DL Open Thread Monday, Nov. 20, 2023

President Jimmy Carter’s wife Rosalynn died at yesterday at 96, two days after entering hospice care, with her husband of 77 years by her side. Their marriage lasted as long as the average American lives.

Every Trump mouthfart gets wall-to-wall coverage – I suppose tweets are fingerfarts, but those get the same constant attention – but the best online commentary about the fat fuck’s fraud trial came from the prosecutor, Letitia James. She pointed out that Trump’s “expert witnesses” in his New York fraud trial weren’t experts, they were his golfing buddies.

Their accounting expert has never once worked on the types of financial statements at the heart of Donald Trump’s fraud. Their expert on real estate finance admitted that he not only lacks experience in valuing real estate, but he also does not have any experience with the accounting standards and personal financial statements that this case revolves around.

She also noted that they had one important thing in common:

One has donated millions of dollars to Donald Trump’s campaign and his son even got married at Mar-a-Lago. Another is a member of Mar-a-Lago and several other Trump golf clubs.”

Experts. In fluffing fat tubs of self-pitying goo, maybe, but not much else.

These are tough times for journalism, but its remaining practitioners are making progress tracking down the source of the money that paid for the Jan. 6 rallies that drew all the loonballs to D.C. so the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers would have cover for their planned insurrection. ProPublica found ties between supposedly independent dark-money groups like Tea Party Express and Turning Point and Trump officials.

Electing an unknown as House speaker kept the media off his case for a week or so, but reporters are tracking down Mike Johnson’s history, and some of it makes you wonder how well the GOP vetted him. There are big questions about his personal finances, and his history of legal filings shows he really, really wants the law to bow to evangelical Christianity and give it carve-outs. Other sects and religions, not so so much.

OK, enough bad stuff, how about a moment of schadenfreude: It looks like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ political career is in a death spiral. Lots of Florida MAGAts hate him for betraying Trump, and with two Republican senators cemented in place there’s nowhere for him to go. Maybe he could move to Argentina – I hear they love them some fascism down there.

The floor’s yours.