Mike Johnson’s Satanic panic: How evangelical delusions trained Republicans to love Trump’s lies

Ours is an age where once-hoary clichés have been given new life by the rise of right wing authoritarianism: "The banality of evil." "First they came for the [fill in the blank]." "2+2=5." Then there is the famous quote, translated from Voltaire: "Those who can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities." That's the one that popped into my mind when I read that newly-elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., believed demons were attacking his family through the TV set.

Johnson largely managed to keep his name out of the national news before his ascendance as the highest-ranking Republican on Capitol Hill. That's why he won, as Republicans hoped to conceal his far-right radicalism under the veil of ignorance. But prior to the current unearthing of Johnson's long history of creepy and fascistic behavior, he did get a small amount of national attention in September 2022 for posting an '80s-style Satanic panic about a cartoon show on FX.

"Devilish Danny DeVito Cartoon Sparks GOP Satanic Panic," read a Daily Beast headline in September of last year. "Disney and FX have decided to embrace and market what is clearly evil," Johnson said of a series called "Little Demon," which, ironically, is a comedy show about how the devil's daughter has declined to become the Antichrist. Johnson describes sprinting to change the channel from the trailer, lest the tendrils of hell emanating from this show, which also stars Aubrey Plaza, somehow snag his children.

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Despite being roundly mocked on social media for these hysterics, he doubled down on his podcast, insisting, "This is not frivolous, light-hearted entertainment," but "serious, eternal business." Yes, he argued people are literally going to hell for laughing at Danny DeVito playing a satirical version of the Prince of Darkness.

Because they are so comfortable "believing" that which they know not to be true, it was a breeze for Republicans to go along with Trump's Big Lie.

This is, after all, the same politician who once fought to secure taxpayer funding for a Noah's Ark-based theme park. Yes, he did so out of conviction that a literal flood wiped out all life on Earth except an old man, his family and a boatful of animals around 2300 B.C. Never mind that there are historical records of thriving, well-documented civilizations like Mesopotamia and Egypt at the time, and they did not disappear into a flood. The Noah exhibit even claimed dinosaurs were on the boat, which did not stop Johnson from arguing that "what we read in the Bible are actual historical events."

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour,” Johnson wrote on Facebook, quoting the Bible to justify his belief that a cartoon show is literally demon-possessed.

The Big Lie is expanding: Majority of Republicans now insist Trump never tried to overturn election

I was reminded of a quote from Carl Sagan's classic defense of science, "The Demon-Haunted World": "The Bible is full of so many stories of contradictory moral purpose that every generation can find scriptural justification for nearly any action it proposes—from incest, slavery, and mass murder to the most refined love, courage, and self-sacrifice." As I argued on Monday, Johnson's career is a perfect example. Johnson's starting position is clearly a desire to prop up a patriarchal system that oppresses women and LGBTQ people. The Bible is backfill — there as rationalization, not reason.

It's important to understand that most fundamentalists like Johnson "believe" that Noah's ark was real or Satan controls Disney in a very different way than most people understand the word "believe." It's not an assertion about reality in the same sense as saying, for instance, that October 31 is Halloween. An assertion is valued for how it makes them feel or whether it helps them get power. Evangelical culture is full of these quasi-beliefs, from creationism to urban legends about everyday encounters with angels.

We can know they don't really believe half the crap they say because they don't act like people who believe it. When they get sick, most creationists go running to medical doctors, whose practice only works because the theory of evolution is true. Johnson wasn't really afraid his TV was a portal for demonic possession, or he would have thrown the whole machine out. And certainly, no one literally believes Donald Trump is a Bible-believing Christian, but since it suits their purposes to claim he is, they will "believe" he is saved by the cleansing powers of Jesus Christ.

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"Belief" is less about actual views on the nature of reality, and more about claims that serve their personal or political purposes. I often refer to an illuminating 2008 Patheos blog post by Fred Clark, regarding his efforts, when he was with the church, to dissuade people from spreading the lie that a Satanic cult secretly ran Proctor & Gamble. As he wrote, "no one is stupid enough to really believe such a story." When they were presented with evidence that P&G is not a Satanic cult, they did not express relief, which is what a person sincerely misled would do. They got defensive and angry. That's because it felt good to them to claim P&G is a Satanic cult. It allowed them to feel self-righteous and titillated at the same time, an intoxicating combination that no fact can compete with.

This is why Trump has done so well with evangelicals, despite his utter contempt for their faith and his lifetime of unrepentant philandering. His life philosophy, where what is "true" is whatever he wants to believe, fits nicely within the demon-haunted rhetoric of the Christian right, where Noah's ark is real but science is not. The "belief" that the election was stolen from Trump isn't a statement of fact but of loyalty to the tribe. That's why most Republicans now claim Trump didn't try to steal the election, as if they simply didn't see the months of loud, showy efforts to do so. They know in their hearts it's not true, but the false thing feels better to say.

That's why it's not a mere sideshow when Christian politicians like Johnson sign off on goofy beliefs in Satanic TV shows or ark-riding dinosaurs. This is not a minor eccentricity. It's a whole worldview, one where there is no "belief" too silly or impossible, so long as it serves the political goals of the Christian right. As Voltaire noted, it's not just about the absurdity, but the atrocity. Because they are so comfortable "believing" that which they know not to be true, it was a breeze for Republicans to go along with Trump's Big Lie — and therefore the atrocities that were committed in service of it, such as the Capitol riot.

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Trump’s channeling Hitler for protection

Donald Trump’s former wife, Ivana, reportedly said that he kept a copy of Adolf Hitler’s book “My New Order” in a cabinet next to the bed and would read from it before going to sleep. Trump has long denied that he read Hitler’s book for its hateful message. Instead, he pivots and prevaricates, claiming that if ever did read “My New Order” it was because he admired the language and speeches. But Trump’s denials always stretched the limits of credulity. He told Vanity Fair in 1990, “If I had these speeches, and I am not saying that I do, I would never read them.”

For decades, Trump has repeatedly shown himself to be a casual antisemite. Throughout his presidency and beyond, he has continued to advocate for and amplify antisemitism and white supremacy. As the manifestly corrupt ex-president faces the growing reality of (finally) going to prison for his many obvious crimes, he is now publicly wallowing even more in antisemitism and white supremacy. As demonstrated by a recent series of speeches, fundraising emails and other communications, Trump has erased any lingering doubt about the sincerity and earnestness of his antisemitic and white supremacist values and beliefs. That copy of Hitler’s book of speeches was in all likelihood well read and closely studied.

For example, in a recent series of fundraising emails, Trump repeatedly claimed that he and his followers in the MAGA movement (whom he describes as “patriots”) are “victims” who have been “betrayed” and “stabbed in the back” by Republican “traitors” who are insufficiently loyal to “the cause” and doing the bidding of the Democrats, George Soros and other “globalists." (Soros is Jewish and a Holocaust survivor; in this context, as in right-wing discourse generally, “globalist” is an antisemitic slur.)

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In this fundraising email, Trump attacks Soros and puts him at the center of the “plot” against him:

Patriot,

While no one was looking, George Soros made a “MASSIVE DONATION” just in time for the 3rd Quarter FEC Deadline…

Soros knows that Biden is a disastrous candidate. He’s seen all of the many polls that show Biden LOSING BADLY to me in the swing states that will decide the 2024 election.

And thanks to your support, we ensured that Soros never got the nasty, divisive GOP primary that he had been hoping for. While RINOs have certainly tried to attack us with nefarious, backstabbing plots, we’ve prevailed every single time and to this day remain the INDISPUTABLE frontrunner – and it’s not even close.

So, Soros only has two remaining options to keep the White House under his control…

…hope that Biden jails me for the rest of my life as an innocent man OR spend enough billions to BUY the 2024 election.

This latest 3rd Quarter FEC report confirms that Soros will spend whatever it takes to continue bleeding America dry for his own personal benefit.

Soros and many other globalist special interests have trillions of dollars at play in this election.

But we have something far more noble at play in this election: our country.

On Sunday, Trump sent out the following fundraising email in which he brags about how the “plot” against him continues to fail citing Mike Pence's decision to drop out of the 2024 Republican presidential primary.

Patriot,

The Republican primary is coming to a GLORIOUS END.

At the end of August, RINOs set a 60-day timeline to try and DESTROY our movement and recapture the GOP for the failed, broken establishment.

But that 60-day timeline has officially expired – and we’re still standing stronger than ever before.

I can’t say the same for the others…

Yesterday, the THIRD Republican candidate for president DROPPED OUT now that it’s clear that the 60-day plot FAILED MISERABLY.

This is just the beginning. Candidates are running out of special interest money. They’re ALL stuck in the single digits. More and more will fall like dominoes.

There is no “plot” against Donald Trump. Today’s Republican Party and its leaders and other influentials on the right-wing and “conservative” movement are Trump’s supplicants, part of his neofascist movement, and political gimps who are desperate for his approval. This includes Mike Pence, a man whom Trump’s followers apparently intended to murder on Jan. 6 as part of the coup plot and terrorist attack on the Capitol.

Hitler and his Nazi propagandists repeatedly used similar lies about being “backstabbed” and “betrayed” by a shadowy Jewish-led conspiracy of supposed communists, socialists and other nefarious forces as a way of building and keeping support for their fascist movement and creating the climate for the Holocaust. Trump and the other Republican fascists and members of the white right and “conservative” movement are increasingly apocalyptic in their language and imagery, and describe the goal of returning Trump to the White House — by constitutional or quasi-legal means or through outright violence and the "Red Caesar" scenario — is a literal matter of life and death for white America. To great effect, the Nazis also deployed similar rhetoric and imagery.

The right's "Red Caesar" plan: GOP's new order marches onward — only voters can stop it

As a range of national security and law enforcement experts have warned, such a narrative frame encourages right-wing political violence and terrorism against “the enemy” because such behavior is understood to be defensive and therefore justified.

In all, Trump’s channeling of Hitler’s and other fascists’ logic and view of society and democracy is expansive and growing.

In a speech last Monday to his MAGA cultists in New Hampshire, Trump told them to not even worry about voting in the 2024 Election: “You don’t have to vote, don’t worry about voting. The voting, we got plenty of votes.”

Instead of voting, Trump told his supporters to “watch” (which in the larger context of the ex-president’s behavior and fascist threats means to intimidate) those Americans (i.e. black and brown people) who support President Biden and the Democrats. Here, Trump is preemptively delegitimizing and nullifying the results of the 2024 Election (if he loses) as a pretext for engaging in violence against President Biden and the Democrats and the MAGA movement’s other perceived enemies.

In keeping with his Hitler-like threats about how non-white immigrants and migrants (and the Other, more generally) are poisoning (White) American society, Trump is now telling his followers that he will reinstate the Muslim ban, deport Palestinians who do not support Israel’s war against Hamas, and make America into a Christofascist theocracy if he returns to the White House in 2025, as the Associated Press reports:

“Bad things are happening, but we keep going up,” he said.

Later, at his rally, continued to criticize Biden’s response to the Hamas attack on Israel, calling the speech the president gave in response to the war last Thursday night “a grotesque betrayal of Israel” and “one of the most dangerous and deluded speeches ever delivered from the Oval Office.”…

In the weeks since, Trump has been leaning into the anti-immigration rhetoric that fueled his 2016 campaign, calling for an expanded Muslim travel ban and new ideological tests for immigrants. He has also warned that those who want to do harm to the U.S. may be infiltrating the country’s southern border along with South American migrants.

He read the lyrics of “The Snake,” a dark song that he’s used since his first campaign as an allegory of what he says are the dangers of illegal immigration, and claimed Biden would turn the country “into a hotbed for jihadists and make our cities into dumping grounds resembling the Gaza Strip.”

Trump and the Republican fascists’ and “conservative” movement’s plans to end multiracial pluralistic democracy are generally understood to be unconstitutional. But such antidemocracy forces do not care about the rule of law and standing norms and values and institutions: the struggle is revolutionary; power and winning are all that matters.

Trump’s continued refusals to obey the court’s order(s) to cease making threats against and otherwise intimidating witnesses, prosecutors, jurors, and court staff is a function of the ex-president’s antisocial personality and diseased mind but also a fascist signal to his followers that he and they are above the law.

