June 26 Open Thread: Orange Pig Attacks Noisy Hogs

By which I mean Trump attacked Harley Davidson for moving some of its production to Europe in response to retaliatory tariffs imposed in Trump’s trade war. This, naturally, prompted a wildly disproportionate and misinformed Twitter attack, as America’s orange pig ranted against the maker of America’s iconic-because-purposely-obnoxious motorcycles. This puts H-D in a tight spot, because most of its declining American customer base is fat old white guys who voted for Trump.

For a while now I’ve thought I heard echoes of summer 1974. The Watergate fervor had cooled since spring, until — blam! — the biggest asshole America elected president in the 20th century was flying home in disgrace. There’s no sign Trump will do that, but there are portents that something big is coming on the Russia probe. The most blatant was Sen. Mark Warner, who sits on the Senate intelligence committee, telling a gathering to “buckle up” because big news was on the way.

Nancy Pelosi must be really worried about keeping her post. When Rep. Maxine Waters said that people should harass and shun all Trump appointees (hard to do both at once, isn’t it?), Pelosi was quick to criticize her. Remember, most of Pelosi’s antagonists in the House are not more liberal than her, they’re more conservative, and they don’t want to run against her “liberal San Francisco values.” This sounds ridiculous to most Democrats, who see her as an establishment centrist, but the fact is she’s being challenged from her right, so I think she’s trying to appease the suburban corporatists she thinks will win her back the Speaker’s job.

Here’s a little reminder that con artists and snake oil peddlers come in all shapes, sizes — and genders. I haven’t followed the Theranos scandal very closely, so while I was unaware the company was caught faking the accuracy of its blood testing results, I didn’t know they were trying to cover their asses by sending samples out to a legitimate blood-testing outfit. That’s the reason CEO Elizabeth Holmes, who fooled a lot of Democratic politicians eager to tout her success (looking at you, Barack and Hillary), is being charged with fraud.

Let’s stop pretending that Trump and Trump alone is wrecking political norms. “Justice” Neil Gorsuch occupies his position on even more illegitimate grounds than Trump, and remember, that was all Mitch McConnell’s doing. At the time, he didn’t even think Trump would be the nominee let alone the president. What did he get for swinging one of the mauls wrecking the Republic? An arrogant prick who suffers from the Dunning Kruger effect and used a shoddily written dissent to try to undermine the court’s interpretation of the 4th Amendment. He’s right about what’s wrong, but wrong about how to set it right, which, perhaps not ironically, is also true of Karl Marx.

It’s looking like EPA poobah Scott Pruitt might have crossed the line between ethical disgrace and criminal. Newly released emails show a likely quid pro quo deal with the lobbyist from whom he rented a penthouse at flophouse rates.