I’m starting to understand why Republicans aren’t eager to replace Trump with Mike Pence: He’s not only a dick, he’s a kind of stupid one. He promised Wisconsin voters that the GOP will again try to kill Obamacare if they retain control of Congress. He’s not the only one, as lots of conservative pinheads are celebrating the idea of a McCain replacement voting the right way when they go after it again.
Women covering culture are having a shit fit over Louis C.K. performing a comedy set this week without having “earned” his redemption (here’s a particularly frantic example). As Emily Peck points out in HuffPo, a glaring double standard is being employed: Bill Clinton never had to make a comeback. He shamelessly has carried on as if he did nothing wrong, something I’ve also pointed out in the case of Tom Carper vis a vis Al Franken. If you’re demanding accountability of people, it’s rather hypocritical to apply the standard arbitrarily.
Trump maintains any politician would have taken the infamous Trump Tower meeting of June 2016, but when something similar happened during the 2000 campaign — a turncoat insider mailed taped copies of Bush’s debate prep sessions to an Al Gore associate — Gore’s people took it to the FBI. It wasn’t an entirely principled move — what if Karl Rove had done this to set them up? — but those involved still think they did the right thing, even if it cost Gore the election. Well worth a read.
Greg Sargent of WaPo argues Trump’s latest attacks on the press growing more sinister.
Trump’s willingness to link his assaults on the media directly to the Mueller probe — and to Democrats, painting them all as part of a grand conspiracy against him and his voters — is seriously worrisome, particularly after an unhinged madman echoed similar language while allegedly threatening to murder journalists. Just think how much more immediate and threatening this made-up conspiracy could soon appear to those inclined to such feverish hallucinations, especially with Trump escalating his efforts to feed them.