In his fundraising emails, speeches, interviews and other communications, Trump is continuing to embrace his identity as a fascist-MAGA-Jesus-martyr who is supposedly willing to go to prison and even die for his followers and the movement. This too is a common rhetorical device that was used by Hitler and other fascist and fake populist leaders – and cult leaders. On this, historian Federico Finkelstein, author of “A Brief History of Fascist Lies”, explained to Salon via email how:

This belongs to the same logic and histories of fascism and far-right populism. Prison is represented as the place to spread propaganda. Hitler was in prison for his crimes against democracy when he wrote Mein Kampf. Other fascists tried to imitate the Nazi leader. For example, Argentine fascist Enrique Oses and many others in the interwar years. Here Trump returns to the propaganda of inverting reality and presents justice being served as a moment of ideological persecution by enemies and former friends alike.

A prisoner, in fact, of his own cult, Trump sincerely believes that people that disagree with him, or worse, accept he participated in crimes, are traitors with infernal motifs. Once again, this represents, Trump’s increasing flight from reality.

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This language about “backstabbing” and “betrayal” resonates with Trump’s followers because it confirms the paranoia of authoritarian personalities. Followers of these cult type ideologies are prone to believe in paranoias of persecution.

The mainstream media continues to mostly downplay, ignore, and outright deny the existential dangers of Trump’s white supremacy and antisemitism – which is to de facto normalize such evil behavior – for a variety of reasons including the incorrect assumption that such information is no longer “newsworthy” and “everyone already knows about it”. Such a decision is a betrayal of the most basic responsibilities of the news media and Fourth Estate in a democracy.

Trump’s egomania, malignant narcissism and cult leader-victim identity reached another crescendo last Monday when he claimed during a speech to the MAGA cultists in New Hampshire that he is being persecuted like the late Nelson Mandela.

The AP continues, "“I don’t mind being Nelson Mandela because I’m doing it for a reason,” Trump told an amped-up crowd of supporters at a sports complex in Derry, New Hampshire. ”We’ve got to save our country from these fascists, these lunatics that we’re dealing with. They’re horrible people and they’re destroying our country.””

The late Nelson Mandela was a hope warrior and freedom fighter. Mandela never surrendered to the temptations of hatred, even when such feelings would have been fully justified, reasonable and wholly human. By comparison, Donald Trump has shown himself to be a racial authoritarian, neofascist, white supremacist, antisemite and an apparent sociopath if not a psychopath. For Trump to suggest, never mind believe, that there are any positive similarities between him and Nelson Mandela is an act of moral abomination, one that reflects the larger evil of the American neofascist movement and Trumpism.

In an essay several weeks ago here at Salon I wrote the following: As "the walls close in" on Donald Trump, he and his agents and followers will only become more violent, racist, and antisemitic. Such an outcome is very predictable and in no way surprising or climactic; that makes it no less dangerous to the future of the country and its democracy and the lives and safety of the American people. To save American democracy, Donald Trump and the larger neofascist movement must be defeated at the polls, in the courts, and through direct corporeal politics across the country.”

Unfortunately, I must reiterate that warning.

Matters are only becoming more dire as the 2024 election approaches. Trump is leading or tied with Biden in the early presidential polls, despite facing multiple criminal trials and the real possibility of going to prison for the rest of his natural life. With his channeling of Hitler and naked desires and plans to become America’s first dictator, Trump’s ugliness should be repulsive to the American people. Instead, many tens of millions of them are drawn to it. This is more of an indictment of the character of the American people and a sick culture that produced Trumpism and its related evils and other great troubles than Donald Trump. Tomorrow is far from guaranteed and the American people are quickly running out of time to save their democracy – assuming that they even want to do the hard work necessary to accomplish that goal.

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Some swear tapping pressure points melts away anxiety. Does it actually work?

An upcoming flight was the source of my anxiety. I recently had knee surgery and the idea of getting my bags to the terminal on my own made my heart race and my thoughts run wild: Assuming I made it to the plane without issues, would the seat be too cramped for my leg’s mobility once I boarded? I recently heard climate change was making turbulence worse and dreaded the sinking feeling bumpy air could bring. What if most people weren’t wearing masks and I got COVID-19?

As part of an interview for this story, I organized a video call with Dawson Church, a researcher and author who writes about alternative healing, and asked him to demonstrate a brief session of “Emotional Freedom Technique,” or EFT, tapping for me. Church asked me to hold the anxiety I felt about my upcoming trip in my mind and repeat a series of affirmations about it while tapping various parts of my body.

Sit and linger: Living a slower life started with changing how I take my coffee

Proponents of EFT tapping say it is a simple and accessible tool with plenty of evidence supporting its use to treat everything from anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), phobias, and even substance use and chronic pain. It has been endorsed by alternative medicine advocate and author Deepak Chopra and has found its way into some classrooms. But some therapists are skeptical about whether it really helps to reduce symptoms of these conditions and say the body of research used to support its use is flawed.

Meditation is a part of my daily routine. My mother is a yoga teacher and I use many alternative healing practices in everyday life. I’m also a science reporter with a built-in cynicism that takes a lot to crack. My brief experience with EFT Tapping did seem to reduce my anxiety, but how could I be sure this wasn’t just a placebo effect, the chamomile tea I had before, or any number of other unknown factors? Church originally shared my skepticism when he came across EFT tapping, he told me, as did multiple practitioners interviewed for this story when they were introduced to it.

“I thought it was really unlikely that one treatment could be effective for many different things, and I dismissed it initially,” Church told Salon. “Then I experienced it myself because I was selling a business I owned and I was anxious about the sale. I tapped and my anxiety dropped by about a half. I was really struck by that.”

Like many holistic health practices, it combines elements of Eastern medicine and Western psychology.

Building on psychotherapeutic acupuncture practices, Gary Craig introduced EFT tapping in the 1990s when he published the “EFT Handbook.” Like many holistic health practices, it combines elements of Eastern medicine and Western psychology. Similar to acupuncture, EFT tapping is thought to work by targeting various “meridian points” in the body. With an estimated one in five Americans diagnosed with a mental illness and half of those people going untreated for their condition, people are increasingly turning toward alternative and holistic medical practices designed to reduce stress and improve mental health.

“After just a few rounds of tapping, people often report feeling lighter and calmer and able to breathe more easily – almost as if they now have more space inside,” states one free manual from EFT International. “They may report that their thinking has changed, they have gained new insights or that they are feeling better overall.”

As EFT tapping became more popular, EFT International (formerly The Association for the Advancement of Meridian Energy Techniques) was formed in 1999. With close to 2,000 members today, the organization offers training programs that accredit EFT practitioners, similar to the EFT Tapping Training Institute and a handful of other organizations.

“If a person starts working on childhood memories that were abusive and they don’t have any skill in doing that, it can be harmful and retraumatizing.”

Craig Weiner, a chiropractor and director of the EFT Tapping Training Institute, said the center trains mental health care providers, social workers, addiction specialists, chiropractors and life coaches in EFT tapping. Over the past decade, “the acceptance within mental health care professions has grown significantly,” Weiner told Salon in a phone interview.

Not all of that growth has been through training institutions, however. A quick YouTube search pulls up dozens of amateur demonstrations, including videos from comedian Russel Brand and pop star Pink. EFT tapping can bring up traumatic experiences and not being able to process those emotions appropriately could be dangerous if it’s not done under the supervision of a professional, Weiner said.

“My big concern is people that see EFT tapping on YouTube and add it to their toolkit without certification or training and they start working with people with traumatic memories that are outside their practice or their skill level,” Weiner said. “If a person starts working on childhood memories that were abusive and they don’t have any skill in doing that, it can be harmful and retraumatizing.”

It’s still unclear whether EFT tapping might exacerbate certain conditions like obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) by initiating repetitive behaviors, for example. Whether people have this condition, trauma or others, they should always discuss EFT tapping with their mental health providers before trying it themselves, said Peta Stapleton, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and associate professor of psychology at Bond University in Australia.

“We always recommend consulting with a trained practitioner if someone wanted to use the technique for trauma processing, or found that doing it on themselves resulted in becoming distressed,” Stapleton said.

The dark side of alternative medicine and holistic healing

Other researchers have been resistant to endorse EFT tapping in the first place without more convincing data. In 2008, for example, David Feinstein, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and EFT tapping researcher, performed an evidence review of “energy psychology,” which includes mind-body practices designed to reduce stress and help process trauma like EFT tapping, as well as thought field therapy (TFT). Feinstein concluded that these practices together “reached the minimum threshold for being designated as an evidence-based treatment.”

Commentaries published in the same journal, however, said many studies showing energy psychology to be ineffective were omitted from the review, one study was misclassified as a randomized controlled trial and much of the research was in general riddled with “serious flaws.” In one editorial, the authors concluded Feinstein’s conclusions were “premature” and based on “incomplete evidence.”

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EFT tapping is thought to work by decreasing activity in the regions of the brain associated with pain and fear like the amygdala. Meanwhile, the practice can also activate the executive functions of the prefrontal cortex that help patients manage anxiety-provoking experiences they want to work on, Feinstein said.

“It brings a somatic quality to the treatment that you don’t have in talk therapy or even cognitive behavioral therapy,” Feinstein told Salon in an email. “While it uses the methods of talk therapy and CBT [cognitive behavioral therapy] — specifically cognitive restructuring and psychological exposure — it amps up their effectiveness.”

“It brings a somatic quality to the treatment that you don’t have in talk therapy or even cognitive behavioral therapy.”

However, another study published in the journal Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice examining EFT tapping’s impact on fear and anxiety seems to suggest the main benefit might come from some of the CBT elements incorporated into EFT tapping. In the study, patients were assigned to perform EFT tapping on the meridian points commonly used in EFT Therapy, perform them on points that were not the designated meridian points, perform them on a doll or perform no tapping at all. What researchers found was that all of the tapping groups had decreased fear and anxiety, indicating that “the reported effectiveness of EFT is attributable to characteristics it shares with more traditional therapies” rather than the tapping of these points, specifically.

“The small successes seen in these therapies are potentially attributable to well-known cognitive and behavioral techniques that are included with the energy manipulation,” according to another editorial. “Psychologists and researchers should be wary of using such techniques, and make efforts to inform the public about the ill effects of therapies that advertise miraculous claims.”

Why we feel anxious without knowing why

In response to those commentaries, Feinstein agreed that the mechanism of action behind EFT Tapping paralleled that of other psychiatric techniques like exposure therapy and pointed to the fact that in the study where participants were asked to tap on dolls, EFT tapping did indeed decrease fear and anxiety, even if some of the other interventions did as well.

"Whether the active ingredient turns out to be acupuncture points, energy fields, some artifact of stimulating the surface of the skin, or a yet undetermined agent, the mechanisms leading to such rapid outcomes are not explained by traditional clinical paradigms," he wrote.

The debate surrounding the efficacy of EFT tapping and energy psychology fits into a larger paradigm clash between psychiatry and traditional Eastern medicine. The thousands-year old practice of meditation, for example, was originally viewed skeptically by many in the medical profession, although a growing pile of evidence suggests it can help with depression, anxiety and pain. Just this week, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found a Chinese medicine compound reduced the chances of a group of patients who had previously had a heart attack from having another cardiac event when taken in addition to other guideline-recommended therapies. Skeptics were quick to question that study, too.

In Feinstein's 2008 review, he called for more definitive research but said the studies he looked over provided preliminary evidence that EFT tapping worked. Since it's publication hundreds of studies have examined its effect on the body, with some showing physiological changes that occur with EFT tapping.

Stapleton, cited more than 300 trials that have been published on EFT tapping, including one 2012 study published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease by Church that found cortisol levels among patients who used EFT tapping were significantly lower than a control group of participants who received supportive interviews. Stapleton conducted another study with a similar format in 2020 and produced similar results.

“Mostly people are using EFT to reduce stress (sensations, thoughts, emotions),” Stapleton told Salon in an email. “But because of the role of stress in many other concerns, it has been researched for many conditions.”

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Many people who begin EFT tapping are skeptical that it will actually work — like I was. I felt foolish tapping my forehead and repeating the same phrases to myself again and again. In the end, no harm was done performing these repetitive motions. They grounded me in the present moment, much like meditation could calm the mind or a massage could calm the body. Did it matter to me whether the CBT elements of EFT tapping or the tapping itself produced a calming effect? Not really. But the same might not hold true for those with different mental health conditions, past trauma or for whom this practice might simply not work.

