played on different woodwind instruments but primarily on the flute.

Ever wonder what other celebrities are secretly flutists besides Benjamin and of course, Lizzo? Check 'em out:

André 3000

Andre 3000 (Marcus Ingram/WireImage/Getty Images)

The OutKast rapper, André 3000, has removed himself from the industry for more than a decade. He hadn't released music since the last OutKast album "Stankonia" which was released 17 years ago.

But the recluse is back in the spotlight after years out of the public eye spent learning how to play the flute, traveling and featuring on other people's music. In his first-ever solo album "New Blue Sun," the rapper and now flautist, includes his playing on his cedarwood Mayan instrument — no raps.

The musician said he started his woodwind journey with the saxophone but he switched to the bass clarinet which led to the flute. “There was something softer and smoother about the tone of woodwinds,” he said. “It just felt right to me.”

He spent half of a decade trying to perfect his flute-playing and even tried writing raps but like his first song on the album states: "I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a “Rap” Album But This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time."

Tina Fey

Tina Fey (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)

The writer, comedian and actress, Tina Fey moves through the film and television format as a behind-the-scenes juggernaut and an onscreen star. Most known for her shows "30 Rock" and "Saturday Night Live," Fey is also a low-key flutist.

Fey played the flute for a year when she was in middle school, and it's made a reappearance in her career a couple of times.

She said, "The last time I picked up that flute was [portraying] Sarah Palin on 'Saturday Night Live.' They asked if I could play anything on the flute. I said, 'I can play 'The Hustle.'" So she did. In the skit as Palin, she imitated the Republican politician's beauty contest skills. She also played the flute in a commercial for American Express.

Kenny G

Kenny G (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

Musician Kenny G is known for his extensive career as a smooth jazz saxophonist, composer and producer. He started playing the saxophone when he was just 10 years old.

In the '70s the artist played the flute and saxophone in the Seattle funk band Cold, Bold & Together. Kenny G made it mainstream in the '80s after he was signed as a solo artist by Arista Records label president Clive Davis. His debut solo album "Kenny G" was met with positive critical reviews and it reached No. 10 on the Billboard Jazz album charts.

Kenny G's sixth album "Breathless" became the best-selling instrumental album ever with 15 million copies sold worldwide. He's been nominated for a Grammy 17 times and has one win.

Gwen Stefani

Gwen Stefani (Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Another prolific musician, Gwen Stefani said she used to play the flute when she was in the eighth grade. The No Doubt lead singer said she struggled to play the flute and piccolo in school.

"I took flute lessons when I was in eighth grade and I really had a hard time learning the flute, so I went on to get into marching band, and I pretended to play the piccolo for a while," she said.

But the singer said she “kind of learned how to play guitar. Enough to write a song. And I wrote a song called ‘Simple Kind of Life’ on the guitar. It’s the only song I’ve ever written completely on my own.”

Halle Berry

Halle Berry (Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images)

The "Catwoman" star Halle Berry is mostly known for her extensive career in acting. She even won the Oscar for best actress for the film “Monster’s Ball" in 2002. She broke barriers and is the most recent Black woman to win a best actress Oscar.

The decorated actress also can play the flute: "I can play the flute! I played in high school," she said.

Lizzo

Lizzo (Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)

The most famous flutist in pop culture is Lizzo. Since blowing up in the pop music scene with her hit "Truth Hurts" in 2019, the singer-rapper-flutist never performs without her flute in hand.

The musician was classically trained as a flutist for eight years starting at 10 years old. In college, she studied classical music with a concentration in flute at the University of Houston. She incorporates flute into most of her music and her personal flute, Sasha Flute, even has its own Instagram page.

Last year, Lizzo made headlines for playing a 200-year-old crystal flute onstage in Washington D.C. that was lent to her by the Library of Congress. It was gifted to President James Madison in the 1800s by a "French crystal flute designer to celebrate his second term," she said. Lizzo was the first person to ever play the old instrument. She was met with immense backlash from angry conservatives questioning why she was twerking while playing the instrument.

“I just twerked and played James Madison’s crystal flute from the 1800s,” Lizzo said. “We just made history tonight."

about celebrities

Unexplained structures detected at heart of Milky Way in new James Webb Space Telescope image

A new photo from the James Webb Space Telescope of the deep center of the Milky Way highlights never-before-features that have yet to be scientifically explained. Specifically, JWST narrowed in on the region called Sagittarius C (Sgr C), which is about 300 light-years away from Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way’s center. The unprecedented detail casts the region in a new light to astronomers, allowing them to study it in ways that weren't possible before.

Astronomers say the level of resolution is allowing them to see new features for the very first time, like how the galactic center is actually a very crowded place with around 500,000 stars — including a cluster of protostars, which are stars that are still forming. At the heart of this cluster is a previously known massive protostar that is 30 times the mass of our own Sun. JWST’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument also captured large-scale emission from ionized hydrogen bordering the lower side of an infrared-dark cloud. Astronomers say they are excited to dig in, and hope this new image will lead to unprecedented information on how stars form.

“There’s never been any infrared data on this region with the level of resolution and sensitivity we get with Webb, so we are seeing lots of features here for the first time,” said the observation team’s principal investigator Samuel Crowe, in a media statement. “The image from Webb is stunning, and the science we will get from it is even better.”

Legal scholar: Voting rights ruling “so extreme” that even “radical” Supreme Court may overturn it

A federal appeals court on Monday significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act in seven states, issuing a ruling that would effectively bar private citizens and civil rights organizations from filing lawsuits under a crucial provision of the landmark civil rights law, The New York Times reported.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled that only the federal government could bring a legal challenge under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The appellate court found that “only the attorney general of the United States may bring suit” to enforce the key section of the act.

Should it be upheld, the ruling would drastically weaken what remains of the Voting Rights Act, which was enacted in 1965 to combat racial discrimination in elections.

