Tuesday, June 30, 2020

NOT CREDIBLE

Trump now says no one briefed him on the Russia-Afghanistan bounty on US troops because they didn't find the underlying intel credible. Do you believe him?


[NB: The DNI and others who have tried to make excuses never said the intel was not credible. Wouldn't that be the first explanation you would provide, if it were the case?]

"This is considered so serious by our intelligence agencies that they convene a meeting at the end of March, and we notify -- our government notifies the British government to warn them that there are also bounties on the heads of British soldiers from Vladimir Putin. And yet, this warning, the White House wants you to believe that despite the fact the CIA knew it, despite the fact that the president's own national security council knew it, despite the fact that it was so serious they convened a meeting in March to consider a range of options to take against the Russian government and Vladimir Putin for putting bounties on the heads of young American troops, despite the fact it was considered so serious they notified the British, think about this. "You're being told that they notified the British government, but they didn't even tell the President of the United States. I'll just ask, how stupid do they think you are? "And how low does the president think he can take you, and his supporters, in supporting a president who was told in a presidential daily briefing months ago, to the man that he called a friend of his in May, was putting bounties on the heads of U.S. troops back in 2019. It is -- it is just mind-blowing. Mind-blowing. And here's the thing. It's all going to come out. The truth is all going to come out."

The Cheerleader's tip-toeing around the issue tells you they know there is a Big Problem here

McEnany stuck closely to talking points throughout the briefing, repeating several times that “there is no consensus within the intelligence community” on the intelligence related to the Russian bounty program. Pressed for specifics about whether the president was made aware of the intelligence, she declined to elaborate beyond saying that Trump had not been personally briefed on the information.

Even GOP senators want answers

A key Trump ally, Senator Lindsey Graham, said on Saturday it was “imperative Congress get to the bottom of” the allegations about Russia. “I expect the Trump administration to take such allegations seriously and inform Congress immediately as to the reliability of these news reports,” the South Carolina Republican said . . .

Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) sent a letter to President Trump on Monday calling for Senate hearings over media reports that U.S. intelligence assessed that a Russian spy unit offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan. . .

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) says Congress needs to get to the bottom of what President Trump was told about Russia offering bounties to Taliban militants to kill coalition troops in Afghanistan . . .

The WH said there would be a "briefing" for lawmakers on the controversy. Here's what that "briefing" turned out to be

In a meeting today, Trump administration officials (and recent House Republicans) John Ratcliffe and Mark Meadows briefed a small set of sycophantic Republican lawmakers on what the talking points defending Trump would be. We know precisely what was decided on because Rep. Jim Banks immediately tweeted out the results after the meeting. He blamed the Times for reporting an "ONGOING" investigation, claiming "blood is on their hands." He also repeated, verbatim, Trump's own ridiculous and asinine claim that "[n]o President in my lifetime has been tougher on Russia than Trump"—a statement simply at odds with provable reality. We can gather, then, that the House Republican response will be to burp out literal White House talking points.

It will all come out

Senators will have access to intelligence documents related to reporting that Russia’s military intelligence unit, the GRU, offered bounties to Taliban militants to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.  . . .


THIS is what I've been expecting all along -- we know Trump hates his intel briefings and doesn't read his PDBs

CNN is reporting that, despite denials by Donald Trump and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, information on Russia paying bounties for the murder of American soldiers was included in Trump’s “daily brief.” That briefing happened “sometime in the spring,” though CNN does not indicate that their source provided a precise date for the briefing. The source indicated that this was such a big deal — directly involving the safety of American forces in Afghanistan — that it certainly would have been included in information that reached Trump. However, there is still a sense in which Trump might not have been briefed, even though he was. That’s because, as CNN notes, “Trump is not known to fully or regularly read the President's Daily Brief.” So there remains the possibility that Trump didn’t know about Russia putting a price tag on the heads of American soldiers, because he was so incompetent, and so unconcerned with the safety of the military, that he simply didn’t read the report. . . .

Trump Got Written Briefing in February on Possible Russian Bounties, Officials Say

With Trump, there's a tweet for everything

[Donald J. Trump] Fact--Obama does not read his intelligence briefings nor does he get briefed in person by the CIA or DOD. Too busy I guess! - Sep 30, 2014

Trump's plague




Why Isn't Media Addressing Trump's COVID-19 Surrender?

HHS Sect'y says states should halt re-opening because people just aren't acting responsibly


[NB: And whose fault is THAT?]


Another 5-4 SC decision with Chief Justice John Roberts on the side of the liberals, striking down a super-restrictive Louisiana abortion law


But let's not turn Roberts into a hero just yet . . .

Chief Justice John Roberts decided that now was not the time for a big decision allowing states to effectively outlaw abortion . . .



In another case, not so good

The Supreme Court’s big decision on the CFPB and the “unitary executive,” explained . . . Chief Justice Roberts’s opinion can be read two ways. One of them could be catastrophic. . . .