Larger-scale trials comparing EFT tapping to other therapies or among larger groups of patients could answer some of the questions that remain about the mechanism behind the positive results that have been reported anecdotally and in small studies, as well as for whom and in which scenarios EFT tapping is most effective.

"While it is possible that expectancy effects, other non-specific factors, and financial interests by promoters … have induced a mass hysteria toward rapidly overcoming long-standing emotional problems in thousands of individuals, it is more reasonable to consider that the large body of anecdotal evidence claiming improvement using tapping/exposure protocols may have some bearing on the efficacy of the method," Feinstein wrote in his response to the commentaries.

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Israel killed more kids in 3 weeks than were killed in all global conflicts last year: analysis

Over just a three-week period, the Israeli military has killed at least 3,195 children in the Gaza Strip — a death toll that surpasses the annual number of children killed in all of the world's armed conflict zones since 2019.

That's according to a disturbing new analysis by Save the Children, which observed that kids make up more than 40% of the total death toll in the Gaza Strip since October 7, when Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel that was met with a massive bombing campaign and an intensifying ground attack.

The humanitarian group noted that, according to the United Nations, at least 1,000 Gazan children have been reported missing and may be trapped under rubble, meaning the reported death toll is almost certainly an underestimate. UNICEF has called child deaths in Gaza "a growing stain on our collective conscience" and demanded a cease-fire.

Save the Children did the same on Sunday. Jason Lee, Save the Children's country director for the occupied Palestinian territory, said in a statement that "three weeks of violence have ripped children from families and torn through their lives at an unimaginable rate."

"The numbers are harrowing and with violence not only continuing but expanding in Gaza right now, many more children remain at grave risk," Lee added. "One child's death is one too many, but these are grave violations of epic proportions. A cease-fire is the only way to ensure their safety. The international community must put people before politics — every day spent debating is leaving children killed and injured. Children must be protected at all times, especially when they are seeking safety in schools and hospitals."

Save the Children cites the most recent three annual reports from the U.N. secretary-general, which have found that 2,985 children were killed across two dozen countries last year, 2,515 were killed in 2021, and 2,674 were killed in 2020. More than 4,000 children were killed in global conflicts in 2019.

3,195 children killed in #Gaza in just three weeks has surpassed the annual number of children killed across the world's conflict zones since 2019. We are calling for an immediate ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/vrEQ846tPB

— Save the Children International (@save_children) October 29, 2023

The group's analysis was released days after it warned that Israel's expanded ground assault on the Gaza Strip has put children "at heightened risk of loss of life, physical harm, severe emotional distress, and protracted displacement."

Israeli troops and tanks advanced toward Gaza City on Monday and "blocked one of the main roads connecting the northern part of the Gaza Strip to the south," The Wall Street Journal reported, "a major advance that appeared aimed at encircling the enclave's biggest population center."

More than a million Gazans had already been displaced by Israeli airstrikes before the country launched its fresh ground attack late last week. Israeli bombing has also destroyed or damaged at least 45% of Gaza's housing units.

On Friday, as Israel ruthlessly bombed northern Gaza and knocked out the territory's internet and communications, a Save the Children team member in Gaza warned in a message that "we could all die, we could survive, we could survive, we could … pray for us."

Save the Children said later in the day that it lost contact with its team on the ground in Gaza.

"This is pure horror for all children and their parents," Lee said Friday. "Across the Gaza Strip, more than one million children are trapped in the middle of an active conflict zone with no safe place to go and no route to safety. With communications down, children are cut off from the world, more isolated than ever before. They are unable to speak to loved ones, or even to call an ambulance."

"Despite Save the Children and thousands of other voices calling for an urgent cease-fire, we are seeing an increase in military operations," he continued. "We call on all parties to the conflict to take immediate steps to protect the lives of children, and on the international community to support those efforts, as is their obligation."

“Killers of the Flower Moon’s” central love story illustrates the pitfalls of interracial dating

Martin Scorsese's nearly four-hour-long Western tale of the brutal, bloody and greedy Osage murders is a cinematic feat. In "Killers of the Flower Moon" stars Lily Gladstone, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro enrapture the audience from start to finish with bone-chilling performances with real-life archival footage from Osage history as a backdrop. It is a moviegoing experience that forces you to hold your breath until its last and final shot.

It's never been about love — it's always been about greed.

Most of this visceral feeling can be traced back to the intricately woven relationship between its main characters, a white army veteran returning from war, Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio), and an Osage woman with generational wealth who lives with her two sisters and mother, Mollie Cobb (Gladstone). A majority of the film hinges on the blossoming interracial love story between Ernest and Mollie. Some critics say that the relationship between the couple is portrayed as too loving but Scorsese never pretends to hide the motivations that drive a deadbeat, grifter like Ernest. It's never been about love — it's always been about greed.

At the beginning of the film, Ernest is returning from returns home having served in the military overseas to his uncle William Hale's (De Niro) Oklahoma estate. Not only is Hale one of the richest men in Osage country for his cattle ranching, but he is also the sheriff and holds untouchable political power and influence in the community. He is smart, and charismatic, knows the Osage language and is incredibly chummy with the Osage. He even calls them "the finest, wealthiest and most beautiful people on God's Earth." Scorsese brutally transitions to a scene where an Osage person is being murdered to set the tone for the atrocities committed throughout the film.

"Killers of the Flower Moon" reveals only part of the monstrous American story of the Osage murders

Hale lectures Ernest that the only way he will be successful in this town is if he builds a connection to the Osage people — specifically the single, marriageable Osage women. To Hale, these Osage women are an opportunity to be exploited because they are sitting on hoarded wealth that ultimately should belong to white men just because it's supposedly owed to them. Driving home his racist views, Hale even asks Ernest, “You like red?” about Osage women. He tells Ernest to study up on the people and their history because this is his way into the upper echelons of the community.

And so a courtship between Mollie and Ernest begins when he becomes her chauffeur and ultimately charms her. Osage women are not ignorant about the nature of their relationships with the white men in their community. Mollie knows that Ernest is marrying her for the money but nevertheless finds herself in love with someone who's so eagerly ready to exploit her. As soon as their courtship begins, they are quickly married and have children, which means Ernest is one step closer to inheriting Mollie's fortune. But before he can become the sole beneficiary of this wealth, he has to pick off her family members one by one. This is when the murders increasingly begin affecting the Osage community. One mysterious and gruesome murder follows another — all orchestrated by the white men in Osage country but most importantly it's all been constructed by Hale and his money-hungry lapdog Ernest.

Mollie becomes increasingly vulnerable as she loses all her family members: first, her mother, then both of her sisters are heinously murdered. Again it's all been perpetrated as a scheme by her husband and her uncle-in-law. Ernest even admits that one thing he loves more than his wife is money.

Osage community leaders, including Mollie, grow paranoid and livid that someone, namely a white someone, in their community is committing heinous acts of violence against the Osage. So they send a representative to Washington D.C. to appeal to the government but before he even leaves Oklahoma — he's killed. Mollie then hires a private investigator to look into her family's deaths but he is also taken care of by none other than her husband. She finally takes matters into her own hands and voyages to D.C. herself and lobbies on behalf of all the hundreds of innocent Osage people murdered at the hands of greedy white men.

It's in Mollie's determination to catch the killer and receive justice for her family when Hale renders her a threat and danger to their insidious plot to steal her money. Hale demands that Ernest convince Mollie to take the rare Canadian-imported insulin to treat her diabetes. The insulin is administered to Mollie by white male doctors who are all in on the plot too. Of course, the insulin is poisoned. Mollie slowly but surely becomes sicker and sicker until she doesn't trust the doctors anymore. This leads to an explosive fight with Ernest where he calls her a dumb, stubborn b***h and scolds her that her Native ways won't save her from her illness — only modern medicine will. So Ernest personally begins administering the shots until Mollie is literally on her death bed ready to lose the battle of survival at the hands of her duplicitous husband.

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It's in this dynamic where Scorsese illustrates that the relationship between Mollie and Ernest isn't one of true love. It's one ridden with manipulation, and coercion and ultimately so driven by the power structures and dynamics of a colonial America hinging on and enforced by white supremacy underpinnings.

Ernest may be entrenched in the Osage culture, he may be married to an Osage woman and he may even have Osage children — and yet none of that is enough motivation to detract from him being a white supremacist who kills off his wife's family members for money. His status as a white man qualified him as a high-status suitor for Mollie. There is immense value in being married to a white man even though Mollie is the one with the real monetary capital. Because of the inherent power she held because of her wealth, he has to render her completely incapacitated for him to completely control the relationship and her. He had the support of his rich, influential uncle, doctors and bankers to inflict this harm onto Mollie and her family almost entirely without repercussion because of his whiteness and her Osageness.

It's a story of how whiteness exploits so-called love as a way to inflict unexplainable, unfathomable harm and destruction.

Scorsese depicts that white supremacy has only ever had loyalty to its abhorrent cause regardless of who you're married to or even who you have children with. By the end of the film, Ernest and Hale are found out by the federal government and are facing prison sentences. Ernest still cannot admit to Mollie he had poisoned her. She walks away with dignity and he is a deluded, pathetic man never able to grasp the gravity of his deplorable actions. It's not a love story — it's a story of how whiteness exploits so-called love as a way to inflict unexplainable, unfathomable harm and destruction.

The "Killers of the Flower Moon" relationship is a specific and rather extreme example of colonialism's effect on interracial relationships earlier in the country's history. Today, the dynamic between a white and non-white person doesn't have to be as insidious as Mollie and Ernest's to be influenced by white supremacy. Just like how a one grows up with biases based on our own experiences, those same experiences can create blinders to privilege or inequality even in a loving relationship. Furthermore, interracial relationships between non-white couples can have their challenges based on each group's circumstances based in a world that is still built upon colonialism.

Therefore, while the "Killers of the Flower Moon" marriage was clearly not destined for happiness, audiences can still learn from that example. White supremacy can easily influence a person in seemingly romantic relationships – and even if it's not driven by bloodthirsty greed or an evil agenda – those benefiting from its power can still exploit those who don't. Having an awareness of these differences and making sure they are addressed is where the challenge lies for modern-day mixed couples.

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Probe finds Reuters journalist was killed in “deliberately targeted” strike from Israeli border

A Reporters Without Borders investigation released Sunday concluded that Reuters video journalist Issam Abdallah and a group of his colleagues were intentionally targeted in southern Lebanon earlier this month in a pair of strikes launched from the direction of the Israeli border.

The probe, which does not explicitly accuse the Israeli military of launching the October 13 strikes that killed Abdallah and injured other journalists, found that it is unlikely the reporters were mistaken for combatants given that they were wearing helmets and vests marked "press" and had been in plain view for more than an hour.

The journalists were in the Lebanese village of Alma el-Chaab covering exchanges of fire between the Israeli military and Hezbollah when they came under attack.

Reporters Without Borders, known internationally as Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), found that roughly an hour before the two strikes hit "the exact spot where seven journalists were standing," an Al Jazeera reporter interviewed in a video analyzed by RSF "spotted an Israeli helicopter flying over the area and was able to spot the journalists."

Additionally, a Lebanese journalist stationed roughly 100 meters away from his colleagues told RSF that an Israeli Apache helicopter flew over the area seconds before the pair of strikes, the first of which killed Abdallah. The second strike, which RSF found was even more powerful, blew up an Al Jazeera vehicle and injured several journalists in the vicinity just 30 seconds later.

"Two strikes in the same place in such a short space of time (just over 30 seconds), from the same direction, clearly indicate precise targeting," RSF said.

🔴 RSF releases the findings of its investigation into the death of @Reuters reporter Issam Abdallah in Lebanon, on the border with Israel: even though Abdallah and his colleagues were clearly identifiable as journalists, their vehicle was deliberately targeted. 👇 pic.twitter.com/Y8KeAqk8bg

— RSF (@RSF_inter) October 29, 2023

Abdallah is among the dozens of journalists who have been killed in Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon since October 7, the day Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel. The Israeli military responded with a massive bombing campaign and ground raids in the occupied Gaza Strip that have killed more than 8,000 people and sparked a humanitarian catastrophe.

In response to the attack that killed Abdallah and seriously injured AFP correspondent Christina Assi, the Israeli military said it was "very sorry" for Abdallah's death and would investigate.