“The absurdity and extremism of the ruling can be highlighted by posing simple questions: if neither pre-clearance nor private rights of action under Section 2 had been available during, say, the Reagan years, when the DOJ was hardly clamoring to enforce the VRA, how effective would the Act have been,” James Sample, a Hofstra University constitutional law professor, told Salon. “Similarly, how effective would leaving enforcement solely and exclusively to a Trump-appointed Attorney General be in, for example, the 2026 midterms?”

GOP waging a "coordinated national effort to undermine American elections," says leading official

The ruling disrupts the traditional approach to challenging voting rules, where the majority of lawsuits are typically initiated by private voters or organizations like the NAACP or the ACLU. If the ruling is upheld, it has the potential to diminish the resources available to voters of color and voting rights advocates in safeguarding voting access for marginalized groups.

The current case revolves around a challenge initially filed by the Arkansas chapter of the NAACP and the Arkansas Public Policy Panel over a new voting map that took effect in December 2021. The plaintiffs said in their complaint that the newly drawn Arkansas House of Representatives district map diluted the strength of Black voters.

U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky, also a Trump appointee, ruled in early 2022 that he was unable to decide on the merits since there was no private right of action. The case may be brought only by the attorney general of the United States, Rudofsky wrote. On Monday, the circuit court affirmed that finding.

“The US Supreme Court has already made the Voting Rights Act Section 5 preclearance nearly impossible under Shelby County, and it has drastically curtailed what voter dilution means under Section 2 via the Brnovich decision,” David Schultz, professor of political science at Hamline University, told Salon.

We need your help to stay independent

Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism

These two cases alone make it tougher for the federal government to challenge state action, he added. It’s generally harder to identify a violation unless the state or local jurisdiction makes “sudden or abrupt changes” to voting procedures. In effect, the latter allows “slow gradual and small efforts” to make voting more difficult without being subject to legal action.

“Now this decision, if upheld, all but removes private causes of action to challenge VRA violations,” Schultz said. “This is despite decades of precedent that reaches a different conclusion. This is the danger of the textualism that many judges are using. They ignore a major feature of US law that text plus judicial opinion (precedent) is law. They ignore the latter.”

The second and larger issue is that there is a “significant partisan divide” over voting rights now, he continued. In 2008, Schultz argued that we were beginning to witness the “second great disenfranchisement in American history” (the first after the Civil War and Reconstruction).

“The history of the expansion of voting rights in the US does not occur at the state level – historically only when one or more institutions or the federal government comes to the rescue,” Schultz said. “Divided government and partisan differences, and a possible long-term anti-voting rights Supreme Court is not a good recipe for more protection of voting rights, especially in those states with trifectas that support such rights.”

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

Currently, the decision only applies to the states that are covered by the 8th Circuit including Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. This means it will be more difficult to challenge voting regulations in these states before the 2024 election.

The opinion is almost certain to be appealed to the Supreme Court. Perhaps this Supreme Court could consider claims related to 14th Amendment due process concerning voting rights, or even a new challenge under the 15th Amendment, but this is “a long shot,” Schultz explained.

“Even by the standards of the last decade – hardly a decade that has been kind to voting rights – the Eighth Circuit’s decision is an extreme outlier,” Sample said. “The decision is so extreme that even our contemporary, and historically radical, Supreme Court may seriously consider overturning it.”

about the right-wing assault on voting rights

Medical marijuana patients don’t experience negative cognitive effects when used as directed: study

All drugs have side effects, including medical marijuana; the question is whether or not these side effects are manageable or outweighed by the benefits of the drug. For example, ibuprofen can cause liver damage, but used as directed, it's very rarely going to cause harm. When it comes to cannabis, however, there is still a prevailing stigma that the "medical" part is just a euphemism and that the drug can cause significant cognitive impairment.

Yet a recent study in the journal CNS Drugs found that medical marijuana patients who use the drug as prescribed do not experience meaningful negative cognitive effects after doing so. The researchers tested 40 patients by giving them a spectrum of marijuana products, including oils and flower, and then performing a battery of tests to measure cognitive performance. The authors found "no evidence for impaired cognitive function," concluding, "these findings suggest that prescribed medical cannabis may have minimal acute impact on cognitive function among patients with chronic health conditions, although larger and controlled trials are needed."

In a press release regarding the results, the study's lead author — Dr. Thomas Arkell of the Swinburne University of Technology’s Centre for Human Psychopharmacology — explained that “we already know that non-medical cannabis can impact memory and attention. However, our findings show that patients prescribed medical cannabis by a doctor don’t experience the same effects." He added that over time patients may develop tolerance to the negative cognitive effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive component of cannabis.

This is not the only recent study to show medical benefits to marijuana. In September a study in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry found that because "the endocannabinoid system plays a key role" in autism spectrum disorders, marijuana can have positive effects on autistic people.

Why is sweet potato casserole with marshmallows so beloved during Thanksgiving?

For many folks, bitter political disputes, poor holiday etiquette and familial foes are just a few sources of rage amid Thanksgiving dinner.

That’s not the case for me.

For me, rage is spurred by a certain dish that will be enjoyed by many this holiday season: sweet potato casserole with marshmallows. How (and why) this abomination of a creation is deemed even remotely appetizing remains an unsolved mystery — at least on my part.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my fair share of sweet-and-savory food pairings. But when it comes to meshing baked sweet potatoes and toasted marshmallows into one cohesive dish, something about it is incredibly heinous. To start, there’s the unpleasant texture. Warm, mushy sweet potatoes mixed with ooey-gooey marshmallows feels like a grown-up-rendition of baby food puree. And then, there’s the overall taste. Caramelized sweet potatoes, which are both syrupy and nutty in flavor, are practically outshined by the artificial, sugary sweetness of marshmallows. Not to mention that some marshmallows taste like soap (depending on the gelatin used), which certainly doesn’t make for a delicious casserole!

"Pleasantly disgusting:" Who's buying all those Thanksgiving-flavored sodas and snacks?

