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- To date, conservative lies have cost them $1.026 billion, from just three court cases (Dominion v. Fox, Freeman/Moss v. Giuliani, Carroll v. Trump). It will not get better for any of them in the future.
- Texans had no problem listening to the Border Patrol when it was its SWAT team rescuing their school kids from a homicidal gunman after Texas police cowered. But Greg Abbott doesn’t wanna talk about that, does he? P.S. Greg, the National Guard isn’t going to follow your orders after the real President activates them. Their oath is to the Constitution, not you.
- The 2023 GDP growth of 3.1% was better than any year under Donald Trump, and it was the second best under Joe Biden. And it happened while economic pundits were still quivering about a potential recession. Trump whined throughout the 2016 campaign that Obama failed because he never hit 3% annual GDP growth. Well, neither did Trump.
- I think we’ve found Trump’s designated African-American for the 2024 campaign season.
- Exactly ten years ago, at the urging of the far-right of the Party including Freedom Caucus founding member Jim Jordan, Republican House leadership killed a bipartisan immigration bill that easily would have passed if brought to a floor vote. They did so to deny Barack Obama a “political win.” Sound familiar? Republicans have refused to comprehensively address immigration since, opting to keep it as an election issue to infuriate their Base.
- How bad was Donald Trump for the US economy? One of his top-line issues in his first term was his trade war. In case you don’t know: He lost it. In 2016, before Trump took office, the US foreign trade deficit was $506 billion or 2.7% of GDP. In Trump’s last year in office, 2020, the trade deficit was $620 billion, or 2.98% of GDP. And no, it wasn’t just the pandemic: the trade deficit increased in 2018, at the peak of Trump’s “war.”
- Shocking that Doug Burgum just couldn’t harness that traditional Bismark-to-White House superhighway. The charisma spewing from that man. Oh, wait… that was Asa Hutchinson? My bad.
- Journalists, stop asking Trump questions about his actions. Don’t make coverage of his campaign about his tabloid fodder. Ask him about his policies, and demand answers, not the “two weeks” bullshit. Ask him questions that he will immediately look confused on to show how unprepared he is: “How will your monetary policy moderate inflation?” “How do you plan on not raising the federal debt by $5 trillion, as you did before the pandemic hit?” “You said you could stop the wars in Ukraine and Gaza overnight. What three steps will you take to do that?” “Give me a date when you’ll have your health care plan released.”
- How great was it that in his exit speech, Ron DeSantis quoted an ad from Budweiser, the brand he demonized, claiming it was Winston Churchill.
- Saw Barbie. Entertaining, but not transformative or exceptionally creative, and it could have been so much more. Popularity and entertainment value do not make it award-worthy, and it does not merit an Oscar nom.
- Prediction: In October, a deluge of AI-generated targeting politicians at various will hit the internet. The tactic: flood the zone so all of them cannot be fact-checked before Election Day.
- Peter Navarro’s four-month sentence is a slap, and he’ll make millions from GOP donors after his release (if he goes to jail at all). But the sentence is more important for its history impact than its penal power.
- Confirmed: Republicans will risk US national security to placate Donald Trump–again. It’s why they’re blocking all action on the southern border: he can’t bitch about a problem they’re earnestly trying to remedy. Trump is all about Trump, and now, so are every member of the Republican Party.
- Don’t underestimate the cathartic effect of hosts like Colbert, Meyers and Kimmel for viewers who need to laugh at daily events every night–while the shows inform people who aren’t soaking in politics. With Jon Stewart reentering the chat, there’s more opportunity to engage.
- Getting ready to start the seedlings for the herb garden. We always go heavy on basil, but rosemary is typically the second most-used, with oregano in third. Dill, cilantro and sage get their spots. The chive survives season to season. That was easy. The more harrowing decisions come when reviewing tomato varieties.
- A little-known-in-America but long-running British gameshow called Pointless hits my need to apply obscure knowledge. It’s a reverse Family Feud where instead of trying to guess the most popular answers, on Pointless you try to find the correct ones the fewest people listed. A named character in at least three episodes of Law & Order? Think less Lenny Briscoe and more John Munch.
- Dog hadn’t seen anything more than an inch or so of snow for the last couple of years. Woke up to everything being covered last weekend, a fun surprise in the morning. Brought back out the puppy in him for a bit.