Israeli forces have repeatedly been accused of targeting journalists and refusing to hold perpetrators to account. The United Nations released a report earlier this month concluding that the Israeli military used "lethal force without justification" when it killed Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh last year. The Israeli government has refused to open a criminal investigation into the incident.

Reuters said in a statement Sunday that it is reviewing RSF's findings and reiterated its call for Israeli authorities to "conduct a swift, thorough, and transparent probe into what happened" to Abdallah and his colleagues.

"And we call upon all other authorities with information about the incident to provide it," Reuters added. "We will continue to fight for the rights of all journalists to report the news in the public interest free of harassment or harm, wherever they are."

Following the “charged lemonade” death and lawsuit, Panera adds disclosures to their menus

Following the death of college student Sarah Katz, which her parents and family attorney allege was caused by her drinking a "charged lemonade" from Panera, the sandwich chain has added disclaimers and warnings on their menus, both in-stores and online, about the caffeine content of their drinks. In a lawsuit against Panera, the Katz family suggest that Sarah, who had a heart condition that was exacerbated by the consumption of caffeine, was unaware of the high caffeine content of the "charged" drink, which contains as much caffeine as an energy drink, because Panera marketed the product as "clean."

On the beverage page on Panera.com, there's now a large disclaimer on the image of the drink itself that reads "contains caffeine" in large font and another message underneath about this" that reads "naturally flavored, plant-based, with about as much CAFFEINE as our Dark Roast Coffee. Use in moderation. NOT RECOMMENDED FOR children, people sensitive to caffeine, pregnant or nursing women." The same message is available on DoorDash.

The charged lemonade contains 390 milligrams of caffeine, which, according to Elizabeth Chuck at NBC News, is very, very close to the 400 milligram daily maximum of caffeine that the FDA recommends for a "healthy adult."

Matthew Perry once said his favorite thing about himself was his “caring about others”

In the wake of Matthew Perry’s death, many close friends and Hollywood peers remembered the actor as kind-hearted, brilliant and a “true gift to us all.” Perry himself also spoke more about what he believed were his friendliest attributes in his 2022 People cover story.

When asked, “What do you give yourself credit for,” Perry said, “I’m a little hard on myself.

“I give myself credit for being sober today, for caring about others, for never giving up,” he added. “Helping people as much as I do. That’s probably my favorite thing about myself.”

Perry continued, “Being creative, seeing, learning that if you’re uncomfortable or feeling anxiety, one of the ways to get out of that situation is to be creative. I wrote a screenplay in the same year that I wrote this book. I play a small part in it. I’m going to direct it.”

Perry, who was best known for playing Chandler Bing on “Friends,” was found dead in his Los Angeles home Saturday. The actor died in a hot tub at age 54, the Los Angeles Times reported.

On Sunday, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office announced that the cause of Perry’s death has been “deferred,” meaning additional investigative steps need to be taken. The medical examiner’s office told CNN that an autopsy has been conducted, “but examiners are awaiting the results of toxicology reports in order to determine Perry’s cause of death.”

Law enforcement sources also told the outlet that no drugs were found at the scene and no foul play is suspected.

Israeli human rights groups: Israeli officials backing settler violence against West Bank farmers

With international focus on the horrors of Israel's assault on Gaza, 30 Israeli human rights and anti-occupation organizations on Sunday aimed to draw attention to a surge in settler violence against Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank.

The coalition of groups — including B'Tselem, Breaking the Silence, and the Israeli arms of Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights — released a joint statement calling on the international community "to act urgently to stop the state-backed wave of settler violence which has led, and is leading to, the forcible transfer of Palestinian communities in the West Bank."

In retaliation for a Hamas-led attack earlier this month — in which over 1,400 Israelis were killed and around 200 others were taken hostage — Israel has waged what some legal scholars are calling a genocidal war, killing more than 8,000 people in Gaza.

"Settlers have been exploiting the lack of public attention to the West Bank, as well as the general atmosphere of rage against Palestinians, to escalate their campaign of violent attacks in an attempt to forcibly transfer Palestinian communities," the coalition noted. "During this period, no fewer than 13 herding communities have been displaced. Many more are in danger of being forced to flee in the coming days if immediate action is not taken."

BREAKING: Yet another Palestinian community, A’nizan (South Hebron Hills), is being forcibly transferred from their lands as a result of settler violence.

The 4 families/35 residents of A’nizan are packing up their belongings and leaving their lands as we speak. pic.twitter.com/TQL0l5bHU8

— Yehuda Shaul (@YehudaShaul) October 29, 2023

"Palestinian farmers are particularly vulnerable at this time, during the annual olive harvest season, because if they are unable to pick their olives they will lose a year's income," the groups explained. "Yesterday Bilal Muhammed Saleh from the village of As-Sawiya south of Nablus was murdered while tending to his olive trees. He was the seventh Palestinian to have been killed by settlers since the current war began."

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Saturday that 111 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed since October 7.

Jewish settlers have recently tried to scare Palestinians into fleeing the West Bank by displaying dolls covered in blood or a substance meant to mimic it and distributing leaflets with messages like "Run to Jordan before we kill our enemies and expel you from our Holy Land, promised to us by God."

The coalition said Sunday that "unfortunately, the Israeli government is supportive of these attacks and does nothing to stop this violence. On the contrary: government ministers and other officials are backing the violence and in many cases the military is present or even participates in the violence, including in incidents where settlers have killed Palestinians."

Over the past three weeks, Israeli forces fatal violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has included raids and an airstrike on a mosque in the densely populated Jenin refugee camp.

"Moreover, since the war has begun there has been a growing number of incidents in which violent settlers have been documented attacking nearby Palestinian communities while wearing military uniform and using government-issued weapons," the coalition continued. "With grave concern and with a clear understanding of the political landscape, we recognize that the only way to stop this forcible transfer in the West Bank is a clear, strong, and direct intervention by the international community."

As Israel levels Gaza, Palestinians in the West Bank are being forced out of their homes by armed settlers.

Entire villages in the Hebron Hills were told to leave today, or be killed.

We must keep our #EyesOnTheHills.

Will it protect them? We don’t know.

But we have to try. https://t.co/87tvAA7OfF

— IfNotNow🔥✡️ (@IfNotNowOrg) October 29, 2023

In response to the statement, Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), said on social media that the "world must act."

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Israeli forces have moved to a "second stage" of the war with ground operations, despite global demands for a cease-fire — though notably not from the U.S. government, which provides Israel with billions of dollars in annual military support.

"Israel's major ground offensive in Gaza, following weeks of bombardment that have reduced large parts of neighborhoods to rubble, raises grave concerns for the safety of all civilians caught in the fighting," HRW executive director Tirana Hassan said in a statement Sunday. "Thousands of children and other civilians have already been killed."

"Palestinian armed groups are continuing to indiscriminately launch rockets at Israeli communities," she added. "All civilians, including the many who cannot or do not want to leave their homes in northern Gaza, retain their protections under the laws of war against deliberate, indiscriminate, or disproportionate attacks."

Over objections from Israel and the United States, the U.N. General Assembly on Friday adopted a nonbinding resolution demanding that "all parties immediately and fully comply with their obligations under international law," and calling for "an immediate, durable, and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities."

Legal expert: Trump kids will turn fraud trial testimony into a “political spectacle”

Former President Donald Trump’s three oldest children are set to testify next week in the $250 million civil fraud lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The lawsuit accuses the former president and other defendants of committing massive fraud in New York for years by repeatedly inflating Trump’s wealth by hundreds of millions of dollars to get better terms for loans and insurance policies while building his real estate empire.

Prior to the trial, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump as well as the other defendants were liable for fraud and that the trial would determine how much of a penalty Trump should pay. The judge canceled Trump’s business licenses, but an appeals court paused that part of the judge’s order.

While Trump’s control of the companies may still be in jeopardy, there's no immediate requirement for him to dissolve the legal entities he uses to manage his properties, The New York Times reported.

After more than four weeks of the trial, James is planning to call Trump’s sons and his daughter Ivanka to the witness stand. Donald Trump Jr. is set to testify next Wednesday, Eric Trump on Thursday and Ivanka Trump on Nov. 3, but her lawyers may appeal to try to block her testimony. Trump himself is set to testify Nov. 6.

To date, sixteen witnesses have provided their testimonies in the trial. However, Gregory Germain, Syracuse University law professor, told Salon that he doesn't expect that the testimony of the Trump children to contribute to the primary issue under consideration by the judge — a central issue that revolves around determining the extent to which the Trump Organization may have benefited unjustly by using inflated financial statements to secure loans and insurance policies.

“I suspect that they will say that Donald was advised by experts in everything he did, and they will try to justify their valuations as statements of opinion that are not actionable,” Germain said.

But, for Trump, this case is not just about the remaining legal issues, he added.

Ex-prosecutor: Trump kids may learn a lesson on perjury "the hard way" on the witness stand

“It's also about publicity and politics, and trying to show in the court of public opinion that the decision the judge already made was wrong and unfair,” Germain said. “So his sons' testimony is likely to be a political spectacle rather than anything relevant to the remaining legal issues.”

The former president himself has participated in different spectacles since the trial began. Last week, he abruptly left the trial in frustration when Engoron issued an unfavorable ruling. Trump also lashed out on his social media platform Truth Social, posting about how Ivanka was initially released from this case and complained about how he is a victim of a "Trump-hating" judge.

“[B]ut this Trump Hating, Unhinged Judge, who ruled me guilty before this Witch Hunt Trial even started, couldn’t care less about the fact that he was overturned,” Trump wrote. I also won on Appeal on Statute of Limitations, but he refuses to accept their decision. I truly believe he is CRAZY, but certainly, at a minimum, CRAZED in his hatred of me…”

Within the first week of trial, Engoron issued a limited gag order against Trump, prohibiting him from making comments about individuals working on the judge's team on social media. The order came after Trump had posted an image of the judge’s clerk, Allison Greenfield, with Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, and mocked her as “Schumer’s girlfriend.”

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While Trump’s post was deleted on Oct. 3, a version of it was displayed on the ex-president’s campaign website until last week. Engoron called the post a “blatant violation” of his gag order and fined Trump $5,000.

Engoron fined Trump another $10,000 after he left the courtroom on Wednesday and proceeded to tell the media that Engoron is partisan and so is the person who’s “sitting alongside him. Perhaps even much more partisan than he is,” appearing to go after Greenfield again.

Even though Trump tried to defend himself and said his remark wasn't about the clerk, the judge called his testimony "not credible.” Trump has paid the $15,000 in fines, but is expected to appeal the gag order, according to a court filing Friday.

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

Now, as Trump’s children are being asked to testify, things are beginning to heat up again.

"The fact that Ivanka was originally a defendant and is now being called as a witness might indicate some form of cooperation, but it remains to be seen what form that cooperation may take — it may be minimal, and I wouldn't expect any explosive revelations from Trump's own daughter,” Jamie White, an attorney who handles criminal defense and civil rights cases, told Salon.

James, who is an experienced prosecutor, would not issue “frivolous subpoenas, or bring people to the witness stand knowing they'll simply take the 5th,” White added, explaining that it would be a “waste of the prosecutor's resources.”

"Because Judge Engoron has already ruled that Trump is liable for fraud by falsely inflating the value of his company's properties, all that remains is to decide the penalties,” White said. “So there's no reason for Letitia James to bring the Trump children to the stand simply for purposes of showmanship. The only real question is establishing damages, and it is not unreasonable to assume that Ivanka or the other Trump children who were involved in running the family business may have that information."

about Trump's fraud trial

Slashing salt can save lives — and it won’t hurt your pocket or tastebuds

Each year, more than 2,500 Australians die from diseases linked to eating too much salt.

We shouldn't be putting up with so much unnecessary illness, mainly from heart disease and strokes and so many deaths.

As a new Grattan Institute report shows, there are practical steps the federal government can take to save lives, reduce health spending and help the economy.

We eat too much salt, with deadly consequences

Eating too much salt is bad for your health. It raises blood pressure, which increases the risk of heart disease and stroke.

About one in three Australians has high blood pressure and eating too much salt is the biggest individual contributor.

Unfortunately, the average Australian eats far too much salt — almost double the recommended daily maximum of 5 grams, equivalent to a teaspoon.

Australian governments know excessive salt intake is a big problem. That's why in 2021 they set a target to reduce salt intake by at least 30% by 2030.