When Bob Woodward decided NOT to out Brett Kavanaugh


As discussed yesterday, Trump wants to kill the Affordable Care Act with NO PLAN to replace it. Now his HHS Sect'y admits that's true

Azar: Sure, Trump still doesn't have 'exact details' for a healthcare system, but trust us . . . "We will work with Congress to create a program that genuinely protects individuals with preexisting conditions." . . . Azar also told Tapper the plan they don't have details on now would be "something very different than what we see today."

House Moves to Expand Obamacare

In investigation news . . .  

Barr ruined the Mueller investigation. But Mueller let it happen


In other news . . .   

More "good people"

Trump shares video of white couple pointing guns at protesters in St. Louis

[NB: Trump keeps saying he supports the rights of peaceful protest, and keeps showing that he doesn't.]

WH Says Trump Retweeted ‘White Power’ Video To Stand With ‘Demonized’ Supporters

[NB: Yes, because why should we "demonize" people who shout "White Power" or point guns at unarmed peaceful protesters? It's just so UNFAIR.]

Social media sites find that Trump sites are full of hate

Twitch Suspends Trump’s Channel for ‘Hateful Conduct’

Reddit Bans Trump Page For Repeated Rules Violations

Snapchat to stop promoting Trump after controversial posts

Facebook Pulls Down Trump Campaign’s Ad With Nazi Symbolism for Hate-Speech Violations

Is Trump’s Social Media Firewall Starting to Crumble?

Every season it seems that a relatively unimportant culture war issue gets weaponized by the Repubs to whip up voter frenzy and drive turnout. Will it be pulling down Confederate statues this time?


"Our"?

White Nationalist 'President' Tells Black Americans To 'Learn Our History'

Trump pulled his convention from Charlotte, NC because they required masks and social distancing. Now Jacksonville expects the same thing


Trump is turning the entire Federal government into a nest of loyalists and ideologues -- and the next president's #1 job is going to be clearing them all out


Trump points to a NJ case to "prove" that mail-in voting leads to fraud. But what it really shows is that it is easy to detect actual fraud, when it happens


Doesn't sound like someone getting ready to quit

"Sorry to inform the Do Nothing Democrats, but I am getting VERY GOOD internal Polling Numbers. Just like 2016, the @nytimes  Polls are Fake! The @FoxNews  Polls are a JOKE! Do you think they will apologize to me & their subscribers AGAIN when I WIN?"

Meanwhile, in the real world . . .

Trump’s Disapproval Rate Soars

The books by former Trump staff reveal a strongly consistent image of a deeply dysfunctional administration

But taken all together, these staffer memoirs offer a sense of something that no outsider can ever completely understand: what it’s like to live in Trump World. That’s what its denizens call the alternate reality surrounding our petty, distractible, praise-hungry president. Under its spell, people strive to gain and hold onto their perches in what has to be one of the worst workplaces in the history of the ruling classes, short of Caligula’s Rome. . . [T]he mad tea party that is Trump World. . . . [read on]

The Trump Organization has a business plan for after Trump leaves office


Princeton removed Woodrow Wilson's name from their public policy school. Here's why


Will the Dems reform the filibuster if they retake the Senate?



Bonus item: John Oliver on Mike Pence's coronavirus lies


***If you enjoy Progressive Blog Digest and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sharing its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com) with others via email or social media. Thanks for helping to spread the word!

I don’t get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don’t run ads, etc.). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a “mission,” it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
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Monday, June 29, 2020

NO WAY!

Trump denies the absolutely damning Russia-Afghanistan bounty story, but he does it in a very revealing way

"Nobody briefed or told me, @VP Pence, or Chief of Staff @MarkMeadows about the so-called attacks on our troops in Afghanistan by Russians, as reported through an “anonymous source” by the Fake News @nytimes. Everybody is denying it & there have not been many attacks on us. . . .

Probably just another phony Times hit job, just like their failed Russia Hoax. Who is their “source”? . . . The Fake News @ nytimes must reveal its “anonymous” source. Bet they can’t do it, this “person” probably does not even exist! . . .

The New York Times reported Friday that Trump was briefed on the finding and that the White House’s National Security Council discussed the problem at an interagency meeting in late March. The report was confirmed by the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and CNN. The Times reported that despite knowing about the bounties, Trump floated expanding the upcoming G7 summit meeting in Washington, D.C., in September to include Russia. . . .

Trump's tweet about "so-called attacks on our troops in Afghanistan by Russians" is not an accurate characterization of the Times story, which reported on intelligence about Russians paying bounties to Taliban-linked militants. Mark Meadows was also not chief of staff in late March, when the president was allegedly briefed on the finding. . .

[NB: In other words, the bounty story could be true, and damning, even if no US troops were actually killed.]

DNI Ratcliffe now says Trump was never briefed about it -- which is one of those excuses (even if it is true) that's nearly as bad as the original charge


[NB: So, which is it? You told him and he didn't do anything about it? Or you had intelligence about such a bounty against US troops from a major international adversary and didn't tell the Commander in Chief about it?]