Sweet potato casserole topped with marshmallows was first created in the early 1900s by a company named Angelus Marshmallows, also the original maker of Cracker Jacks. Angelus Marshmallows, which was founded by German brothers Frederick and Louis Rueckheim, “introduced mass-made marshmallows to Americans in 1907,” wrote Alex Swerdloff for Vice’s Munchies. When marshmallows were originally conceived in ancient Egypt, they were derived from a plant called Althaea officinalis and utilized as an herbal medicine. Amid the 19th century, French confectioners learned to make marshmallows using just sugar, water, and gelatin. What was once a prized medicine had transformed into a candy that people slowly (but surely!) learned to appreciate.

A decade later, in 1917, Angelus Marshmallows sought a way to encourage more Americans to enjoy marshmallows on the daily. The company reached out to Janet McKenzie Hill, the founder of the Boston Cooking School Magazine, to help formulate recipes designed to “encourage home cooks to embrace the candy as an everyday ingredient,” Swerdloff wrote. The resulting cookbook “featured plenty of instant classics, including fudge studded with chewy marshmallows; cups of hot cocoa dotted with them; and, yes, the first documented appearance of mashed sweet potatoes baked with a marshmallow topping,” wrote Leslie Porcelli for Saveur.

Want more great food writing and recipes? Subscribe to Salon Food's newsletter, The Bite.

Today, sweet potato casserole with marshmallows remains a quintessential Thanksgiving dish that’s eaten by the masses annually. On Reddit, fans of the dish raved about their go-to recipes.

“We had a special electric skillet that was only used for this one dish. It also has copious amounts of butter and brown sugar,” explained one user. “The potatoes end up practically candied or caramelized and the marshmallows get added just before serving. It’s like green bean casserole with cream of mushroom soup and French fried onions. You only eat it at Thanksgiving.”

We need your help to stay independent

Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism

Another user shared their grandma's recipe, which involves canned yams, “lots of butter, and brown sugar with cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.” The marshmallows are sprinkled on top after the sweet potatoes have cooked in the oven in order to achieve a toasted and melted top.

Unfortunately, my sentiments regarding sweet potato marshmallow casserole seem to be in the minority as many people agreed that the dish is more delectable than disgusting. Let it be known that I’ve had the casserole many times growing up, so my hatred for the dish isn’t based on hypotheticals. Baked sweet potatoes and marshmallows should exist as separate entities, plain and simple. I don’t want them served together as a side dish, main entree or dessert. In my books, there’s no happy ever after for the sweet potato and the marshmallow because I don’t want them together ever.

As expected, I will not be eating sweet potato casserole topped with marshmallows this Thanksgiving. My opinions about the dish are pretty set in stone and frankly, I'm unwilling to change them anytime soon.

about Thanksgiving tips:

Making “Fargo” great again: The latest season follows a caper in a time when Minnesota nice is dead

Each season of Noah Hawley’s “Fargo” is a study of the varying degrees to which we allow evil, American style, to triumph. Once you understand that, this fifth round takes on a certain inevitability, in that we were always going to end up . . . here. Setting Season 5 in 2019 and a time when evil ensnares all of us, consuming the show’s long presumed notion of “Minnesota nice,” is the closest to the present this show has ever dared to be.

As a brief card defining the term explains, "Minnesota nice" isn't honest. The fabled front was always understood to be window dressing veiling frustrations, squelched desires, and countless other malignancies. That it would someday go up in flames was indubitable; that it would implode in our frighteningly divided era is realistic. The fifth installment takes us back to the show's original feeling and also reduces the level of ambition that flavored past rides. But what is aspiration without economy or organization? An admirable try at best.

Any "Fargo" season that falls short of our high expectations is generally well-considered. The '50s-era Kansas City setting of the fourth chapter was a world away from frigid Minnesota and North Dakota, forgoing the crime from one murder to examine the broader corruption of racial and class disparity. Stellar performances carried it, but the narrative efficiency buckled beneath the weight of its stylistic swings. This fifth case regains its footing by resuming its old pattern of pitting criminal teams against each other. This time each operates under the banner of the law.

"Fargo" season 4 has spun a complex, compelling American fable of race and crime

Politics colors the outlook and action without expressly naming the transformative presence that has infected the way we view our neighbors. Not since the second Reagan-influenced season has the series framed its story in such politically tinged terms. But the only side it overtly takes is that of the mice trapped between apex predators — namely a skinny housewife Dorothy Lyon (Juno Temple).

Dorothy is a loving wife and mom who would do anything to protect her daughter Scotty (Sienna King), including escorting her child out of a school conference that turns into a riot. In the frenzy she accidentally Tasers a cop, which gets her arrested, booked and fingerprinted.

"Minnesota nice" isn't honest. The fabled front was always understood to be window dressing veiling frustrations, squelched desires, and other malignancies.

With this, sinister figures from Dot’s past come out of the woodwork. But she’s already accustomed to fighting. Her gentle husband Wayne (David Rysdahl) is more eager to appease his wealthy and powerful mother Lorraine (Jennifer Jason Leigh) than stand up for Dorothy, whom Lorraine views as beneath her.

There’s a lot of that going around. In addition to its various interpretations of indebtedness, our steady normalizing of brazen misogyny is a major theme, a force against which Lorraine and Dorothy battle in their ways along with Officer Indira Olmstead (Richa Moorjani, "Never Have I Ever"), the breadwinner supporting a manchild who barely lifts a finger around the house.

Jon Hamm as Roy Tillman in "Fargo" (Michelle Faye/FX)If Sheriff Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm, continuing his villain streak) had his way, no woman would be in a position to do anything but serve men. In his North Dakota fiefdom, he styles himself as a “constitutional” lawman who believes his Biblical interpretation of right and wrong overrules all, including federal law. Other law enforcement officials are at a loss as to how to handle his minions, especially his fashy son Gator (Joe Keery).

