[Daily Kos Morning Roundup](
A morning roundup of worthy pundit and news reads, brought to you by Daily Kos. [Click here to read the full web version.]( - [Why a Trump indictment will matter so little to most of his Christian supporters]( Why a Trump indictment will matter so little to most of his Christian supporters, Robert P. Jones, Religion News Service
Consider just a few of the public revelations and remarks by Trump since 2016 and how little they affected white evangelicals' loyalty to him. As we anticipate the potential indictment of a former president, the data suggests that even such an unprecedented event would have little impact on the support for Trump by white evangelical Protestants and other conservative white Christians.
- [Trump Puts His Legal Peril at Center of First Big Rally for 2024]( Trump Puts His Legal Peril at Center of First Big Rally for 2024, Michael C. Bender and Shane Goldmacher, The New York Times
Facing a potential indictment, the former president devoted much of his speech in Waco, Texas, to criticizing the justice system, though his attacks were less personal and caustic than in recent days. The speech underscored how Mr. Trump tends to frame the nationâs broader political stakes heavily around whatever issues personally affect him the most. Last year, he sought to make his lies about fraud in his 2020 election defeat the most pressing issue of the midterms. On Saturday, he called the âweaponization of our justice systemâ the âcentral issue of our time.â
- [2023 has gotten off to a rough financial start for Daily Kos. Can you help by donating $3 a month starting now?]( - [How Pro Wrestling Explains Todayâs GOP]( How Pro Wrestling Explains Todayâs GOP, Michael Kruse, POLITICO
The battle between Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump could split the party with surprising results, argues the author of a new book on Vince McMahon. âWrestling,â writes [author Josie] Riesman, âhas metastasized into the broader world, especially since the inauguration of the 45th president. Thereâs little difference between Trumpism and Vinceâs neokayfabe, each with their infinite and indistinguishable layers of irony and sincerity. Each philosophy approaches life with one goal: to remake reality in such a way as to defeat oneâs enemies and sate oneâs insecurities.â Perhaps even more apropos, Riesman offers a fresh way to consider current dramas, especially within the Republican Party, including the most compelling conflict â Trump versus Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Many observers of politics tend to think about candidates who are at odds in terms of lanes, but at this point it might be more useful, Riesman suggests, to think in terms of roles: heroes and villains â in industry lingo, faces and heels â and the fluidity of such positioning within the twists and turns of storylines that can see similar combatants giving rise to new contestants and surprising resultsâ¦. Kruse: It pays to be the heel just as much or maybe even more than it pays to be âthe face.â Riesman: Oh, I would say much more. Being the face [the good guy] doesnât pay because youâre always going to have another side that reflexively hates you. Youâre not going to win over the other side. Whereas if youâre a heel, you have one side loving you, and the other side youâre profiting off their hatred. Itâs the only way to actually make it now.
- [Why Fig Leaves Cover the Private Parts of Classical Sculptures6]( Why Fig Leaves Cover the Private Parts of Classical Sculptures, Alexxa Gotthardt, Artsy
Consider the fig leaf: a little piece of foliage thatâs shielded the genitals of famous biblical figures and nude sculptures for centuries. Itâs a plant thatâs become synonymous with sin, sex, and censorship. And in large part, we have art historyâand the artists determined to portray nudity even when it was considered tabooâto thank for that. Take Michelangeloâs famous sculpture David (1501â04), a muscular, starkly naked depiction of its namesake biblical hero. The work scandalized the artistâs fellow Florentines and the Catholic clergy when unveiled in Florenceâs Piazza della Signoria in 1504. Soon after, the figureâs sculpted phallus was girdled with a garland of bronze fig leaves by authorities. 60 years later, just months before Michelangeloâs death, the Catholic Church issued an edict demanding that âfigures shall not be painted or adorned with a beauty excitingâ¦lust.â The clergy began a crusade to camouflage the pensises and pubic hair visible in artworks across Italy. Their coverups of choice? Loincloths, foliage, andâmost oftenâfig leaves. It has became known as the âFig Leaf Campaign,â one of historyâs most significant acts of art censorship.
- [Want to show your support for progressive, independent media? Click here to get your Daily Kos t-shirt now]( - [Comerâs âoversightâ is focused on phony scandals]( Comerâs âoversightâ is focused on phony scandals, Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post
Put in charge of a committee that Republicans have historically used to fan conspiracies and put their opponents on defense, Comer has gotten flak from his own side for failing to come up with much useful to his party. Voters are unimpressed and want the committee to get back to real issues. And Democrats have mocked his loony claims on everything from the Chinese balloon to the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. Outside right-wing media, these âscandalsâ donât have much (such as facts) to recommend them. But a good deal of the problem lies with Comer.
- [A Defense of the Ukrainian Defense of Bakhmut]( A Defense of the Ukrainian Defense of Bakhmut, Phillips P. O'Brien, Substack
The line hardly moves--a Culmination? Well, here we are back for another discussion of what is happening in Bakhmut. I hope this will be the last for a while, but considering the fascinating change in tone over the last week about what is/has happening/happened there, I thought it would be worth returning again to why I have always given the Ukrainian government/military the benefit of the doubt with their Bakhmut strategy, and why I believe that had they listened to those who were saying it was now a bad place to fight and should pull out, it would most likely have been extremely counterproductive.
ICYMI: Popular stories from the past week you won't want to miss: - [More polling, more bad news for DeSantis]( - [Ukraine Update: Russia only has one army, Bakhmut may be the place where they lose it]( - [Ukraine Update: Russian assaults appear to be declining as Russian tank factories reportedly close']( Want even more Daily Kos? Check out our podcasts: - [The Brief: A one-hour weekly political conversation hosted by Markos Moulitsas and Kerry Eleveld]( - [The Downballot: Daily Kos' podcast devoted to downballot elections. New episodes every Thursday]( Want to write your own stories? [Log in]( or [sign up]( to post articles and comments on Daily Kos, the nation's largest progressive community. Follow Daily Kos on [Facebook](, [Twitter](, and [Instagram](. Thanks for all you do,
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