<A legal argument deployed by Alina Habba, Donald Trump's attorney, in defamation case brought against the ex-president by writer E. Jean Carroll has been condemned as a "perversion" of precedent by Lisa Rubin, a former litigator and MSNBC legal analyst.

Habba had written to Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is presiding over the case, saying that Carroll failed in her duty to minimize harm to herself from potential defamation by discussing her lawsuit in "numerous media appearances." Habba added that it was set out in precedent by a 1919 New York court ruling. Newsweek reached out to Alina Habba and Donald Trump representatives on Saturday for comment by email.

In May 2023, a New York jury found that Trump had sexually abused Carroll in the changing room of a Manhattan department store during the mid-1990s, then defamed her after she went public with the allegation. The former president was ordered to pay $5 million in damages, including $2 million for the battery claim. Trump described the verdict as "a disgrace" and part of "the greatest witch hunt of all time." He continued criticizing Carroll, leading her to file a second defamation lawsuit, this time seeking $10 million worth of compensation.

In her letter to Judge Kaplan, Habba said that Carroll failed to protect herself from potential defamation by repeatedly speaking out publicly concerning her allegations against Trump, prompting retaliation from the 2024 Republican presidential frontrunner.

Habba wrote: "The harm is attributable to her own conduct in making the initial accusation (through an exclusive in a popular magazine), making numerous media appearances, frequently promoting updates in her lawsuit.

"President Trump respectfully requests that this Court give the jury an instruction relating to Plaintiff's obligation to mitigate her damages or minimize the effect of the defamation," Habba added.

Responding on MSNBC, Rubin said that Habba had misunderstood the 1919 case, which, she added, concluded that litigants in defamation cases have the right to try to avoid being defamed, but not the legal duty.

Rubin added: "Yesterday, both sides are talking about a particular New York court case from 1919, which addresses this issue squarely. Whether a victim of defamation or libel has to mitigate their own damages.

"What's shocking to me is that Alina Habba's brief, whilst it does contain a quote from that case, it misquotes the rest of the case, which stands for the proposition that a victim of defamation has the right to mitigate, but doesn't have the duty, and it is exactly as Robbie [Roberta] Kaplan and the other lawyers for E. Jean Carroll describe it in their brief," Rubin said.

The MSNBC commentator added the implication of Habba's argument is that anyone defamed in New York must remain quiet if they intend to take legal action: "It would be perverse if somebody who's been defamed has to stay silent for months in order to recover damages sometime later on in a future litigation.

"I am really stunned here by the perversion of this precedent, and Judge Kaplan was clear with both parties this week there is a single binding precedent in New York on this issue. Again, it's this case from 1919. Both parties know it, but only one cited it correctly," Rubin said.

Trump has repeatedly hit out at Judge Kaplan, whom he branded as nasty and a Trump-hating guy, during the case. Former lawyer Joe Gallina has said the Republican could "face fines and even be thrown in jail for contempt" if he continues.>

<twinlark: Ceegee - I just had the pleasure of being censored for using the term "buggger off" (with two g's)....>

<A poll released prior to the third anniversary of the January 6 insurrection found that one in four Americans believe that the FBI "organized and encouraged" the deadly attack on the US Capitol. However, a former federal prosecutor thinks the rest of America should be "grateful" that only 25% subscribe to that conspiracy theory.

In a recent column for Lawfare, former US Attorney Chuck Rosenberg put that poll in perspective. He pointed out that while it's true that one in four Americans believe the "nonsense" claim that the federal law enforcement was behind the US Capitol siege that killed five police officers and injured hundreds more, that the poll is less "depressing" when put in the context of other polls regarding information a large majority of Americans view as settled facts.

Rosenberg laid out how, in a March 2021 survey, 15% of Americans believe that "the government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation," which is a core element of the QAnon conspiracy theory that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) has endorsed.

"Americans apparently relish conspiracy theories. That is neither good nor new. But even if we turn to the physical sciences—the stuff we ostensibly learned in school—we do not do all that much better as a nation," Rosenberg wrote.

He then pointed out numerous other survey results that show a not-insignificant amount of Americans are effectively scientifically illiterate. Almost 30% of Americans, for example, didn't know that the Earth takes 365 days to orbit the sun according to a 2021 query by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. A 2018 survey by the National Science Foundation found that 28% of Americans actually believe the sun orbits the Earth (a theory debunked by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei debunked in the 17th century).