This season's action infers that maybe the law is less practical in dealing with people like Gator and Roy than a sense of justice and a fierce survival instinct. Sometimes justice manifests in singular acts of true good or blind charity. Sometimes it materializes through gloriously weird chaos actors like Ole Munch (Sam Spruell), the show's ode to inscrutable Coen Brothers villains like Gaear Grimsrud from the 1996 film or Anton Chigurh from 2007’s “No Country for Old Men.”

Every actor in this season entirely inhabits a mood, not simply a role, with Temple's unreasonably perky Dot leading the way. Hawley's characters are as outsized as ever, and the mythical Fahr-goh accent still flogs the ear – but the overwrought, flowery speeches that drowned the 2020 season aren’t as overwhelming.

We need your help to stay independent

Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism

That doesn’t mean Hawley has reverted to straightlaced dialogue. This time he’s more judicious in applying it, maximizing the pleasure potential of lines like, “Does my discussing matters of state in moist repose bother you?”

Mainly, though, it's casual, creeping malevolence energizing the plot’s tick-tick-tick and boom, along with the show’s predilection for the absurd. Dot is at her deadliest when she’s setting snares for those hunting her, each one reminiscent of a "Tom & Jerry" cartoon despite their lethality. Roy, for all of his professed devotion to upholding Christian values, wears his kink just under his shirt. (Seeing pierced nipples on the man who played Don Draper shouldn’t be disturbing. And yet.)

For all its familiarity in tone and approach, the latest “Fargo” case has a more cynical twang to it.

If anyone works overtime in restoring the show’s status as an unmitigated treat, it is Leigh and her rendition of a rich matron who would make Joan Crawford proud. Temple’s roly-poly Minnesota accent is front and center, but the Golden Age mid-Atlantic expression Leigh breathes into Lorraine is something to savor, especially when she has to devour an unsuspecting man for lunch.

Jennifer Jason Leigh as Lorraine Lyon in "Fargo" (Michelle Faye/FX)Hawley’s realignment of the utility of law enforcement since his last turn with this format (which was produced in 2020, before a summer that yielded calls to defund the police) is slightly underbaked. While Lamorne Morris is a welcome sight whenever he turns up, his North Dakota deputy Witt Farr receives little character development in the six episodes provided to critics compared to Moorjani’s local cop.

Given the lean toward female protagonists this season that’s somewhat forgivable, but that doesn’t prevent his profile from seeming thin. Other actors make their characters’ relative lack of backstory work wonders, especially Dave Foley’s obsequious but effective Danish Graves, Lorraine’s devoted fixer blessed with one of the series’ best names.

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

For all its familiarity in tone and approach, the latest “Fargo” case has a more cynical twang to it. This is the first season in which the principled heroes are separated by a physical and emotional distance without developing anything more than professional comity. Heroic duos aren't obligated to fall in love but watching friendships develop in the first three seasons provided some gravitational warmth to compensate for all the coldblooded killing.

Lacking that, the season’s appealing jauntiness takes on a grim weight even as it asks us to ponder what we owe to each other. In Dorothy Lyon’s living nightmare keeping everything she’s fought for, including her freedom, means operating free of all debts, monetary and moral — a pragmatic strategy that’s also a little melancholy, as is the plot’s eventual hint that salvation may rely on appealing to the better angels of lesser evils.

But within that, this fifth turn with "Fargo" conveys a confidence that all will turn out as expected, a benefit of this chapter meeting us where we are.

"Fargo" premieres with with two episodes at 10 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 21 on FX, streaming the next day on Hulu. New episodes air Tuesdays.

about "Fargo"

“Egregious form of partisanship”: Cassidy Hutchinson slams Bill Barr for saying he may vote Trump

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson on Monday ripped former Attorney General Bill Barr during an MSNBC interview with Jen Psaki. Psaki highlighted a Washington Post report that showed many of former President Donald Trump's former staffers are hesitant to speak out against him because they don't want to be labeled a Democrat. Barr has even argued that while Trump is unfit for the presidency, they may still vote for him. "There was a point that I felt that way too. I am not proud of that. But what I will say to that is that it is an egregious form of partisanship," Hutchinson said. "Donald Trump is not a Republican. Yes, maybe by name, he considers himself a Republican. But Donald Trump cares more about the authoritarian role than he does the rule of law."

Hutchinson then slammed Trump for his disregard of the Constitution, accusing him of "leveraging it for his own power" and gain. Among other subjects, Hutchinson also explained that people should stop underestimating Republican voters. While she conceded some Trump supporters may never change, she argued that other conservative voters will. Hutchinson added that she's hopeful Trump won't become the GOP nominee and urged voters to choose Joe Biden "if they want our democracy to survive." She went on to declare that the GOP frontrunner will not receive her vote and vowed to continue speaking out against him to push voters toward the same realization she had about Trump — that he's "uniquely unsuited for the Office of the Presidency and should be nowhere near the Oval Office ever again."

This healthy-ish twist on chocolate bread has only 3 simple ingredients

Over the past few months, writing about food — including researching the many different ways to prepare it and experimenting with new recipes and flavors — has been transformative. I thought I had it all figured out, but I was just as wrong as anyone who ever thinks they have it all figured out.

Why, you ask? I discovered that I could make a semi-healthy chocolate dessert, which blew my mind. Hopefully, it will blow yours, too. This part will wow you for sure: You only need three ingredients to make it.

Starting a health journey can be extremely scary. The main reason is we feel like we will never get to enjoy dessert again and be forced to dwell in the land of bland and dull snacks, like those popcorn cakes that really should be used as table coasters.

Why there's no better comfort food than bread and butter

Luckily, I've found joy in the many different kinds of fruit and fruit hacks I've come across while on this journey. Have you ever squeezed lemon on top of cold watermelon chunks? You should try it.

But let's be honest: Too much fruit can also be, well, boring. That is why I almost lost my mind . . . until I found this chocolate bread that is so easy to make — and tastes so good — it must have been the stuff Jesus doled out the very day he turned water into wine.

"I thought I had it all figured out, but I was just as wrong as anyone who ever thinks they have it all figured out."

