All we can say about the conduct of Donald Trump in his Twitter attacks on the Morning Joe anchors is the parable that he himself reminded us of while campaigning: You knew he was a snake when you picked him up.
Now what were we talking about before all this started? Oh yeah, financing a capital gains tax for rich people by taking away Medicaid. Gosh, I forgot all about that. Maybe that was the idea?
1990 Roger Ailes ad for Sen. McConnell. Parents “almost went broke.” when Mitch had polio, so he fights for “decent, affordable health care” pic.twitter.com/vwUmJ61vmj
— Jeff Nichols (@backwards_river) June 26, 2017
From Tonic at Vice.com:
Back in 1990, he was running for re-election in Kentucky against Harvey Sloane, a physician and Democrat. Sloane was a credible challenger, and McConnell cut a campaign ad that put healthcare front and center.
“When I was a child and my dad was in World War II, I got polio. I recovered, but my family almost went broke,” he said, over black-and-white pictures of the McConnell family. “Today, too many families can’t get decent, affordable health care. That’s why I’ve introduced a bill to make sure healthcare is available to all Kentucky families, hold down skyrocketing costs, and provide long-term care.”
Amy Siskind did not hide. She took action. She started making a list.
Specifically, Siskind — the president and co-founder of The New Agenda, a nonprofit that advocates for women’s issues — began cataloging the Trump administration’s efforts to demolish American democracy, item by item and week by week.
Last week the New York Times published “Trump’s Lies,” a compendium of 100 lies that Donald has told in the first six months of his so-called presidency. Here they are:
There’s a caption contest on Twitter for this photo of an eager Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) hugging Ivanka Trump without actually touching any of Ivanka’s parts. The contest was started by “AltEPA,” whose Twitter handle is @ActualEPAFacts, and who is worthy of your “following” consideration.
The shot makes you wonder just how tall “Little Marco,” as Ivanka’s dad calls him, is. A search came up with this article detailing the heights of the 2016 presidential candidates, along with heights of the past presidents. It offers this caveat at the beginning:
For the record, Rubio is listed at 5’10” in our chart but we have heard from well informed Florida sources that he is more like 5’8″.
Judging by the photo, we’re going to say those Florida sources are onto something. Ivanka, from what we could find, is 5’11” in her stocking feet, and Little Marco’s eyes are about level with her mouth.
Got a caption of your own for this shot? Leave it in the comments section. FYI, “Daddy does it too” was already used on the Twitter feed.
From P.M. Carpenter:
[The photo above] is a kind of political mugshot I ran across the other day; it’s the most telling portrait I’ve yet seen of the brooding, exhausted, smoldering paranoid who haunts the White House, plagues the world, and offends every conscience of decency.
Here is a spent man, a physical wreck and psychic monstrosity — the shattered embodiment of yearslong corruption. Far from being the man of vigor he promised on the campaign trail, he is broken shell. And far from being the man who would make America great again, he’s only reversing the greatness of his predecessor.
As children most of us learned that the two hardest things about telling lies is 1) remembering exactly what you told to whom and when, and 2) the potential of someone telling on you. U.S. Attorney general Jeff Sessions is finding out that both pitfalls amount to a “gotcha” following his sworn testimony Tuesday before the Senate.
Sessions rendered the first potential pitfall moot by having a case of amnesia so bad it would embarrass a soap opera star. He also pulled his Southern gentleman and respect for the norms of the Justice Department act (because we’ve seen how the Trump administration and the McConnell Senate uphold longstanding traditions and norms) to stonewall his way through his testimony.
But it appears that Sessions has been tripped up by number two. Or maybe it was a combination of forgetting that he invited Richard Burt, a lobbyist for Russia, to dinner — twice! — and then counting on said lobbyist to keep his mouth shut about it. In Alabama I believe they pronounce it puhjuhray, Mr. AG.
The Guardian has the full story here.
From Naomi Klein’s new book, No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World We Need:
Shock. It’s a word that has come up a lot since November— for obvious reasons.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about shock. Ten years ago, I published “The Shock Doctrine,” an investigation that spanned four decades from Pinochet’s U.S.-backed coup in 1970s Chile to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
I noticed a brutal and recurring tactic by right wing governments. After a shocking event – a war, coup, terrorist attack, market crash or natural disaster – exploit the public’s disorientation. Suspend democracy. Push through radical “free market” policies that enrich the 1 percent at the expense of the poor and middle class.
Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) has introduced a bill called the Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement (COVFEFE) Act, reports The Hill. The bill has the same acronym as a Trump Twitter typo that went viral last month, would amend the Presidential Records Act to include “social media.”
Quigley’s office issued a statement:
“President Trump’s frequent, unfiltered use of his personal Twitter account as a means of official communication is unprecedented. If the President is going to take to social media to make sudden public policy proclamations, we must ensure that these statements are documented and preserved for future reference. Tweets are powerful, and the President must be held accountable for every post.”
I quit following @POTUS on Twitter when the account became Trump’s, and quit @realDonaldTrump at the same time. I didn’t want to see tweets from 45, or award him one more follower.
But a new bot, which turns Trump’s tweets into the official White House press statements that they actually are, is making me reconsider allowing messages from the current office holder.
Sean Spicer was someone Donald Trump could count on —
He’d stand at the podium and lie until the day was done.
But Trump pulled a doozy
When he tapped Anthony Scaramucci,
And now that old reliable Sean is gone.
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