Kudos to Pro Publica, where investigative journalists used FOIA laws to find emails showing that the Veterans Administration is in effect being run by three rich guys who belong to Mar-a-Lago. They have no qualifications for this role, but then, neither does Trump. This is the sort of thing political satirists used to make up but no longer have to.
Only a few people know what Trump and Putin talked about at their private confab, and given Trump’s mental decline he might not be one of them. No matter, American intelligence agencies have been able to piece together what was discussed from other sources.
Given the sticky fingers so common in Trump’s cabinet, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has mostly flown under the radar. But he’s in the news today for bilking his business partners out of $120 million. He’s also such a tightwad he steals packets of sweetener from restaurants. Another thing I would have made up but didn’t have to because it’s true.
This article is a deep dive into a long-running longitudinal poll — one that surveys the same group of several thousand respondents repeatedly over time, in this case since 2011. It offers several insights into Obama-to-Trump voters and which ones can be flipped back. The study’s author concludes Democrats are better off trying to win back those voters than turning out new ones, but it also shows a lot of weak-supporters of Trump are likely to stay home in November.
Somebody cue the sad trombone. The New York Times magazine has an interesting article based on several interviews with outgoing House speaker Paul Ryan, and it does a better job than most of illustrating how Trumpism basically destroyed Ryan’s once-promising career. Mark this down as another of those Trumpian silver linings.
Times are tough for candidates on the loonball right. In Arizona, “Chemtrail” Kelli Ward had a twitter meltdown when a newspaper endorsed a closer-to-sane rival.
Joe Biden is in the news for something other than presidential speculation. The Biden Foundation announced an initiative to give support to LGBTQ youth. It also serves as a reminder that Biden helped drag Obama into recognizing same-gender marriage.
Though the administration reunited many of the families it needlessly separated, the family destruction policy at the border continues, as hundreds of children remain apart from their families.