This isn't the healthiest snack in the world; however, it's low-carb, yeast-free and flourless. Organic dark chocolate is also healthier than other varieties. You can get creative and add the ingredients of your choice to spice things up. As a chocolate-loving guy, I stick to my favorite tried-and-true flavor.

I would not have been able to make this bread back when I was a single dude. The problem is that single guys often don’t prioritize dishes. I never had an apple peeler, bread pan, garlic mincer, whisk or anything similar until I married my wife.

Want more great food writing and recipes? Subscribe to Salon Food's newsletter, The Bite.

If you would like to take this moment to call me a caveman, I won't argue with you because single me had only one bowl and one spoon for cereal and one frying pan and one spatula for scrambling my beloved eggs. What did I eat on? Paper plates, which I gladly shared with guests.

Cooking would have been a disaster if I didn't have all of her gadgets, some of which you will need to whip up this chocolate bread. Now, pull out your kitchen gizmos because you can't play this game without the right tools.

3-Ingredient Chocolate Bread

Yields

1 loaf

Prep Time

5 minutes

Cook Time

40 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup chocolate nut butter
1/2 cup chocolate chips
4 organic eggs

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Line a bread pan with wax or parchment paper. (Don't skip this step because it will be hard to remove your loaf otherwise.)
Whip the eggs vigorously.
Add the chocolate nut butter to the eggs and continue to whip until it's smooth like cake icing.
Add the batter to the lined bread pan.
Bake for 40 minutes.
Remove from the oven and serve.

about this topic

The Rolling Stones announce 2024 tour dates for “Hackney Diamonds,” starting with Houston

The legendary Rolling Stones are headed back on tour in 2024 after the release of their new album "Hackney Diamonds."

According to the band's tour announcement, they will be touring their 24th album across 16 cities across the U.S. and Canada, which will include their classic hits, some deep cuts and songs from the new album. The group's lead members Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ron Wood, last toured together in North America in 2021 just weeks after the death of long-time drummer Charlie Watts.

The 2024 tour will start on April 28 in Houston, Texas. It is also sponsored by AARP — the nonprofit centered on the issues of people over the age of 50.

The core trio are approaching their 80s and have continued to tour nearly every year this century. They also recently played a surprise seven-song set in New York, performing some of their new songs from "Hackney Diamonds."

Salon contributing writer Kenneth Womack said of the new album: "Mick, Keith and the gang doing what they do best: laying down a bluesy beat and following it to its natural conclusion. The band may no longer be considered diamonds in the rough like they were in 1963 when “Come On” very nearly cracked the UK Top 20, but they’ve still got the chops to go toe-to-toe with anybody."

Check out the Stones' official site for tour dates and concert information.

“Daily Show” guest host talks truth in comedy and what she considers a gift from “the Fox News gods”

Desi Lydic is perfectly happy to answer to the job description of "fake journalist." In her eight years as a correspondent on "The Daily Show," Lydic has garnered praise for her irresistibly unhinged "Foxsplains" segments, as well as her ability to talk to subjects ranging from Swifities to Florida men. Now with the show back from a lengthy hiatus after the writers strike, Lydic is back to work — including another short-term stint in the host's chair on Nov. 22. "Getting to do it again is just icing on the cake," she told me during a recent "Salon Talks" visit, adding that "They're going to have to drag me out of there."

Lydic revealed the "well-oiled" process for getting "The Daily Show" on the air, and its commitment to be the realest fake news out there. "It feels quite cathartic to be able to work through some of these awful issues that we're facing together and find some sort of humor in all of it," she said, "and also really try to tell the truth."

During our chat, she also shared her memories of being part of an historic Disney Channel moment, her upcoming movie with Emma Roberts and why she loves playing the nemesis.

You can watch my full "Salon Talks" interview with Lydic here, or read the transcript of our conversation below.

This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

It's great to see you. Welcome back to “The Daily Show” in general. What did you do with those five months?

I want to call it a hiatus, but we were also fighting for our rights as writers and performers for that whole period of time. It was strange to have that much time off. I've been with the show now for eight years, so I've never had that kind of time away. I have to say, there were moments when I enjoyed not being on top of the news all the time. Mentally, it was nice to have a bit of a break.

There's no such thing as a slow news day anymore, but this was an eventful period in American history that you were not on the air for. Were there moments during those months where you thought, "Oh man, I would really love to talk about this story"?

There were of course the indictments, all of the indictment news. You think, "Now would be a great time to be on air and be able to unpack this and talk about the ridiculousness of all of this."

"You have good news days and bad news days, and that was a damn good news day."

But for me, the story that I most desperately wanted to be on air for was when a flight passenger had a horrible number two incident all over the airplane. I believe they described it as being “all throughout the airplane.” I just went like, "Come on. Of all days. This would be such a great day to . . .” What an easy story. We know our audience, OK?

So that. Not indictments.

Not indictments. Not women's reproductive rights, no. It was the day that the gentleman had an epic accident on a Delta flight that I thought, "The people need to know this."

How does one even have an accident all over?

This is why I wanted to be able to really do a deep dive in that, because I have so many unanswered questions. I don't know, did he try to make a move and couldn't make it all the way there? Or was it on the way back from the bathroom? I don't know. I'm glad I wasn't on that flight.

You have been sitting in the anchor desk for some really interesting moments. You were in that chair for Tucker Carlson that day.

That was a gift from the political gods, or the Fox News gods, however you want to look at it. Especially after being able to do the Foxsplains segment for so long. That's a very specific way of dissecting the rhetoric and the narratives that come out of Fox News, to embody that sort of energy, but then to be able to sit on the other side of it more like myself and call it out. You have good news days and bad news days, and that was a damn good news day.

Now you're going to be in that chair again. Does it feel different post-strike? Is there a different mentality or sensibility to the show? And now it's been such a long time since Trevor Noah sat in that chair. The show is creating a new identity for itself. How does it feel?

