I think Donald Trump wasted $130,000 if he really did pay off porn star Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about a relationship they had, according to the Wall Street Journal. Somebody pointed out on Twitter that bedding a porn star will boost Trump with his base even more than calling African countries shitholes will. Probably true, but maybe not if they hear the part about the other porn star they called to join them, Alana Evans, turning them down. Or this part:
Evans said she talked to Daniels the next day, apologized for bailing, and asked her how the night went. “She tells me, ‘All I’m going to say is: I ended up with Donald in his hotel room. Picture him chasing me around his hotel room in his tighty-whities.’ I was like, ‘Oh I really didn’t need to hear that!’”
The punditocracy hasn’t had time to react to the porn-star story. Most writers are still grappling with what Politico called “shithole-gate.” Josh Marshall explains why the word itself is not the problem, and David Graham laments that Trump isn’t going anywhere, one of dozens of such laments littering the webscape today. You can dispel the gloom with this piece from McSweeney’s that shows how the New York Times would react if Trump ran across the White House lawn.
I’ve read lots of articles about Walmart’s two-step the other day — boosting its base pay-rate to $11 an hour while closing dozens of Sam’s Club stores and laying off thousands of people — but this one by the author of “The Wal-Mart Effect” does the best job of analyzing it fairly.
Another story that has unfolded in pieces over the past week is the dissolution of Trump’s voter-integrity commission. Talking Points Memo explains that Kris Kobach, the prick from Kansas who headed the commission, made some comments on his way out the door that could keep lawsuits against the commission alive even with the commission itself gone.
Remember the shooting last spring on the baseball field where the Republican congressional team was practicing? Rep. Steve Scalise wasn’t the only one badly wounded, as this profile of survivor Matt Mika reminds us. Includes a quopte from former Phillie Jayson Werth, who reached out during Mika’s recuperation.
I’m linking to this screen shot of Michael Wolff being interviewed by Michael Smerconish for obvious reasons. Rarely do you get to see a real-time Separated at Birth duo.