Fintan O’Toole considers the Daniels case in New York Review of Books:
https://archive.ph/TCrtw
Worth it for this quote: "And no, Stormy Daniels was never going to save the world—or save America from Trump and Trumpism. She was not born great and did not achieve greatness—she merely had greatness thrusting upon her for a few minutes in a casino hotel in Nevada.
Well said.
Trump is a criminal—but not because he screwed a porn star and paid her hush money. It is not just that using Stormy Daniels as the way to hold him to account plays dizzying tricks with perspective, zeroing in on a molehill of sleaze when the mountain of Trump’s criminal sedition continues to loom so large against the horizon of American democracy. It’s that all of this drags us back into Trump’s territory. This episode comes from, and gives new life to, the world of performative politics in which he remains the leading player. It is a lurid—and seductively entertaining—sideshow in the great circus of which he is the ringmaster. It keeps that fading extravaganza on the road. History is being made, but it is, like Trump himself, history unfolding the second, third, and fourth time as farce, so that its primary tragedy is buried under layers of absurdity.
Was not aware of this.
There’s also, within this story, a morality tale about the wages of meanness. Trump has long been notorious for stiffing people who do jobs for him, and it is pleasant to reflect that had he not indulged this habit he would probably not now be facing indictment. Cohen had to pay the $130,000 to Daniels (though much of it went to her lawyers and agent—she says she actually received just $80,000, which she spent on a new trailer for her horse) because the usual way of dealing with “catch and kill” operations did not work. The established system was that Trump’s devoted acolyte, David Pecker, would buy the story for his National Enquirer and then sit on it, having received an NDA in return for a payment. Pecker had already done this in 2016 in relation to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who’d had an affair with Trump, paying her $150,000 through his company American Media. Trump was supposed to find a way to return $125,000 of this to American Media. But he didn’t. Thus, when Cohen was looking for a way to pay Daniels by proxy, Pecker would not oblige. As Cohen explained, “stiffing American Media meant they weren’t going to come to his financial assistance again.” Cohen had to use his own money and then get reimbursed by Trump through bogus legal fees—the nub of the accusation.
I bet if Trump were not scamming people regarding January 6 he would be stone broke.
We got him!
an ok opinion by krugman. cites some polls and studies that people are less concerned about inflation
that the economy is actually looking remarkably strong
I really, really hate statements like this without some definition of “the economy”.
Yeah it kinda smacks of Trump tweeting nonstop upward stock graphs throughout his presidency while paycheck-to-paycheck people ask how that helps them afford their rent that just got jacked up again, while they haven’t gotten a raise in five years.
I have noticed the luxury stores at the king of Prussia mall have no lines. In the immediate pandemic and aftermath lines were often 20-30 people long.
Fwiw?
Or the “great jobs reports” where they fawn over the rise in number of people working at or near minimum wage (hospitality, retail, service industry etc). NUMBERS NUMBERS LOOK AT THOSE BIG NUMBERS (don’t look deeper)
I do think the whole “10k boomers hitting retirement age plus a few croaking every day” thing is helping keep job numbers healthy too, but there are plenty of shenanigans that go on there too that make people worse off in general. Senior dude making six figures retires and they either eliminate the position, or move some guy up but give him peanuts as a raise, while replacing that guy with some schmo fresh out of college making $30k, etc.
Of course he fucking knew.
MFW you post a channel I recognize 
Good morning, i’m going to get a spicy poblano omelet 
https://twitter.com/gtconway3d/status/1660298337147297793?s=20
Maybe Putin is asking for a signal boost.