After Trevor left and there was an opportunity for some of us to get to sit in and try it on for size, I of course raised my hand and went, "Put me in, coach." Those opportunities don't always come along, sometimes never, and certainly rarely. So I of course wanted to jump in and just give it a try and see what it was like if they would ever let me.

It's a scary thing to say because I'd never done it before. I didn't know, could I do that? How would that go? Would I enjoy it? I knew that walking into that, I would have all the support in the world from the team. We have the most incredible team of writers and producers and colleagues that I've worked with for eight years. It's a machine, and they are very, very good at what they do. They set us all up for success, but I didn't really know exactly how it would feel to sit there and do it, and it was just so much fun.

I loved every step of the process. I loved the morning meeting and sitting in a room with some of the funniest people in this business and the smartest people in this industry, and cracking jokes, and then the rehearsal process and the rewrite. It all moves so quickly. They're a well-oiled machine there. But every step of the process was just so much fun. This time, getting to do it again is just icing on the cake.

Who comes after Trevor Noah to host "The Daily Show"? The answer may be among these stars

We know there aren't going to be any announcements until the new year, but when you sit down in that chair, is it going to be hard to get up and leave it to somebody else?

I will stay there until they name a host, and then they're going to have to drag me out of there. They will have to just dig in and drag me out.

That's what I was wondering, if it's going to be a "Hands on a Hard Body" situation, like whoever sits in the chair the longest gets to be the host.

That's one way. I think that's a great tactic. I would very seriously consider that. I've already moved in a futon under the desk, so I'm just sleeping there, secretly, every day. Totally drag me out.

It's an election year, and all of these other not-so-funny things are happening in the world right now. You're going to be back out there reporting on these issues. You've talked about some of the confrontations you've experienced. What are you thinking as you go back out there as a performer, but also as a woman, as a vulnerable person walking around in a human body?

It is a scary time. There's a lot happening all over the world. There's a lot happening in this country. Everything feels so polarized and contentious, and we're also in a world where we're not necessarily dealing with facts, we're dealing with feelings. It is frightening to be thrown into all of that and to be covering it.

"They're going to have to drag me out of there."

I also think anytime that we can digest some of these things with humor and with empathy, that's an important part of the recipe of being able to work through all of this. That's something that our show does really, really well. We aren't just a straight-up news show, we're a comedy show. Our first intent is to entertain and make people laugh, and I personally find that really cathartic. “The Daily Show” has been my therapy for the last eight years, and I also have therapy separately and very much believe in it.

It feels quite cathartic to be able to work through some of these awful issues that we're facing together and find some sort of humor in all of it, and also really try to tell the truth. We are a comedy show, but we try to tell the truth. We try to get it right. We make sure that things are factual. We have incredible professionals whose entire job it is to make sure that we are fact-checking what we're reporting.

I remember first starting at the show, one of the first field pieces I did. When you're a correspondent, you get invited into the edit and you can sit in and watch the pieces get put together. There was one edit that we made for comedy's sake where we let someone's response happen just like a half a second later. We built a slight comedic beat in it, in the first cut of it. I remember the department head came in and he was watching a cut of it, and he goes, "No, no, no, no. That's not the way that that happened. Take that out. That's not what we do." We're a comedy show, but we do try to play by the rules and be truthful.

A dude and a desk: Why women really don’t get to host late-night TV

You did something called “Abroad,” which I loved. I just got back from Iceland. You explored what it is like to be a woman and what gender equity looks like in other places in the world, including Iceland, which once again, is number one for gender equity in the world. What did you learn that other countries do right, that we just don't seem to be able to do in this country? And I want to know, do you think we want it in this country?

Oh, that's a great question. Do we want it in this country? How much time do we have? How long is this segment?

Just throwing you softballs all day long.

I think a large part of this country doesn't want it, and that is part of the problem. There are a lot of things that we're not quite getting right, but for there to be the support that women need to have, first of all, their reproductive rights, to have a meaningful amount of parental leave.

"We are a comedy show, but we try to tell the truth. We try to get it right."

One thing that we explored in Iceland was that they don't call it maternity leave. It is parental leave, because in a heterosexual relationship, both the man and the woman are taking time off to care for the kids. I think you can advocate for women in leadership positions in government and in the C-suite and all of that, but if men are not also taking part in the care-taking duties, and if women are taking all of that on and shouldering that burden, you're never going to find equity in the workplace. So that was one thing that Iceland is incredibly supportive in.

I think we need a lot more women in leadership positions, in the government, so that these issues, these policies, can be taken on, and that we can be supported. Nothing's going to change until we have more representation.

You have been doing “The Daily Show” for so long. You're so great at being a correspondent, and you clearly have this investment in telling the truth as a semi-journalist.

Fake journalist.

But you're also still an actor. To my family, you are a ground-breaker because you were in the penultimate episode of “Good Luck Charlie,” you were part of the first LGBTQ couple on the Disney Channel. Did you know at the time that it was going to be as big a deal as it was?

I didn't. That was such a special job for me, and it came up kind of at the last minute, and I saw what it was, and I knew at the time that that was the first time that that kind of representation was on Disney. Of course I wanted to be part of that. I did not know that it would take off as much as it did, but knowing that that was so meaningful for so many people is incredible. It was such a gift to be part of that episode.

And you’re still acting. Tell me just a little bit about what “Space Cadet” is.

It's kind of like "Private Benjamin," but at NASA. Emma Roberts plays this character who always dreamed about becoming an astronaut and has made different life choices. She's kind of lost her way in Florida. She's a Florida party girl and decides, "Enough is enough. I want to pursue my dream." So she applies to get into the AsCan program at NASA by lying on her application, and she gets in and then has to keep up the charade. My character is her nemesis once she gets into the training program. So I got to be naughty, real bad.

What's more fun than being a nemesis?

I mean, I know.

Lydic guest hosts "The Daily Show" on Wednesday, Nov. 22 at 11 p.m. ET on Comedy Central.

