More Not Midterm News

You’d think everything in the world had stopped and nothing is going on but midterm polling and campaigning. It’s hard to find not-midterm news. Here’s the best I can do:

Justice Jackson has issued her first opinion, a dissent. She and Justice Sotomayor thought a death row inmate deserved a new trial. The rest of the Court disagreed.

This is only sorta kinda midterm news. The feud between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis is getting hotter. Greg Sargent writes that DeSantis released a television ad that claimed he was chosen to God to save Florida. It’s way over the top. I apologize for reposting from Twitter, but I couldn’t find the ad on YouTube.

Apparently Trump is pissed because only he gets to be Jesus in this town. So Trump is calling DeSantis “DeSanctimonious,” which is clever by Trump standards. Someone else must have thought it up. See Greg Sargent interview Sarah Posner about the whole messianic thing.

The Stewart Rhodes trial is ongoing. The prosecution has rested, and on Friday Rhodes testified on his own behalf. Amanda Marcotte writes that “their argument seems to be that Oath Keepers can’t be guilty because they’re just a bunch of harmless kooks. Also they claim they can’t be racists who rioted to install a fascist leader in the White House because — yep, they went there — they have Black friends.”

So I guess Rhodes was just kidding when he said, “My only regret is they should have brought rifles. We could have fixed it right then and there. I’d hang [f******] Pelosi from the lamppost.” See also A jovial Stewart Rhodes tries to woo jurors at Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial.

If anything else happens that’s not about the midterms, please let me know.