It's an ambitious and worthy goal. But we're still eating too much salt and we don't have the policies to change that.

Most of the salt we eat is added to food during manufacturing

Most of the salt Australians eat doesn't come from the shaker on the table. About three-quarters of it is added to food during manufacturing.

This salt is hidden in everyday staples such as bread, cheese and processed meats. Common foods such as ready-to-eat pasta meals or a ham sandwich can have up to half our total recommended salt intake.

Salt limits are the best way to cut salt intake

Reducing the amount of salt added to food during manufacturing is the most effective way to reduce intake.

Salt limits can help us do that. They work by setting limits on how much salt can be added to different kinds of food, such as bread or biscuits. To meet these limits, companies need to change the recipes of their products, reducing the amount of salt.

Under salt limits, the United Kingdom reduced salt intake by 20% in about a decade. South Africa is making even faster gains. Salt limits are cheap and easy to implement and can get results quickly.

Most consumers won't notice a change at the checkout. Companies will need to update their recipes, but even if all the costs of updating recipes were passed on to shoppers, we calculate that at most it would cost about 10 cents each week for the average household.

Nor will consumers notice much of a change at the dinner table. Most people don't notice when some salt is removed from common foods. There are many ways companies can make foods taste just as salty without adding as much salt. For example, they can make salt crystals finer or use potassium-enriched salt, which swaps some of the harmful sodium in salt for potassium. And because the change will be gradual, our tastebuds will adapt to less salty foods over time.

Australia's salt limits are failing

Australia has had voluntary salt limits since 2009, but they are badly designed, poorly implemented and have reduced population salt intake by just 0.3%.

Because Australia's limits are voluntary, many food companies have chosen not to participate in the scheme. Our analysis shows that 73% of eligible food products are not participating and only 4% have reduced their salt content.

Action could save lives

Modelling from the University of Melbourne shows that fixing our failed salt limits could add 36,000 extra healthy years of life, across the population, over the next 20 years.

This would delay more than 300 deaths each year and reduce health-care spending by A$35 million annually, the equivalent of 6,000 hospital visits.

International experience shows the costs of implementing such salt limits would be very low and far outweighed by the benefits.

How to fix our failed salt limits

To achieve these gains, the federal government should start by enforcing the limits we already have, by making compliance mandatory. Fifteen countries have mandatory salt limits and 14 are planning to introduce them.

The number of foods covered by salt limits in Australia should more than double, to be as broad as those the UK set in 2014. Broader targets would include common foods for which Australia does not currently set targets, such as baked beans, butter, margarine and canned vegetables.

A loophole in the current scheme that lets companies leave out a fifth of their products should be closed. The federal government should design the policy, rather than doing it jointly with industry representatives.

Over the coming decades, Australia will need many new and improved policies to reduce diet-related disease. Reducing salt intake must be part of this agenda. For too long, Australia has let the food industry set the standard, with almost no progress against a major threat to our health.

Getting serious about salt would save lives and it would more than pay for itself through reduced health-care costs and increased economic activity.

Peter Breadon, Program Director, Health and Aged Care, Grattan Institute and Lachlan Fox, Associate, Grattan Institute

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Jan. 6 rioter tackled in court after trying to fight federal agents at hearing

A fight erupted during a hearing on Monday for a defendant convicted on a number of charges related to the deadly Capitol insurrection on Jan 6, 2021, including assaulting police. Moments after Judge Paul Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that Vitali GossJankowski be sentenced to jail time, GossJankowski, "who appears to stand at least 6 feet, 3 inches tall and is exceptionally muscular," began to brawl with federal agents who were attempting to detain him. GossJankowski, who has a hearing disability, had to be restrained by four U.S. Marshals and FBI staff, per CBS News.

GossJankowski, who was convicted of multiple offenses in connection with the Jan. 6 riot earlier this year, made doxxing threats toward federal agents on social media, with Friedman ruling that the posts were "extremely troubling and dangerous," adding that it's rarely "people in public life themselves" who endanger judges and agents, but rather "their followers." Friedman also acknowledged that threatening content is not protected by the First Amendment. GossJankowski was eventually removed from the court and taken to the D.C. jail.

Marshals order courtroom cleared as GossJankowski is physically resisting agents who are trying to cuff him. He makes gutteral screams and fights off agents.

— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) October 30, 2023

Snoopy is the true star of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”

As a child, I was more easily pulled into the world of literature than film. My summers were spent oscillating between New Jersey beaches and the blast-chilled alcoves of my local library, reading about tornadoes, Greek mythology and Count Olaf. But along with these cherished readings was an equally canonical set of movies. “Peanuts” holiday specials, adapted from Charles M. Schulz's beloved comic strip, were a formative fixture of my childhood that paired sweetly and synchronously with my love of books. Intellectual curiosity, emotional complexity, lingering questions about spirituality and unadulterated whimsy ballasted the world of Charlie Brown and his gang.

Watching “Peanuts,” even as a kid, was like playing a game of cerebral hopscotch. You started any of the films thinking you were simply engaging in a lighthearted holiday tradition, but soon enough, your mind would snag on a scene or a line, and you’d become totally enraptured. Bleary-eyed and punch-drunk on pumpkin pie and chocolate, you’d continue watching, only to return to that same scene or line later on in your mind, struggling to articulate your thoughts and feelings about it.

Why do we wear bedsheets as a ghost costume? A closer look at its creepy, yet practical origins

For me, at least, watching the films still conjures the same level of emotional depth that it did in the late ‘90s and early aughts.

Kids watching “The Great Pumpkin” at or around the time it originally aired . . . would have, in all likelihood, been able to recognize the reference to a Sopwith Camel.

“Peanuts” — and specifically the 1966 Halloween television special, “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” — has always teetered on the brink of magical realism. Wholly devoid of adults and imbued with quasi-mythical elements, “Peanuts” always seemed one step away from pitching itself into being a total anomaly, as far as children’s films are concerned. Linus van Pelt’s blind faith that the Great Pumpkin will rise from the “most sincere” of pumpkin patches; the mystery behind Charlie Brown’s receiving rocks in his trick-or-treat bag, unlike his friends who get candy, gum and popcorn balls; Lucy using the back of Charlie Brown’s head to model the design for a jack-o-lantern.

The sequence that perhaps best encapsulates this quality though is Snoopy as the World War I Flying Ace, and his battle with the Red Baron, aka, Manfred von Richthofen, a German fighter pilot and aristocrat who downed 80 Allied planes between 1916 and 1918.

“His mission is to find the Red Baron and shoot him down,” narrates Charlie Brown, as Snoopy, donning a red scarf, aviator hat and goggles, clambers into the cockpit of his dog house-turned single-seat Sopwith Camel. He soars into flight, his bright white fur set against an orange sky. The plane’s propeller whirs, and Snoopy’s head swings around, up and down, scanning for any sign of his German foe. Suddenly, the clouds darken, and Snoopy, with gritted teeth and a raised fist, lets his plane nosedive as he sprays rounds of invisible gunfire at the Red Baron, who is deftly maneuvering around him. The Red Baron takes his shot, peppering the side of Snoopy’s dogfighter with bullets. The Sopwith Camel sputters and smokes, before crashing to the ground near Snoopy’s blue water bowl.

Charlie Brown’s stilted voice returns to tell us, “Here’s the World War I Flying Ace imagining he’s down behind enemy lines.” Snoopy slinks on all fours across a shadowy tree-lined road, made pink by the fiery red setting sun. A sign that looks more like a tombstone indicates that he crashed about 70 kilometers from the city of Chȃlons-sur-marne. As Snoopy continues making his way across the French countryside, navigating barbed trenches and the occasional skirmish, a portentous tune plays, set against a violet-bruised sky. He takes a moment of respite on top of a heaped hay bale before continuing on his journey, eventually reaching a ramshackle farmhouse where the Peanuts’ Halloween party is taking place.

Snoopy, along with his sensationally wild imagination, reminds us that Halloween is a day to indulge our own fantasies.

But though Snoopy’s green-goggled flight continues to charm audiences year after year, it’s worth noting the glaring temporal dissonance between those watching amid the countercultural heyday of the ‘60s and ‘70s, for example, and modern-day viewers. Kids watching “The Great Pumpkin” at or around the time it originally aired would certainly have a more tenable grasp on, if not of the World Wars, the anti-triumphalism sentiment of post-war American literature and film. Certainly, many of them would have had parents and grandparents who fought in one or both of the World Wars and had a relatively close connection to a version of trauma that was at once intergenerational and global. They would have, in all likelihood, been able to recognize the reference to a Sopwith Camel, the same way I would be able to visualize what a Stealth Bomber looks like. It’s therefore much easier for a 25-year-old living in 2023 to romanticize the less technical, more individual plight of Snoopy as the WWI Flying Ace and his nemesis, the Red Baron, as a duel scene.

Nonetheless, no one can deny the undeniably iconic and enduring appeal of a dog clad in pilot gear, waggling his tongue at a formidable adversary and traipsing through bucolic, watercolor landscapes before bobbing for apples at a holiday party. At its core, Snoopy’s Flying Ace scene is impressive for its longevity and its mysticism. It’s remained an unblemished and shimmering cultural linchpin for nearly 60 years, without ever having to adapt or evolve to fit the demands of each new year’s zeitgeist. Snoopy, along with his sensationally wild imagination, reminds us that Halloween is a day to indulge our own fantasies and that pretending to be someone else, even if from a bygone era, can always find resonance with the present.

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World War I never ended
The secret to growing giant pumpkins
"I only dread one day at a time!"

“Potent weapon”: Experts say ex-MAGA champion Jenna Ellis in “unique position” to doom Trump defense

Former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, whose guilty plea last week made her the fourth Georgia co-conspirator to reach a deal with prosecutors, delivered a powerful disavowal of the "Big Lie" that could undercut Trump's defense, vault her to star witness status and fashion her into a "potent weapon" against his political goals, two legal experts argued in a Sunday op-ed for The New York Times.

Ellis in a statement to the court admitted that the claims of election fraud she parroted as part of the alleged effort to overturn the 2020 election were false. While two other plea deals — from Trump-aligned lawyer Kenneth Chesebro and former Trump attorney Sidney Powell — are important, former White House ethics czar Norm Eisen and criminal defense lawyer Amy Copeland write, "Ellis is in a unique position to aid prosecutors in the Georgia case and possibly even the parallel federal one — as well as Mr. Trump’s opponents in the court of public opinion."

Ellis pleaded guilty to a felony count of aiding and abetting false statements made by her co-defendants, including personal Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, to the Georgia Senate about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Those statements included the claims that “10,315 or more dead people voted” in the state, “at least 96,000 mail-in ballots were counted” erroneously and “2,506 felons voted illegally.”

Those lies formed a significant part of Trump's moves against the election, according to state and federal criminal prosecutions that allege the former president and his co-conspirators knowingly employed these false claims and others in their plots to overturn his electoral defeat.

Ellis "emerged from her plea hearing as a likely star witness for prosecutors," starting with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who first secured her cooperation, Eisen and Copeland wrote.

"Dominos are falling": Fourth Trump co-defendant pleads guilty in Georgia election subversion case

Unlike the co-conspirators who also secured plea deals, Ellis described her "responsibilities as a lawyer," lamented the due diligence “I did not do but should have done” and expressed her “deep remorse for those failures of mine” during her statement before the court. The judge, a fierce ex-prosecutor, appreciated her sharing and noted that it's uncommon for defendants to do so. That exchange rings significant for Ellis' future role in the case and trial.

"Trials are about the evidence and the law," the experts write. "But they are also theater, and the jury is the audience. In this case, the jury is not the only audience — the Georgia trials will be televised, so many Americans will also be tuned in. Ms. Ellis is poised to be a potent weapon against Mr. Trump in the courtroom and on TVs.

"That is bad news for her former co-defendants — above all, Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Trump," they continue, noting that Ellis was most closely associated with the former New York City mayor. "If her court appearance last week is any indication, she will be a compelling guide to his alleged misconduct. She will also add to what is known about it."

The legal experts predicted that Ellis would have had many conversations with Giuliani that are not yet public and will inform the jury's decisions. Second, because Giuliani was the senior lawyer on the case, Ellis' comment that she was misguided by attorneys “with many more years of experience” is a direct dig at him.