THIS WEEK: The Daily Show News Team takes over! pic.twitter.com/JqXYgg6xcU

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) November 20, 2023

Watch more

"Salon Talks" with "The Daily Show" favorites

MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan drags possible Trump AG pick for threatening to “deport” him

MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan fired back at conservative lawyer and activist Mike Davis on Monday after Davis said he'd deport the journalist if Donald Trump wins the 2024 election and he is named attorney general, as has been floated by multiple Trump insiders, according to HuffPost.

On the Sunday edition of his show, Hasan exposed "Davis' threats to send journalists to the D.C. gulag" alongside "his repeated calls on social media for his followers to 'arm up against the violent Black underclass,'" displaying Davis' corresponding X/Twitter posts, during a segment on the right-wing, extremist figures who may comprise Trump's administration in a potential second term.

"What would a 2nd Trump presidency…without any adults in the room, actually look like?"

Tonight, I revealed to @MSNBC viewers the kind of people Trump could end up appointing as VP, AG, National Security Adviser, CIA Director, & Press Secretary.

Watch:pic.twitter.com/yipc2AcmwA

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) November 20, 2023

Trump threatens to handle the "vermin": MAGA has got a hold of the Nazi playbook

Davis responded to the segment on X, extolling the potential cabinet members as "Trump's Dream Team" and claiming to now have added the British-American anchor to his lists of people to indict, detain, denaturalize and deport.

“I already have his spot picked out in the DC gulag,” Davis added. “But I’ll put him in the women’s cell block, with @Timodc [former Republican National Committee spokesperson Tim Miller]. So these whiny leftists don’t get beat up as often.”

😂

Trump’s Dream Team.@mehdirhasan is now on my Lists 2 (indict), 4 (detain), 6 (denaturalize), and 3 (deport).

I already have his spot picked out in the DC gulag.

But I’ll put him in the women’s cell block, with @Timodc.

So these whiny leftists don’t get beat up as often. https://t.co/Ylhb33KVv2

— 🇺🇸 Mike Davis 🇺🇸 (@mrddmia) November 20, 2023

Hasan shot back in a post of his own, writing, "Nothing to see here, just the former Gorsuch law clerk touted as Trump’s next attorney-general, threatening to indict, detain, & deport me (for what?) & put Tim Miller, who is gay, in a women’s prison.”

We need your help to stay independent

Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism

“Nothing at all unconstitutional, fascistic, or bigoted about any of this,” he added.

Nothing to see here, just the former Gorsuch law clerk touted as Trump’s next attorney-general, threatening to indict, detain, & deport me (for what?) & put Tim Miller, who is gay, in a women’s prison.

Nothing at all unconstitutional, fascistic, or bigoted about any of this. 🤷🏽‍♂️ https://t.co/yNuLo2ZMgD

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) November 20, 2023

Legal experts admonished the conservative lawyer over the online exchange, dubbing Davis a "disgrace."

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

"My God. An absolute disgrace to the profession and the country," tweeted Sherrilyn Iffil, the former president and director-counsel of the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund.

"More than a disgrace," Georgia State law professor Eric Segall added. "He has been threatening folks (like me) that we are on his “list” for something terrible if Trump wins. He’s a clear and present danger given he clerked for Gorsuch twice! He’s not a rando tweeter."

More than a disgrace. He has been threatening folks (like me) that we are on his “list” for something terrible if Trump wins. He’s a clear and present danger given he clerked for Gorsuch twice! He’s not a rando tweeter.

— Eric Segall (@espinsegall) November 20, 2023

about Trump's 2025 plans

Former Univision president calls network’s “propaganda” Trump interview an “insult” to Hispanics

The former president of Spanish-language television network Univision called out its recent interview with former Pjresident Donald Trump, calling it an "insult to the Hispanic community." Joaquin Blaya, during a sit-down with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, called the interview “a one-hour propaganda open space," adding “there is no doubt that in doing what they [Univision's owners] did, had to be a corporate decision.” Blaya told Maddow that Trump's appearance on the network “is a drastic change for what have been the standards of Univision. When I created the Univision network news, they were built on the principles of American broadcasting journalism, the ABC, CBS, NBC… we were trying to basically create a Spanish but American network. And I say that because there’s a big difference from our association in those days with the news that we’re coming from Mexico.”

He alleged that “to call the Trump an interview is mistaken. It was not an interview, as we understand in the United States. That was basically a one-hour propaganda open space for former President Trump to say whatever he wanted to say. And for those who understand the business, there is no doubt that in doing what they did, had to be a corporate decision. That is not a decision that the local news director or the local general manager would have taken on its own.” Univision also pulled ads purchased by Biden's administration for the interview after referencing a previously unannounced policy about running opposition advertisements during single-candidate interviews.

“Propaganda”: Conservative pundit goes off on Trump’s “excellent” doctor note after verbal slips

Donald Trump's doctor on Monday released a glowing letter claiming that the former president's health is "excellent" and that he's recently shed a few pounds due to “an improved diet and continued daily physical activity," The Daily Beast reports. Dr. Bruce Aronwald, self-described as Trump's personal physician since 2021, said that the 77-year-old GOP frontrunner was "exceptional" in his cognitive exams. The doctor lists Sept. 13 as the day of Trump's check-up and omits specifics about his health, like his weight, blood pressure, cholesterol levels and current prescriptions.

The unanticipated letter, which the former president shared on Truth Social, follows a batch of his verbal slip-ups, including his appearing to confuse Joe Biden with Barack Obama on multiple occasions this fall and mixing up the names of foreign leaders. He also misstated the name of the city he was campaigning in during a speech last month, confusing it with a location in another state and having the correct name whispered into his ear.