Roughly that same percentage of the country also fails in basic civics knowledge. The Annenberg Public Policy Center found in 2022 that approximately one in four Americans could not name a single right guaranteed by the First Amendment. 25% of Americans were also unable to name any of the three branches of government, according to Annenberg. And in 2018, the Institute for Citizens & Scholars found that a full two-thirds of Americans would fail the US citizenship test, which asks basic questions about US history and the nature of the US government.

"When you step back and look at what we 'know' as Americans and what we do not know, this number — alarming as it may be — is not surprising. Indeed, it coincides with other data," Rosenberg wrote. "Perhaps we should be grateful that it is only 25 percent.">

<With the election only ten months away, President Joe Biden is getting out of the White House and, just like scores of politicians before him, heading out to campaign along America’s Main Streets and visit the food businesses that line them. Historically, this is both a predictable and risky move. Sure, knocking back whiskey shots in an Indiana bar (a la Hilary Clinton in 2008) may establish you as an everyman in the mind of your constituents, but it may also reveal you to be a bit of a fraud, like when Gerald Ford choked on still-husked tamal while campaigning in San Antonio or when mayoral-hopeful Andrew Yang took and documented an ill-fated New York City “bodega” tour.

According to some, however, Biden made a different kind of political faux pas when visiting Nowhere Coffee in Emmaus, Pa., a quaint community of 11,500 nestled on the northern slope of South Mountain, on Friday. After ordering a smoothie, he expressed shock at the $6 price tag. Whether his surprise was real or feigned depends on if you ask press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre — who says it was a joke — or Fox News, as the network has been running consistent “smoothiegate” coverage in the days since in order to demonstrate how apparently out of touch Biden is from his constituents.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Fox Business reporter Edward Lawrence asked Jean-Pierre: "Last Friday, the president was at a coffee shop in Pennsylvania, and he seemed to be surprised that the smoothie was $6 and how expensive it was. I’m curious. So is the president now realizing the costs that Americans are bearing?"

On the surface, this question could seem like a complete throwaway partisan line of “gotcha” interrogation, but it actually contains multitudes, though perhaps not necessarily in the way Lawrence was envisioning: Inflation is real and Americans, especially those who already straddle the poverty line, are really feeling it. This means that hunger is also incredibly real, and it requires solutions beyond talking heads bemoaning the cost of a coffee shop beverage.

To adequately address America’s surging food insecurity crisis, advocates say federal programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) should be prioritized and fully funded. However, these are the exact same programs that Republican lawmakers have sought to weaken for decades, culminating in significant changes to SNAP eligibility in 2023 and a potential budgetary cut to WIC in 2024, all while millions of Americans report that they have difficulty feeding everyone in their families....>

<....The conservative-led “smoothiegate” only highlights this hypocrisy.

As Salon Food reported in March 2023, food security advocates anticipated that America was racing towards a “looming hunger cliff” and with the last year officially in the rear-view, it’s becoming increasingly clear just how steep it actually was. New data released the day before Thanksgiving from the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey showed that nearly 28 million people reported experiencing food scarcity in October — both the highest number of 2023 and the highest number recorded by the survey since December 2020.

Just a couple months prior, in September, new SNAP eligibility requirements went into effect. Under the new guidelines, the age of recipients required to work in order to receive benefits was raised from 50 to 55 and, according to The Center for Public Integrity, makes it harder for states to waive work rules in areas with high unemployment. In an emailed statement at the time, Eric Mitchell, the executive director of the Alliance to End Hunger, said that the work requirements for which Republicans pushed are "punitive and ineffective."

"They perpetuate the myth that people on economic assistance programs choose not to work when the evidence clearly shows otherwise, and by taking vital support away from SNAP participants, they actually make it harder to secure and maintain employment," he said.

As we enter the new year, the ongoing food security of a different demographic is in question as House Republicans continue to push to pare back WIC spending, which benefitted two in five babies born in the United States in 2022. In a November emailed statement, Georgia Machell, the interim president and CEO of the National WIC Association, sounded the alarm.