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Her testimony is likely to also strike Trump hard as she's effectively rebuffed his claims that he won the election — an argument that's an expected focal point of his trial defense. A "formerly outspoken MAGA champion," her disagreement with the claims can potentially resonate with jurors while building on other substantial evidence against Trump, which includes an array of witness testimony collected by the House Jan. 6 committee indicating that many an advisor informed the former president the election was not stolen and that he may have admitted as much in private.

Ellis' testimony also has the potential to undermine one of Trump's main defenses: that he relied on the advice of counsel, a defense only available if said counsel is not part of the alleged crimes, Copeland and Eisen note.

"Ms. Ellis’s plea puts her squarely within the conspiracy, as do those of Mr. Chesebro and Ms. Powell," they said. "That will hamper Mr. Trump’s effort to present a reliance-on-counsel defense."

Ellis, notably, is also promising Willis full cooperation, taking the step to agree "to fully cooperate with prosecutors,” which could involve doing interviews with prosecutors, “appearing for evidentiary hearings, and assisting in pretrial matters.” Chesebro and Powell, on the other hand, while likely having important contributions to the prosecution, have only agreed to provide documents, preview their testimony and testify truthfully in further proceedings if called.

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"To our knowledge, Ms. Ellis is not yet cooperating with prosecutors in the federal case led by the special counsel Jack Smith, but if she does, she would have a comparative advantage for the prosecution over Mr. Chesebro and Ms. Powell: They are identified as unindicted co-conspirators in that case and would be more problematic for Mr. Smith to deal with," the experts add, noting that Smith may not be willing to immunize them if they were to assert their privilege against self-incrimination since that would butt up against prosecuting them.

Ellis, however, may be a more suitable candidate for Smith to extend that protection to — as he did with former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows — to secure her testimony because he has not named her among Trump's alleged federal co-conspirators.

Live-streamed then replayed on television and social media, Ellis' guilty plea is also bound to have an effect on the political landscape, Copeland and Eisen predict. "It is riveting to see a MAGA champion who helped lead the election assault tearfully admitting she and that effort misled the American people," they said.

Even if Trump finds a way to delay his Georgia court appearance within the five months the judge had set aside for Chesebro and Powell's trial, the other defendants' trial could begin within that time and definitely in election year 2024. In that case, Ellis and other existing and potential witnesses against the former president will likely play a crucial role in both the legal landscape and the political arena.

"With Mr. Trump showing no signs of backing down from his claims of 2020 election fraud and a new election upon us, Ms. Ellis’s plea — like the televised Jan. 6 committee testimony of Cassidy Hutchinson, another Trump insider who turned on him with powerful effect — could be a potential turning point in the court of public opinion," Eisen and Copeland conclude. "When Mr. Trump’s lies are repeated in the future, in whatever venue, expect to see Ms. Ellis often."

about Jenna Ellis

Mice embryos successfully grown in space, a promising milestone for human space exploration

Most of the recent news about the International Space Station (ISS) hasn't been very positive recently, from Russian cosmonauts dodging a cooling leak during a space walk to NASA's ongoing plan to crash the ISS into the ocean (which will largely benefit private space exploration companies). Yet in a major leap forward for biological sciences, a new study in the journal iSciences reveals that humans were able to successfully culture mouse embryos while aboard the ISS. This is the first time that any mammalian embryos have been cultivated and grown in space, which raises the prospect that humans will be able to someday successfully reproduce off of Earth, whether on Mars or beyond the stars.

The experiment involved freezing mouse embryos that had been cultivated to the two-cell stage, then shipping them off to space. Once they arrived at the ISS, they were carefully thawed and cultivated by astronauts in equipment especially designed for the purpose. Four days later the cultivated embryos were preserved in paraformaldehyde and shipped back to Earth, where a team led by molecular biologist Teruhiko Wakayama of the University of Yamanashi studied the results. While fewer of the embryos on ISS survived compared to mouse embryo counterparts that had been cultivated back on Earth, those which did survive developed normally.

"There is a possibility of pregnancy during a future trip to Mars because it will take more than six months to travel there," Wakayama told New Scientist. "We are conducting research to ensure we will be able to safely have children if that time comes."

“Weaponized incompetence”: Youngkin team admits wrongly purging 3,400 eligible voters from rolls

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin's election team conceded that it mistakenly removed nearly 3,400 legal voters from the state's roll ahead of the November 7 General Assembly elections, The Washington Post reports.

The Republican's team in a news release Friday acknowledged the removal, which it had originally estimated to be around 270 voters, according to the report. Administration officials stated that Virginia's computer software had incorrectly counted probation violations of the voters — all of whom had been previously convicted of felonies — as new charges that rendered them unable to vote. The Department of Elections said Friday that all affected voters have been notified by mail.

“As of today, all but approximately 100 of these records have been processed by general registrars. ELECT staff continues to check in with localities to ensure each record is reinstated,” the department said in a news release.

The battle for Virginia: Can the last state in the South to not restrict abortion post-Roe survive?

The error was first identified in September by public radio station VPM, but administrative officials were initially not concerned, according to the Post. Virginia Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine called for a probe from the Justice Department. The election bears significant weight in Youngkin's prospects for the presidency, as well as the outcome of his conservative legal plans.

“I've been calling it weaponized incompetence," said Aaron Mukerjee, an attorney working as the Democratic Party of Virginia’s voter protection director. "First, we were told there was no problem. Then we were told it was a small, contained problem. Now we’re told it is a massive problem, with numbers large enough to swing control of the General Assembly. All of this confirms Republicans cannot be trusted with Virginians basic constitutional rights.”

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Secretary of Administration Lyd McDermid defended Youngkin in a letter to Mary Bauer, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, after the organization had scrutinized the voter removal.

"Governor Youngkin believes that every eligible Virginian should exercise his or her right to vote,” she wrote.

The Washington Post reported that Youngkin has asked Virginia's inspector general to look into the removals, along with "preliminary findings" that a number of people whose rights had been reinstated may have been permitted to remain on the rolls in years past, even after being dealt a felony conviction. Last year, the governor's elections department claimed it had determined that nearly 10,600 individuals on Virginia's voter rolls were disqualified from voting over felony convictions. In Virginia, a felony conviction equates to a loss of civil rights, as noted by The Associated Press, including the right to vote, serve on a jury, run for office, or carry a firearm.

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Chief of Staff Jeff Goettman wrote in a letter that the administration suspects the errors “are the result of antiquated data systems and insufficient processes maintained over the last 20 plus years.”

“It is important that we resolve these issues as soon as reasonably practical as Governor Youngkin believes that every eligible Virginian should exercise his or her right to vote,” Goettman added.

Matthew Perry’s cause of death awaiting results of toxicology report

The cause of death for actor Matthew Perry, who was found unresponsive in his hot tub Saturday, has been “deferred,” the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office announced on Sunday afternoon. Many news outlets had initially written he had died from an apparent drowning.

“In cases where the cause of death cannot be determined at the time of autopsy, a deferred certificate will be issued until additional studies have been completed,” according to the LA coroner’s guidelines.

The medical examiner’s office told CNN that an autopsy has been conducted, “but examiners are awaiting the results of toxicology reports in order to determine Perry’s cause of death.”

Investigators are planning to use the toxicology reports to determine whether any foreign substances were involved in Perry’s death, a law enforcement source told the outlet. The source also said no foul play is suspected.

Perry had been dealing with various addictions throughout his life since he was on "Friends" and had detailed he journey in his 2022 memoir "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing."

On Sunday, the medical examiner’s records indicated the actor’s remains were ready to be released to his next of kin, CNN reported.

Halloween foods from history reveal the holiday’s surprising romantic side

Think about Halloween and romance is unlikely to be the first thing that comes to mind. But Victorian periodicals and newspapers show that alongside dressing in costumes, enjoying themed cuisine and telling ghost stories, historical Halloween food traditions were often centered on love. Here are three examples you can try for yourself.

Halloween nuts

An article published in the London magazine Kind Words for Boys and Girls in 1889 describes the autumnal traditions that marked this time of year throughout history. One particularly popular snack they point to is hazelnuts and cobnuts, which were in plentiful supply in the autumn.

Rather than being part of a snack or game, however, the author notes that they were the "arbiters of fate" — a fate that was romantic. Those curious about the future of their love-life would place a nut on the grate of a brightly burning fire and name it after their sweetheart. The status of their romance was divined through the way the nut burned. A short story published in Every Boy's Magazine in 1896 also refers to this tradition.

In the story, the narrator describes a Halloween visit to Scotland. Having read Robert Burns's poem, Halloween, the narrator describes being at a gathering where sweethearts "burnt nuts and watched their fate with anxious hearts". Should the nuts remain on the grate and roast peacefully side by side, the chances of harmonious love were good. If the nuts darted off and sparked out the fire erratically, the relationship was doomed.

Roasting nuts and bobbing for apples are depicted in this story as traditions that "had died out in England", but were "preserved in full vigour in Ireland and Scotland". These Celtic associations with Halloween traditions are emphasised in another article.

Halloween kale

In 1879 in a children's magazine called Little Wide-Awake, the Scottish author George Cupples (1822-1891) wrote an entry on October traditions called Talks About the Months. Alongside the nuts and apples which Cupples writes are "consumed in immense numbers" across the United Kingdom, he describes other peculiar ceremonies including another type of food: kale.

As with the romantic cobnuts, this kale is not for eating — at least in the first instance — and its significance is again tied to love.

"In some places there is the pulling of 'kale-storks' or stalks of calewort", writes Cupples, "to see if one's future husband is to be tall or straight, little or crooked". The root of the kale apparently represented the stature of one's future spouse. Not only that, but the amount of dirt that clung to the stalk indicated the wealth of a future partner and "if the pith tastes sweet it shows that the husband or wife of the lucky individual is to be sweet also".

The Halloween party games Cupples describes are similarly centred on love. The Three Dishes game consisted of three basins: one filled with clean water, one with dirty water and one left empty. A blindfolded player is sent forward to dip their fingers into one and decide their romantic fate.

If they touch the clean water, a happy marriage to a young man or maiden awaits. If they chance upon the foul water, they are set to marry a widow or widower and if they choose the empty dish "the person is destined to be a bachelor or an old maid".

Soul cakes

These activities may have been followed with "souling" on All Soul's Day, November 2. Souling, a longstanding tradition with links to Christianity rather than paganism, is comparable to trick-or-treating in that it involved going from door-to-door to beg for "soul cakes".

These are oaten cakes, sometimes containing seeds, fruits or nuts, as well as spices and were either round or triangular in shape. A recipe for soul cakes from a 1604 manuscript recipe book reads as follows:

Take flower & sugar & nutmeg & cloves & mace & sweet butter & sack & a little ale barme, beat your spice, & put in your butter & your sack, cold, then work it well all together, & make it in little cakes, & so bake them, if you will you may put in some saffron into them and fruit.

When "souling", these cakes would be handed out as people sung a rhyme: "Soul, soul, for a soul-cake; Pray you, good mistress, a soul cake."

Food was therefore tied into multiple Halloween traditions that often had love trouble at their core, leaning into the idea that spirits could shed light on mysteries, including future romance. But what also shines through, is that 19th-century authors frequently associated Halloween with other, distant, time periods.

Whether traditions were framed as the simple, "rough" ways of countryside or Celtic folks, tied to outdated religious practices or simply viewed as folkloric fun, Victorian authors repeatedly described the celebration of Halloween in terms that evoked a darker, spookier, more unknowable past.

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Lindsay Middleton, Food Historian and Knowledge Exchange Associate, University of Glasgow

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Here’s why “concierge medicine” is coming for your family practice

First, there were the emails alerting me to some exciting changes to the practice. There were phone calls. And mailers. Invitations to Zoom sessions to discuss new options for patients. My primary care physician of several years wanted to make sure everyone got the word — he was about to start offering "concierge" services. I was appalled.

Concierge-based medicine, sometimes called VIP medicine or retainer medicine, is essentially what it sounds like. Patients pay a set fee on top of their insurance premiums for a suite of what used to be standard but are now considered premium physician services, like same-day appointments and longer doctor visits. Fees typically range from $150 to $1,000 a month per patient, but can climb significantly higher.