Conservative commentator S.E. Cupp dismissed the letter during a CNN appearance, arguing that it was "no coincidence" that Trump published the letter on the 81st birthday of President Joe Biden, whose age and health have become a point of contention among both Republicans and Democrats. "That was propaganda. He released propaganda, right? We have seen no lab results,” she said, according to HuffPost. “We’ve seen nothing other than whatever he told this doctor to say. I also heard that [North Korean dictator] Kim Jong Un hit 11 holes in one. He says that so we should believe it right?” CNN's Jay Michaelson added that while Biden is "a little bit old," Trump is "a lying liar," and host Abby Phillips noted that the two 2024 presidential candidates are "not that far apart in age."

“PR stunt masquerading as a lawsuit”: Experts slam Elon Musk’s attack on Media Matters’ reporting

X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter and owned by tech magnate Elon Musk, sued Washington, D.C. watchdog group Media Matters over a report that alleged the platform published ads alongside posts expressing neo-Nazi sentiment.

The suit filed by X named Media Matters and writer Eric Hananoki, and called the report "intentionally deceptive." Published Thursday, the report contained screenshots of normal advertisements appearing alongside antisemitic content on X, leading several large companies — including Disney, Apple, and IBM — to pause advertising on the platform. X's lawsuit alleges that some of its most prominent advertisers were among the companies that yanked themselves from the site. It also claims contract interference, business disparagement, and interference with prospective economic advantage.

“The overall effect on advertisers and users was to create the false, misleading perception that these types of pairings were common, widespread, and alarming,” the filing states, adding that X's safety measures "under normal, organic conditions operate seamlessly." The lawsuit also claimed that Media Matters toyed with the algorithm, following a slew of accounts comprised of large companies, and partaking in "excessive" scrolling and refreshing.

"Unvarnished antisemitism": Musk says conspiracy that motivated mass shooting is "the actual truth"

X CEO Linda Yaccarino took to the platform to provide a statement on the matter after the Washington Post requested a comment, asserting that "If you know me, you know I'm committed to truth and fairness."

"Here's the truth," Yaccarino wrote. "Not a single authentic user on X saw IBM’s, Comcast’s, or Oracle’s ads next to the content in Media Matters’ article. Only 2 users saw Apple’s ad next to the content, at least one of which was Media Matters. Data wins over manipulation or allegations. Don't be manipulated. Stand with X."

If you know me, you know I'm committed to truth and fairness. Here's the truth. Not a single authentic user on X saw IBM’s, Comcast’s, or Oracle’s ads next to the content in Media Matters’ article. Only 2 users saw Apple’s ad next to the content, at least one of which was Media…

— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) November 20, 2023

Media Matters President Angelo Carusone called the lawsuit "frivolous," adding that it was "meant to bully X's critics into silence."

"Media Matters stands behind its reporting and look forward to winning in court. Onward!" he said.

This is a frivolous lawsuit meant to bully X’s critics into silence. Media Matters stands behind its reporting and look forward to winning in court.

Onward!

— Angelo Carusone (@GoAngelo) November 21, 2023

We need your help to stay independent

Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism

The Washington Post reported that the lawsuit was filed in Texas, where the filing claims that X conducts substantial business; however, it is headquartered in San Francisco and incorporated in Nevada. Following the announcement of the lawsuit, Texas attorney Ken Paxton, R, launched a probe into "potential fraudulent activity" by Media Matters. Paxton's office in a statement said that the AG was "extremely troubled by the allegations that Media Matters, a radical anti-free speech organization, fraudulently manipulated data on X.com (formerly known as Twitter)."

“We are examining the issue closely to ensure that the public has not been deceived by the schemes of radical left-wing organizations who would like nothing more than to limit freedom by reducing participation in the public square,” Paxton said in the statement.

Legal experts criticized Musk's effort to target the watchdog's reporting.

"X, a Nevada corporation is suing Media Matters, a Maryland corporation, in Texas, a state whose only relation to the parties is that it has vowed to jail anyone who criticizes one of them," tweeted Georgia trial and appellate lawyer Andrew Fleischman.

X, a Nevada corporation is suing Media Matters, a Maryland corporation, in Texas, a state whose only relation to the parties is that it has vowed to jail anyone who criticizes one of them.

— Andrew Fleischman (@ASFleischman) November 21, 2023

"Musk admitted in his own tweet that Media Matters had seen the ads next to Nazi content, his only dispute was that they artificially saw more ads than a normal account would," Fleichman added. "Which is like blaming a customer who posts about a cockroach in his salad for ordering too many salads."

Musk admitted in his own tweet that Media Matters had seen the ads next to Nazi content, his only dispute was that they artificially saw more ads than a normal account would.

Which is like blaming a customer who posts about a cockroach in his salad for ordering too many salads. https://t.co/AaRljScIto

— Andrew Fleischman (@ASFleischman) November 20, 2023

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

"The lawsuit is here. Thermonuclear it is not," quipped attorney Bradley Moss. "Discovery should be fun. Would love to see if X can back up its safety claims in this pleading."

The lawsuit is here.

Thermonuclear it is not.

Discovery should be fun. Would love to see if X can back up its safety claims in this pleading. https://t.co/vIROhwvdNf

— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) November 21, 2023

Lawyer Renato Mariotti dismissed Musk's complaint as a "PR stunt masquerading as a lawsuit."

It’s a PR stunt masquerading as a lawsuit. https://t.co/dHEpATqvIb

— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) November 21, 2023

Musk on Wednesday declared on X that a paid X Premium user's peddling of an antisemitic conspiracy theory targeting Jewish people was the "actual truth," per a separate report from watchdog Media Matters. The user claimed, in part, that "Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them," to which Musk responded, "You have said the actual truth," screenshots of the exchange show. The antisemitic post that Musk praised was in response to another user who wrote, "To the cowards hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and posting 'Hitler was right': You got something you want to say? Why dont you say it to our faces…”

Musk was met with swift condemnation for endorsing the conspiracy theory, which is the same one that motivated the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooter in Pittsburgh, The Atlantic's Yair Rosenburg emphasized online. "Elon Musk pushing unvarnished anti semitism at a time of rising antisemitism and violence against Jews," CNN anchor Jake Tapper wrote on X.

about Elon Musk