“For the nearly seven million women, infants and children who participate in WIC, the peace of mind that comes with knowing that WIC is on solid ground through the holidays is tempered by the growing uncertainty that looms when funding will expire on January 19,” she said. “Congress has for months refused to consider the Administration’s urgent request for additional funds to cover WIC’s growing caseload.”

She continued: “That inaction increases the chances that states may have to start turning eligible participants away in 2024, or that current participants may at some point face benefit cuts. Either outcome would be unnecessary and unacceptable.”

The immediate fate of WIC and its participants should be made clear in the coming months. After narrowly avoiding yet another potential partial government shutdown on Friday afternoon, Congress now has until March to complete the arduous and likely contentious process of writing the legislation required to fund different government agencies, including the United States Department of Agriculture, which administers WIC.

So, yes, that $6 smoothie may seem absurd — and the fact that our president seemed momentarily surprised by its cost may be equally so — but it’s a salient reminder of how everyone across the political spectrum is impacted by inflation and, arguably, more concrete action should be taken to dampen its effects.>

<[Event "7th Monadnock Marathon"] [Site "Jaffrey NH"]
[Date "1984.10.28"]
[EventDate "1984"]
[Round "8.5"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Kaplan, Michael J"]
[Black "Shaw, Alan"]
[ECO "B12"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]

<[Event "7th Monadnock Marathon"] [Site "Jaffrey NH"]
[Date "1984.10.27"]
[EventDate "1984"]
[Round "1.1"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Shaw, Alan"]
[Black "Belopolsky, Boris"]
[ECO "E83"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]

<[Event "National Open"]
[Site "Las Vegas NV"]
[Date "2016.06.24"]
[EventDate "2016"]
[Round "2.9"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Nyzhnyk, Illya"]
[Black "Chase, Christopher"]
[ECO "B06"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]

<They say of Donald Trump, "The cruelty is the point."

For Ron DeSantis, we might amend that to say, "The cruelty was pointless."

Rarely in American politics has a civic leader, a governor no less, used his official power to marginalize, demean, and endanger so many - in the naked service of career advancement - only to fall so spectacularly flat.

In the case of DeSantis, the Florida governor got trounced by Trump in the Iowa Republican caucuses. And despite his "Never Back Down" branding, DeSantis raised the white flag of surrender before having to face new embarrassment in the New Hampshire primary.

DeSantis, a military veteran and a Harvard law school graduate, devoted his ample wits to needless division. To make inroads with the MAGA base - seeking to become the standard bearer for Trumpism, without the personal baggage of Donald Trump himself - DeSantis turned the Sunshine State into a culture war weapons lab.

Time and again, he attempted to one-up Trump by demonizing vulnerable groups - particularly LGBTQ+, Black, and immigrant Floridians. He rounded up migrants in Texas and flew them to Massachusetts for sport. He flouted science on Covid-19, wantonly undermining public confidence in the science of the vaccine - likely leading to thousands of needless deaths. He signaled his contempt for women by signing one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. In the service of his political ambitions, DeSantis deformed public education; earned a travel advisory from the NAACP; and even went to war with Disney - only to run one of the most Mickey Mouse campaigns in recent memory.

DeSantis' presidential hopes may be over for 2024, but as the survey below demonstrates, the divisions he stoked will long outlast his forgettable White House bid.

DeSantis' waged his culture-war cruelty campaign with remarkable vigor against LGBTQ+ Floridians. In the spring of 2022, he passed the "Don't Say Gay" legislation that banned public schools from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity in early grades, and effectively forced queer teachers to closet themselves in the classroom. Last year, he passed a new law expanding the restrictions up to eighth grade....>

<....In the same vein, DeSantis used his power as governor to demean trans people, signing into law a bill that limited drag performances, gender-affirming health care, school pronouns, and bathroom choice for transgender individuals. Championing Florida as what he called a "citadel of normalcy," DeSantis embraced one of the biggest lies of the culture wars - namely that insidious forces are "grooming" unsuspecting children into deviant queer lifestyles.

DeSantis even took this "groomer" fight to one of the biggest employers in the state, Disney - which took exception to his "Don't Say Gay" bill - leading DeSantis' most pugnacious spokesperson to post on X (formerly Twitter): "If you're against the anti-grooming bill, you are probably a groomer."