Permission to heal: An expert explains why we all need to rediscover "the lost art of convalescence"

The concept has been around for over twenty years, but it's really taken off since the COVID pandemic. It's one of the few thriving domains of American health care. The industry journal Medical Economics reported earlier this year that "90% of medical practices reported that their costs rose faster in 2022 than revenues, while only 10% said their revenues kept pace ahead of rising costs." Meanwhile, Kona Medical Consulting reports that concierge doctors saw "an increase of 21% in new patient volumes in the U.S. in 2020," a percentage that's expected to keep jumping over the next decade. Concierge services pulled in an estimated $6.1 billion last year.

We feel rushed and invisible, frustrated with paperwork and left to interpret our lab results on our own.

The allure of concierge medicine, both for patients and practitioners, is clear. I don't regret ditching my family practitioner, but now I don't have a GP and am struggling to find someone who accepts new patients. Americans wait an average of 18.5 days to schedule an appointment with a new physician practice. In New York, the average is 26 days. In Boston, it's 66 days. Once we're lucky enough to snag a visit, we sit in waiting rooms about 18 minutes per visit — roughly the same amount of time we spend in our actual appointments. And a March JAMA Health Forum study found that visits involving Black, Hispanic and publicly-insured patients tend to run shorter.

We feel rushed and invisible, frustrated with paperwork and left to interpret our lab results on our own. That systemic indifference affects our health, and it does so disproportionately. A 2018 Physician Wait Time Report found that "Only 20% of people who reported having excellent access to top-quality doctors said they’ve walked out of an appointment because of a long wait. In comparison, 53% of people who reported having poor access to healthcare have left a doctor’s office due to long waits."

On the other side of the stethoscope, doctors aren't just struggling with increasing expenses, they're exhausted and over-scheduled. A 2022 Medical Economics survey found that "More than 93% of physicians report feeling burnout at some point and more than 73% say they feel it now." Think it's tough to get an appointment now? The AMA reports that one in five physicians say they plan on leaving their practices within the next two years.

"Moral injury — I think that's a better phrase to describe what doctors are going through."

"I wanted to get into concierge medicine because I felt that the health care system is really broken," says Terry Bauer, CEO of concierge medicine consulting firm Specialdocs, "particularly for primary care doctors and doctors who have ongoing relationships with their patients, whether it be internal medicine, family practice, etc." He's sees the current crisis, noting, "Reimbursement goes down and operating costs go up, and the only way to make ends meet is to see more patients. But that becomes a path to frustration. All those dynamics are causing doctors to say, 'I need to do something different. I'm not going to be able to have a life. I'm not going to be able to care for the patients in a way that they deserve in this kind of model. We talk about burnout. I think a better term is what JAMA quoted a couple of years ago, which is moral injury. I think that's a better phrase to describe what doctors are going through."

And psychiatrist Dr. Howard Pratt, medical director at the nonprofit Community Health of South Florida, sees the same challenges. "There are so many reasons that a person becomes a physician, but it's usually bigger than themselves. Having said that, the business side of medicine is taking the doctors' hands and tying one hand behind their back, limiting what I can do, limiting how many people I can see. Managed care is hitting medicine so hard," he says, "And it's really making a lot of doctors walk away from medicine. Right now, it is not a good time to be a doctor."

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It's not a good time to be a patient, either. When I looked into the new system at my family practice, among the perks my physician would now offer to members were an "exclusive office phone number" to "conveniently reach a member of the staff at the office and bypass the automated attendant," "dedicated appointment slots for concierge members" and "more time with me" in "longer, more relaxed appointments."

I just couldn't get my head around the notion that if I were to have a respiratory infection, for example, I would be exactly the same, while my ability to see my doctor and the amount of time he would spend with me were now to be contingent on my paying him $200 a month.

"Right now, it is not a good time to be a doctor."

"It's very easy to look at the doctor like, 'Hey, why are you doing this?'" says Pratt. "But I know so many people that are frustrated because for whatever reason they're not able to collect from insurance, are having trouble keeping the lights on. And if I'm able to do this and stay open and still treat my other patients, then is it wrong? There are so many shades of grey."

My friend Charlotte had similar concerns as well. But over the years, she's moved over to a concierge practice, one family member at a time. Hers, however, isn't a hybrid like my doctor's — every patient pays a monthly membership fee for the same level of access. And she's been really satisfied with the service, like when she had a fibroid recently. Her service "got me in there in a day," she says. "They did all of the very thorough pre-surgical testing. Then the doctor sat with me and was like, 'So let's talk about the symptoms; let's talk about the bleeding.' It is not one size fits all. It's a very differentiated experience. With my doctor before, I never felt heard. I always felt rushed."

And Bauer says there are potentially lower healthcare costs with concierge service. "With same day or next day appointments, they don't have to go to the urgent care, which is the front door to the emergency room," he says. "Secondly, patients who have concierge doctors typically are more compliant with their treatment plans, because the doctor spends time with you."

The other side of all of this, though, is what sure looks like a widening gap in an already fragile and deeply divided system. . A January piece in the AMA Journal of Ethics by Denisse Rojas Marquez, MD, MPP and Hazel Lever, MD, MPH called concierge medicine "ethically indefensible," arguing, "To allow VIP health care to exist condones the notion that some people — namely, wealthy White people — deserve more care sooner and that their well-being matters more."

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"I'm at a federally-qualified community health center," says Pratt. "We're typically the last line before there aren't any services. Most of the people I think, would not have that [concierge] option. You know, residency is paid for typically by Medicare or HOSA dollars. This is something that's supposed to benefit the public."

As someone with TSA PreCheck and an upcoming vacation that includes Express Passes, I get it that sometimes paying more is worth it in time and headaches saved. I definitely don't begrudge any doctor, patient or parent any choices made for their own physical and mental health, or for the people they are most accountable to.

But healthcare access also isn't a ride at a theme park. Those of us with the privilege of choice can respect each other's decisions. We can also recognize that our American health care system is greedy, cruel and wildly unfair, and that most of us don't have an extra $200 or more a month to spend just to feel like we have our physician's full attention. In the end, what made me drop my doctor wasn't just the introduction of concierge services to the practice, but the the sense that I would now have the option of being not a patient, but a customer. I could fly first class or economy, and the next time I got sick, I'd be treated accordingly.

about American healthcare

Ex-prosecutor: Trump kids may learn a lesson on perjury “the hard way” on the witness stand

The stakes are high for former President Donald Trump and three of his adult children as Eric, Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. are slated to take the stand in his civil fraud trial in New York this week.

One of the most anticipated testimonies of the week is that of Ivanka Trump, whom an appeals court ruled should be dropped as a defendant in the case earlier this year over concerns about the statute of limitations. Brothers Eric and Don Jr., while testifying as witnesses, are still defendants in the suit and, along with their father and other Trump Organization executives, were found liable of committing fraud in exaggerating property values on financial statements by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron late last month ahead of the trial's start.

Former Trump White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews predicted that Ivanka Trump may seek to distance herself from her family's business dealings on the stand.

"They are a close-knit family and while they have their issues, I don't know that she is going to want to put them in a bad situation and, obviously, because then it will reflect back on her and will look poorly on her and her father," Matthews told MSNBC host Alex Witt on Sunday. "So I think that she is going to be careful with her words and try to protect her family. But, at the end of the day, something I knew very well from working with Jared [Kushner] and Ivanka in the White House was that they were always concerned with their own reputations first.

"We saw this in news stories all the time where, if Trump would enact a policy or tweet something vile out, then in the reporting it would always be, 'Oh, Jared and Ivanka disagreed though or they tried to push back,'" she added. "So, they were always trying to make themselves look good in the media and I think that she is going to be very concerned with how she is coming across with her testimony and be very guarded. So that's going probably be a bigger factor than trying to protect her family."

Judge rejects Trump's attempt to dodge Ivanka's testimony at fraud trial

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance warned that Trump's kids will have to decide "do they want to tell the truth or do they want to stay in daddy's good graces since the consequences of committing perjury are likely to be a prosecution."

"It's very clear that New York's attorney general means business," she said in an appearance on MSNBC.

Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner warned that the Trump children's testimonies will carry a risk if they stray from the truth.

"You know, more than 50 years ago, the Supreme Court famously said that cross-examination is the greatest legal engine ever invented for the discovery of the truth," Kirschner told MSNBC. "And I think Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka, and eventually Donald Trump himself are going to learn that lesson the hard way."

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The former president has been sanctioned twice during the trial. He first earned a $5,000 fine earlier this month for failing to remove a cross-posted social media post about a court clerk that led Engoron to impose a partial gag order on all parties barring them from speaking about court personnel. The second $10,000 sanction came last week after Engoron found Donald Trump not credible when testifying that he was not referring to the clerk while complaining about "the partisan" that sat alongside the judge to reporters outside the courtroom.

"So, you know, they can try to deflect," Kirschner continued after emphasizing that they will be asked about the very business practices that Engoron has already ruled against. "They can try to feign lost memory. They can deceive. But if they do so and if they lie about something that is material to an issue in dispute that's the magic language for the charge of perjury, then they could be looking at a perjury charge.

"Will New York Attorney General Tish James choose to go that way if she finds false testimony? We don't know, but as I said, this is really perilous terrain for the Trumps," he concluded.

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Pleading the Fifth while on the stand could also make matters worse for the family, former U.S. Attorney Barb McQuade said during a Sunday morning MSNBC appearance, noting that using the constitutional amendment pertaining to self-incrimination is applied differently in a civil trial than in a criminal trial.

"It's not that they're going to be incriminated here, it's that anything they say under oath could be used against them in some subsequent criminal case," she told host Charles Coleman Jr. "If they believe they have exposure, they can invoke it. But what's different about a civil case from a criminal case is that in this case, Judge Engoron could use that invocation to draw an adverse inference against the witness.

"So if they refused to answer a question, he can assume the worst about what the answer would have been," McQuade continued. "I think that's what I'll be looking for most as these witnesses testify this week."

Ivanka Trump is set to testify on Friday, Nov. 3 with Donald Jr. and Eric Trump's testimonies preceding on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, the Associated Press reports. The former president will take to the stand again — following the brief appearance that led to his latest violation of Engoron's partial gag order and subsequent sanction — on Nov. 6.

Donald Trump has denied all wrongdoing in the lawsuit and fervently defended the valuations of his properties.

about Trump's fraud trial

Off with his head: The manufactured scandal over Hasan Minhaj

When Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate story, journalism in this country took a turn. Tough, intrepid reporters were associated with a dogged quest for the truth. Yet, as Matt Bai explains it in the New York Times Magazine, it’s a mistake to think that the legacy of Watergate has actually been journalistic commitment to the truth. Instead, for him, Watergate led to an obsession with uncovering scandals, whether significant or not.

I found it odd that a reporter with no experience writing about comedy and no history of fact-checking would decide to fact-check stand-up.

Today, journalists seek out scandals, often “exaggerating the importance of minor mistakes or improprieties” focusing more on attention-grabbing than offering nuance, complexity and a balanced truth. Scandal stories are designed to “elicit strong negative reactions (such as anger, shock, disgust, outrage) in the public.”

But what happens when reporters don’t just seek out scandals, they literally manufacture them? And what happens when, in response, the pundits and public pile on with their own manufactured outrage?

That impulse may explain Claire Malone’s “exposé” in the New Yorker about the so-called “fibs” comedian Hasan Minhaj told in his stand-up routines as well as the flurry of overblown reactions it caused. Minhaj was accused of not being fully accurate in three stand-up stories: being rejected for prom due to racism, FBI informants harassing Muslim communities after 9/11 and receiving a letter with white powder that threatened his family: stories which he has just proven were all true.

Hasan Minhaj and the New Yorker: Who decided comedy needed fact-checking?

When I first encountered the New Yorker piece, I found it odd that a reporter with no experience writing about comedy and no history of fact-checking would decide to fact-check stand-up. But it turns out that was just the tip of how weird this story would get.

In response to the New Yorker piece and to the flurry of attacks it caused, Minhaj has released a video that details how he offered correcting information during his interview. The reporter ignored all of it, choosing instead to write a piece that, in Minhaj’s words, made him look like a “psycho.”

“The reason I feel horrible,” he explains, “is because I’m not a psycho. But this New Yorker article definitely made me look like one. It was so needlessly misleading.”

But even without the reams of evidence Minhaj offered in his video, the article deserved serious scrutiny. Why would a white reporter decide to fact-check a comedian's stories of racism and Islamophobia in the first place? Shouldn’t that bother us?

