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Here's the latest in defamation suits against right-wing zealots who think they can say whatever shit pops into their brains. This time it's Kari Lake, who ran for governor in Arizona:

Stephen Richer, the top election official in Maricopa county, sued Lake, her campaign and an aligned Pac last year after she lost her gubernatorial bid and repeatedly lied about him. Lake, who is now running for the US Senate, falsely accused him of injecting 300,000 illegal votes into machines and intentionally misprinting ballots so they would be rejected by ballot tabulators.

Lake hasn't officially lost this defamation suit, but in a court filing she said she will no longer try to show that her claims were true. Instead, she wants to move straight to damages.

For the record, Lake is saying she concedes nothing and has "demanded" a hearing "for Stephen to prove how my words harmed him." Brave words! But I suspect it won't be too hard to show harm. She's gonna lose and the award is going to be substantial.

The full list of successful defamation suits against right-wing nutballs has been updated here.

Via Adam Ozimek, it appears that even the betting markets are starting to lose faith in Donald Trump:

Last month Trump's lead was 21%. Today it's 5%. This is probably the closest thing you can get to a pure vibes take on the election.

According to TheRighting, which tracks right-wing websites, traffic in 2024 is way down compared to the last presidential election cycle in 2020:

Traffic compared to 2023 was also mostly down:

Traffic tanked to most right wing websites for the sixth straight month. Only five right wing news websites posted gains in YOY unique visitors. For the third straight month, Newsmax registered an increase in unique visitors (+3%).

Somehow Newsmax has bucked the trend. What is its secret?

A few days ago I mentioned that Joe Biden had pulled ahead of Donald Trump in national polling. Today brings news that he's doing better in swing states too:

Joe Biden had some good news on Tuesday as polling showed him gaining on Donald Trump in six battleground states, seven months before the presidential election. In response, one leading Democratic strategist said the “Biden bump is real”.

According to Bloomberg News and Morning Consult, Biden now leads Trump by a point in Wisconsin, having trailed by four last month, and is tied in Pennsylvania, where Trump had a six-point lead last month. The two candidates were also tied in Michigan.

We still have a long way to go before the election, but Biden is finally turning things around a bit. Cross your fingers and hope he keeps it up.

A Democrat won a landslide victory in an Alabama state legislature race tonight:

It's worth noting that the Republican, Teddy Powell, was not some kind of wild-eyed MAGA candidate who was doomed from the start in a swing district. He's a relatively moderate, technocratic guy. But the Democrat, Marilyn Lands, ran exclusively on IVF and reproductive rights and just killed him.

I wonder if Republicans rue the day that Roe v. Wade was overturned? I suppose not yet. But eventually they probably will. Banning abortion isn't popular even in Alabama, and it's going to continue killing Republican candidates as long they're forced to toe the hardline pro-life position.

You all remember Christopher Rufo, don't you? He's a right-wing activist who made his bones as an opponent of Critical Race Theory, DEI, wokeness, systemic racism, LGBT "grooming," and, in general, liberalism's "long march" to take over America's most powerful institutions. Just recently he was largely responsible for getting Christine Gay to step down as president of Harvard. About CRT he said, "The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think ‘critical race theory.’"

In other words, he's no shrinking violet. He wants the right to gain power and he's not shy about how it gets done. But apparently Twitter has become too much even for him:

Allie Beth Stuckey: There is no way to explain to a normal person what’s happening on conservative Twitter right now.

Rufo: It's getting insane. We have a problem on the Right. The economics of online discourse are increasingly at odds with forming and mobilizing a successful political movement.

Questioner: I think I know what you're getting at, but it would be nice if you could expand on this a little and maybe be more specific, although I can see why you might not want to do that.

Rufo: Kanye-style antisemitism, right-wing identitarianism, online grifting, extreme conspiratorialism, etc. None of these are right on the merits and they are a threat to a functional, popular conservative movement.

As always, I'd caution that Twitter is not a reflection of the real world. It's a reflection of the loudest and most extreme parts of the real world. Still, there's extensive evidence that right-wing Twitter did indeed become a whole lot more vicious after Elon Musk bought it:

I guess it's nice to see a conservative with impeccable credentials take on the pit of madness that right-wing social media has become. I just wish he could be a little more public about it.

This is some hot buying and selling action at the Montreuil Flea Market in Paris. It's one of the three big flea markets in the city, but it was a disappointment: basically just a bunch of ordinary goods like this being sold at arguably ordinary prices. Are all the Paris flea markets like this? Or did we just unluckily pick the most boring one?

May 28, 2022 — Paris, France

A sign of the times: Last night I saw a post on Twitter that displayed a video of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore collapsing. I did a quick check of a couple of news sites and saw nothing about it, so I assumed it was some kind of AI joke and moved on. Needless to say, I was wrong. It just goes to show that this whole AI deepfake thing cuts both ways.

I hope this incident doesn't spur a huge new round of moaning about America's failing infrastructure. This was not some ancient, crumbling bridge. It was built in 1977 and a piece in the Washington Post this morning makes it crystal clear that no bridge in the world can withstand a direct hit from a huge cargo ship traveling at speed. It was just a tragic accident.

After 20 years of fighting, Visa and Mastercard have agreed to lower their swipe fees. Check it out:

In the deal, the credit-card networks and banks will lower the fees that merchants pay to accept credit cards. There is a range of these fees, typically referred to as swipe fees or interchange fees, with an average of around 2%. The pact would lower the rates by 0.04 percentage point and keep them there for five years.

So fees will go down from 2% to 1.96%. Booyah! In Europe swipe fees are capped at 0.3% and credit card companies have remained thriving and profitable. Draw your own conclusions.

We all know that Donald Trump loves the Bible. No one has ever loved the Bible more than Trump. He even loves both the Corinthians.

But it turns out that Trump especially loves one particular Bible: the large-print King James "God Bless the USA Bible" from singer Lee Greenwood, which can be yours for only $59.99. And worth every penny:

So there you have it. Trump has sold his name and likeness to a Bible the same way he does to Asian hotels and Indonesian golf courses. Trump explained further in a promotional video:

Christians are under siege, we must protect content that is pro-God. We love God and we have to protect anything that is pro-God. We must defend God in the public square and not allow the media or the left-wing groups to silence, censor, or discriminate against us.... I’m proud to partner with Lee in this offering.... He’s very, very special and I think you all should get a copy of God Bless the U.S.A. Bible now and help spread our Christian values with others. There you have it. Let’s make America pray again. God bless you and God bless the U.S.A..

I wonder what Trump's cut from each Bible is?