Seeking to delight his base by dumbing down the state, DeSantis went to war with "wokeness." That included campaigns against diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, curriculum in Florida, the hostile takeover and degradation of a tiny liberal arts college he deemed too liberal, as well as feuding with the College Board over the AP African American Studies curriculum.

This divisive crusade finally led to the NAACP to issue at travel advisory against visiting the state of Florida, a move the organization insisted was "in direct response" to DeSantis' "attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs."

Perhaps most harmful, DeSantis attempted to outflank Trump on the politics of the coronavirus, including not only prematurely lifting lockdowns but also demonizing the covid vaccine itself. In his attacks on Trump, DeSantis blasted the former president for one of his few successful programs: Operation Warp Speed, which cut red tape to speed a Covid vaccine to market.

DeSantis saw policial benefit in casting his lot with the anti-lockdown, anti-vax "medical freedom" crowd during his presidential bid. Always ill at ease on the campaign trail, DeSantis used these Covid attack lines like a security blanket. Indeed, he couldn't quit harping on Trump's pandemic response - even after internal polling proved the attacks were a dud with voters.

The public health danger from this political opportunism has not abated, even as DeSantis' presidential ambitions have stalled out. In January, the extremist whom DeSantis installed as the state surgeon general called on Florida to halt the "use of mRNA Covid-19 vaccines," citing conspiracy-theory fears about "DNA integration" and the "integrity of the human genome."

Perhaps nothing revealed DeSantis' cruel ambitions more than his treatment of vulnerable asylum seekers. To make Florida less hospitable to migrants, the legislature had authorized millions of dollars to move migrants out of the state. With this cash in hand, DeSantis' office reportedly cooked up a bizarre scheme that intercepted migrants in the border state of Texas, and had them flown - at Floridian taxpayers' expense - to Massachusetts, where they were marooned on the resort-island of Martha's Vineyard.

Nothing about the operation made any sense as a policy matter. But it aligned easily with DeSantis' true political north star: being pointlessly cruel.>

<The Supreme Court decided on Monday, and by a very narrow margin, that Governor Greg Abbott is not the sovereign lord of the Kingdom of Texas, that the right side won at Gettysburg, that the Supremacy clause still controls, and, oh, by the way, the federal government is not going to tolerate outright barbarism along its southern border. From the Washington Post:

The case is one of several legal battles between Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and the Biden administration over the governor’s border crackdown, Operation Lone Star. It comes at a time of rising tension over how to handle hundreds of thousands of migrants who have entered the country illegally in recent months. Even though immigration and border security matters are generally the purview of the federal government, Abbott has mobilized thousands of National Guard troops and lined the banks of the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass with razor wire to try to block illegal entries. Earlier this month, federal officials said Texas National Guard personnel had blocked U.S. Border Patrol agents who were investigating reports of drowning migrants from a section of the Rio Grande where the state had placed the wire barriers. The bodies of three migrants, a woman and two children, were found in the river by Mexican authorities days later. Let's talk for a moment about the fact that four Justices of the Supreme Court—Thomas, Gorsuch, Alito, and Kavanaugh—all thought what Abbott was doing, dead people in the river included, was just fine both constitutionally and as public policy. (Golf claps to both Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts for providing the deciding margin.) Which means that four Justices were perfectly comfortable allying themselves with a politician who said this not long ago. From the Texas Tribune:

“So, we are deploying every tool and strategy that we possibly can,” Abbott continued. “The only thing that we're not doing is we're not shooting people who come across the border, because of course, the Biden administration would charge us with murder.”>

<[Event "7th Monadnock Marathon"] [Site "Jaffrey NH"]
[Date "1984.10.28"]
[EventDate "1984"]
[Round "10.6"]
[Result "0-1"]
[White "Grauslys, Richard"]
[Black "Shaw, Alan"]
[ECO "E22"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]

<[Event "7th Monadnock Marathon"] [Site "Jaffrey NH"]
[Date "1984.10.28"]
[EventDate "1984"]
[Round "11.4"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Shaw, Alan"]
[Black "Lavigne, Lawrence"]
[ECO "D48"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]

<[Event "73rd US Open"]
[Site "Atlantic City NJ"]
[Date "1972.08.??"]
[EventDate "1972"]
[Round "3"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Savage, Allan George"]
[Black "Shean, Robert"]
[ECO "B99"]
[WhiteElo "?"]
[BlackElo "?"]