Little Trumps
April 6, 2026
Digby's Hullabaloo
AI Analysis: Name Calling
Authoritarians can’t see when they’re acting like fools We stopped through coastal Fairhope, AL on the way home from Netroots-New Orleans last summer to check out the fantasy castles and the hermit house (and to have some right fine coffee at the Kind Cafe; and they mean kind). Fairhope is known as an arts community, but it’s still Alabama. So yesterday, a friend and I had just shared frustrations over Democrats being stuck in policies, framings, and campaign practices from decades past when this story from Fairhope popped up in The Intercept.
At Fairhope’s recent No Kings rally, a grandmother showed up in a 7-foot-tall inflatable penis costume she’d bought at a Halloween costume store. Renea Gamble, 62, an ASL interpreter, was arrested by officer Andrew Babb, a corporal with the Fairhope Police. The arrest is captured on his body cam: Talking to a colleague over his two-way radio after the encounter, Babb described what happened. Gamble was dressed “like a freakin’ weiner,” he says on the tape, so he ordered her to remove the costume. She refused, invoking her First Amendment rights. “I said, ‘That’s not freedom of speech,’” Babb continues. “‘This is a family town and being dressed like that is not going to be tolerated.’” Gamble asks Babb twice if she is being detained. He ignores her and continues his scolding. “If I’m not being detained, I’m gonna go ahead and leave,” Gamble says. Babb tackles and handcuffs her, etc., etc. Video captures police trying to stuff
Reliability Insights
P
Technique: Name Calling
Our AI detected use of specific narrative techniques in this piece.Digby's Hullabaloo
Coverage and analysis from United States of America. All insights are generated by our AI narrative analysis engine.