Rather than ask these questions, though, the overwhelming initial response to the New Yorker piece was to pile on. When Minhaj first released a statement reiterating the factual basis for his stories shortly after the New Yorker article came out, practically no one cared. Instead, almost every reaction piece (other than mine for Salon) skewered him for being either a fraud, a faker, or the Jussie Smollett of comedy.

Why weren’t more of the reactions expressing outrage at the article itself? And why did Minhaj have to release a follow-up video to his follow-up statement so that he could finally be heard? What exactly does it take for a comedian accused of faking facts to be taken seriously?

Correcting the record

The most scandalized feature of the “exposé” concerns Minhaj’s relationship to his high school crush, referred to onstage as “Bethany.” Minhaj admitted to the New Yorker that he embellished being rejected on “Bethany’s” doorstep the night of prom, even though it did happen a few days prior. But it isn’t really the timing of the rejection that created a stir; it was the story’s implication that Minhaj’s wasn’t rejected because of racism and that Minhaj’s fabricated story had hurt “Bethany.”

Minhaj, though, didn’t just have a different version of what happened; he also gave the New Yorker proof – texts, messages, and emails — corroborating his story. These included an email where “Bethany” tells Minhaj she is coming to see his show and that her friends had seen it and “loved it.” There is a record of friendly communication between them utterly different from the characterization offered by the New Yorker.

How could all of these facts be omitted? Even if one were skeptical about them, wouldn’t a fact-checking piece at least be expected to acknowledge their existence? We know that confirmation bias can affect reporting, but deliberately suppressing corroborating evidence in a fact-checking article seems more like malpractice than misrepresentation.

It's not just ignoring evidence that should bother us, but the witch hunt itself.

The messages are just part of the information that the Minhaj team offered. But, even if they didn’t have this evidence, shouldn’t it bother us that an article accusing someone of faking the racism, bias and threats they have endured requires the accused to prove himself?

As I mentioned in my initial reaction to this story, it is stunning that an FBI informant, Craig Monteilh, who surveilled innocent citizens, solely because they were Muslim, was asked to verify whether he’d met Minhaj. We hear in the response video that Minhaj was asked during his interview if he gave Monteilh a heads-up before including him in his stand-up routine. That Malone would even ask that is mind-bogglingly tone deaf.

According to Minhaj, he swapped Monteilh in "The King’s Jester" for the actual informant he had encountered growing up in Davis, California because Monteilh was a more ridiculous character. Folks may take issue with Minhaj’s decision, but where is the outrage over the New Yorker’s decision to interview Monteilh in the first place? As Minhaj points out, Monteilh was part of a vast network of FBI informants whose efforts led to innocent Muslim Americans going to prison. All of that is true.

So, it's not just ignoring evidence that should bother us, but the witch hunt itself. Malone states, in reference to Minhaj’s story about the fallout from "Patriot Act’s" Saudi Arabia episode, “But it didn’t happen to you.” The truth, though, is that it did happen, just not exactly the way he performs it.

After "Patriot Act’s" Saudi Arabia episode, Minhaj did get an envelope with white powder sent to his house when his daughter was home, he did get threatening messages, he did need heightened security and he did have his episode taken down in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, "Patriot Act’s" Saudi Arabia episode was daring, risky and entirely true. In 2018, "Patriot Act" was awarded a Peabody for its “important new take on politics and popular culture and giving voice to politically engaged young people in a diverse American polity.” Yet, rather than cover the impact of the episode or how it led to one of the most politically incisive satire shows in U.S. history, we got a story that focused on whether Minhaj had taken his daughter to the hospital.

Why would a journalist ignore the social significance of Minhaj’s political satire in a piece about his ability to host "The Daily Show"?

Off with his head?

In a weird twist of fate, Minhaj is currently touring a stand-up show titled “Off With His Head.” The title was certainly meant to be ironic. The question is, will it be? Will his response video be enough to reverse the attacks he endured in the wake of the New Yorker’s manufactured scandal?

As many have noted, part of the scandal stemmed from the fact that satirists have been more trusted at times than journalists. That trust depends on the sincere ways that political comedians work to inform the public and unpack the faulty logic, flawed binaries, hype and sensationalism so common in journalism today.

Comedy built, even in part, on representing a marginalized community also carries expectations of authenticity and veracity. Minhaj thought his embellishments were within the lines or he wouldn’t have unashamedly admitted them. Still, he has acknowledged that these revelations may have affected his audience’s trust.

It is one thing, however, to ask questions about the bonds of trust between a comedian and their audience. It’s another to suggest that an entire career is based on fraud.

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The truth, though, is that Minhaj’s career has not been based on deception, even if the New Yorker tried really, really hard to cast it as so. On the contrary, his career has been based on creatively pushing the boundaries between comedic wit, personal narratives, informative analysis and ironic insight.

While it seems likely Minhaj was the first stand-up comedian to be fact-checked, there is absolutely no doubt that he is the first to respond to a fact-checking witch hunt with his own satirical, Panama Papers-style response video. In yet another irony to this story, confronting a manufactured scandal offered Minhaj a groundbreaking opportunity to demonstrate, yet again, how effective his satire is at getting at the truth. His video does a far better job than the New Yorker did of offering a factual story that is both entertaining and true. And that’s pretty funny.

about comedians with "Salon Talks" interviews

Shock video shows mob targeting Israelis at Russian airport

Russian President Vladimir Putin summoned a meeting of top law enforcement officials on Monday after hundreds of angry men stormed an airport in Dagestan in search of Israelis on a flight from Tel Aviv, The Associated Press reports. Russian news outlets reported that hundreds of men from the largely Muslim capital of Makhachkala rushed the airport landing field on Sunday in search of passengers. Videos showed some in the crowd waving Palestinian flags and trying to overturn a police car. Others held banners saying “Child killers are not welcome in Dagestan” and “We’re against Jewish refugees.” Officials said more than 20 people were injured, including police officers and civilians, and 60 people were detained in the unrest — which appeared to receive little resistance from police.

The Kremlin on Monday blamed "outside interference" for sparking the riot. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the president's meeting will discuss “attempts by the West to use the events in the Middle East to divide the (Russian) society.” Dagestan Gov. Sergei Melikov claimed that the unrest was coordinated on a Telegram channel run by "traitors" based in Ukraine. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement that Israel “expects the Russian law enforcement authorities to protect the safety of all Israeli citizens and Jews wherever they may be and to act resolutely against the rioters and against the wild incitement directed against Jews and Israelis.”

Insane footage on Russian social media from Makhachkala in the North Caucasus region, where there have been several anti-Semitic protests this weekend.

A crowd of people, some with Palestinian flags, broke into the airport in search of passengers on a flight from Tel Aviv. pic.twitter.com/MZxyvxi6T3

— max seddon (@maxseddon) October 29, 2023

Hot mic catches Trump getting corrected on stage after apparently forgetting name of Iowa rally city

Former President Donald Trump apparently forgot the name of the city he was appearing in during a Sunday campaign speech in Sioux City, Iowa. "Hello to a place where we’ve done very well, Sioux Falls. Thank you very much," Trump told the audience on Sunday. Sioux Falls, a city in the neighboring South Dakota, is more than 80 miles north. According to the Daily Beast, Iowa state Sen. Bradley Zaun, took to the stage a few minutes later and, after dubbing Trump "the best president of my lifetime," was seen whispering the correct name in the former president's ear.

Trump is seen nodding, saying, "Oh," returning to the microphone and diving back into his remarks with "So, Sioux City, let me ask you, how many people come from Sioux City, how many people? How many? Who doesn’t come from Sioux City? Where the hell do you come from?” Sunday's rally at the Orpheum Theater marked Trump's eighth campaign event in Iowa in just over a month, following appearances in central and eastern Iowa that saw thousands of fans in attendance. “I go around saying of course we’re going to win Iowa. My people said you cannot assume that,” Trump said, adding, "There’s no way Iowa is voting against Trump.” The former president also used the event to take aim at fellow Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, calling the former South Carolina governor "bird brain" and calling her "a highly overrated person.” His comments came a day after Haley criticized him during a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual meeting in Las Vegas, where she warned voters of the “chaos, vendettas and drama” that surround Trump.

Trump: “Hello to a place where we’ve done very well, Sioux Falls. Thank you very much.”

A Republican Iowa state senator rushed to the stage to remind the confused Florida man that he is in Sioux City.

Unfit. pic.twitter.com/1gBnYCYbCr

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) October 30, 2023

Trump explodes in late-night Truth Social rant after Judge Chutkan reimposes gag order

U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan on Sunday reimposed limits on former President Donald Trump ahead of his trial over his reported efforts to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Chutkan earlier this month imposed a limited gag order barring Trump from targeting court staff, the special counsel's staff and potential witnesses in the case but temporarily paused the order while the former president's legal team appealed. Chutkan reimposed the order on Sunday after special counsel Jack Smith's team raised concerns that Trump was using the pause to target witnesses like former chief of staff Mark Meadows in Truth Social posts.

“As the court has explained, the First Amendment rights of participants in criminal proceedings must yield, when necessary, to the orderly administration of justice—a principle reflected in Supreme Court precedent, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and the Local Criminal Rules,” Chutkan wrote. “And contrary to Defendant’s argument, the right to a fair trial is not his alone, but belongs also to the government and the public.”

Legal experts: Trump may have already “violated” gag order minutes after judge reimposed it

The ruling means that the gag order will remain in place while Trump's team appeals it. Trump this month was also hit with a gag order by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who has subsequently fined him for multiple violations.

An irate Trump lashed out at Chutkan in the early morning hours on Monday.

"I have just learned that the very Biased, Trump Hating Judge in D.C., who should have RECUSED herself due to her blatant and open loathing of your favorite President, ME, has reimposed a GAG ORDER which will put me at a disadvantage against my prosecutorial and political opponents," the former president wrote shortly after midnight on Truth Social. "This order, according to many legal scholars, is unthinkable! It illegally and unconstitutionally takes away my First Amendment Right of Free Speech, in the middle of my campaign for President, where I am leading against BOTH Parties in the Polls. Few can believe this is happening, but I will appeal. How can they tell the leading candidate that he, and only he, is seriously restricted from campaigning in a free and open manner? It will not stand!"

Several hours later, Trump added a follow-up post: "The Obama appointed Federal Judge in D.C, a TRUE TRUMP HATER, is incapable of giving me a fair trial. Her Hatred of President DONALD J. TRUMP is so great that she has been diagnosed with a major, and incurable, case of TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME!!!"

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Per Chutkan's current order, the former president is prohibited from "publicly targeting" the judge's staff, special counsel Jack Smith and members of his team, and any other court personnel. The ex-president is also barred from making threatening statements about the families of those individuals, as well as potential witnesses in the case.

“This is not about whether I like the language Mr. Trump uses,” the judge said while issuing the limited order at a hearing earlier this month. “This is about language that presents a danger to the administration of justice. His presidential candidacy does not give him carte blanche to vilify public servants who are simply doing their jobs. Mr. Trump is a criminal defendant. He is facing four felony charges. He is under the supervision of the criminal justice system and he must follow his conditions of release."

Not long after Chutkan lifted the order, Trump took to Truth Social to attack the special prosecutor, calling him "Deranged Jack Smith." In her reversal on Sunday, the judge noted an instance of Trump targeting Meadows, which she said would have "almost certainly" violated that gag order had it been in place.

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“The statement singles out a foreseeable witness for purposes of characterizing his potentially unfavorable testimony as a ‘lie’ ‘mad(e) up’ to secure immunity, and it attacks him as a ‘weakling and coward’ if he provides that unfavorable testimony—an attack that could readily be interpreted as an attempt to influence or prevent the witness’s participation in this case,” Chutkan wrote.

Shortly after Chutkan reimposed the order, Trump hit out at former Attorney General Bill Barr, another potential witness, on Truth Social, calling him “Dumb, Weak, Slow Moving, Lethargic, Gutless, and Lazy, a RINO WHO COULDN’T DO THE JOB."

"So now this Moron says about me, to get even, ‘his verbal skills are limited,'" the ex-president added. "Well, that’s one I haven’t heard before. Tell that to the biggest political crowds in the history of politics, by far. Bill Barr is a LOSER!”” Barr is a potential witness in the Washington, D.C. case.

And, less than half an hour after Trump blasted Barr, he asserted, “The Corrupt Biden administration just took away my First Amendment Right To Free Speech.”

about Trump's gag orders