“I’ve been puzzled over the tweet of the president saying, ‘I don't know anything about this,’” he added. “The fact that the president feels compelled to tweet about the news story here shows that his fundamental focus is not the security of our forces, but whether he looks like he wasn't paying attention.” . . . Bolton expanded on his point: “I think the answer may be precisely because active Russian aggression like that against the American service members is a very, very serious matter and nothing’s been done about it, if it's true, for these past four or five months, so it may look like he was negligent but, of course, he can disown everything if nobody ever told him about it.”

The Washington Post confirms the story

The Washington Post confirms last week’s blockbuster from the New York Times: “Russian bounties offered to Taliban-linked militants to kill coalition forces in Afghanistan are believed to have resulted in the deaths of several U.S. service members.” “The intelligence was passed up from the U.S. Special Operations forces based in Afghanistan and led to a restricted high-level White House meeting in late March.”

Nancy

Speaker Nancy Pelosi blasted President Trump for being beholden to the Russian government, following a startling New York Times report that Russia secretly offered bounties to Taliban fighters to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan . . . “Just as I have said to the president: With him, all roads lead to Putin. I don’t know what the Russians have on the president, politically, personally, or financially.” She added: “This is as bad as it gets, and yet the president will not confront the Russians on this score.”

HHS Sect'y repudiates everything Trump (and Pence) have been saying and doing about the virus for weeks

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar said Sunday the “window is closing” to stop the spread of coronavirus, as cases across the South and West surge. Azar said the country is in a different situation than at the last peak of the epidemic a few months ago, noting new therapeutics and advancements of COVID-19 vaccine research, but he added that “the window is closing.” “We have to act, and people as individuals have to act responsibly. We need to social-distance. We need to wear our face-coverings if we're in settings where we can't social-distance, particularly in these hot zones,” Azar said . . .

[NB: And what about the president's rallies, Sect'y Azar?]

As COVID explodes across the country, this is what the president was obsessing over on his twitter feed yesterday . . .

This is how you lose an election

A new CBS News poll finds record numbers of Americans — 62% — say efforts against the coronavirus outbreak are going badly, including new highs saying efforts are going very badly. Meanwhile, President Trump receives his lowest marks for handling the pandemic since it began; and the outlook for the summer is grim. Twice as many expect the outbreak to worsen, rather than improve.”

“Three serious research efforts have put numerical weight — yes, data-driven evidence — behind what many suspected all along: Americans who relied on Fox News, or similar right-wing sources, were duped as the coronavirus began its deadly spread. Dangerously duped.” [read on]


Will the GOP Senate work with the House on police reform?


In other news . . .

"Great people." He knows exactly what he's doing

Trump Praises Supporters By Retweeting Video Of Them Screaming ‘White Power’

HHS Secretary Cowers When Asked To Defend Trump's 'White Power!' Retweet

GOP Sen. Tim Scott Calls on Trump to Take Down ‘Indefensible’ White Power Tweet

Someone with access to Trump's account eventually did so—only after the retweet had been up for hours. . . .

Peter Navarro, one of the real quacks on the Trump team, appears on Fox News wearing what appears to be a QAnon pin


Steve Bannon wants back on the Trump campaign team


Joe Biden reports that 35% of this staff are people of color

The campaign also said 36 percent of its senior staff are people of color, 53 percent of its full staff are female and 58 percent of its senior staff are female. Five percent of staff chose not to specify their race or ethnicity. . . .

Turns out the Biden video saying "120 million dead" is deceptively edited


Well, we knew that Trump needed a major campaign reboot. And now we have it. He's come up with a new nickname for Biden


Bonus item: I guess this counts as a bonus item. There is growing speculation that Trump would rather quit than face losing in the fall. It's an interesting question of which would be the bigger blow to his ego. Either way he would be making history -- and not in a good way.  But I just don't see him stepping down. How would he explain it? And would Pence do any better? The fear of course is not just his losing, but pulling the rest of the party down with him. And it does seem that he's not having fun any more. It certainly isn't a matter of him being committed to the office


GOP operatives are for the first time raising the possibility that Donald Trump could drop out of the race if his poll numbers don’t rebound . . . One “major player” described Trump’s current psyche as “fragile.”


"Under the current trajectory, President Trump is on the precipice of one of the worst electoral defeats in modern presidential elections and the worst historically for an incumbent president," explained former Trump adviser Sam Nunberg before adding that, should Trump's polling numbers collapse further, "He's going to be facing realistically a 400-plus electoral vote loss and the president would need to strongly reconsider whether he wants to continue to run as the Republican presidential nominee."

***If you enjoy Progressive Blog Digest and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sharing its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com) with others via email or social media. Thanks for helping to spread the word!

I don’t get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don’t run ads, etc.). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a “mission,” it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
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Sunday, June 28, 2020

CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE

We knew this would happen, we said this would happen, Trump denied it would happen -- and now it's happening


As I say, criminal negligence

Trump Staff Removed Social Distancing Stickers

White House knowingly allowed bad COVID-19 test kits to circulate, possibly affecting millions

Company run by White House "volunteer" with no experience in medical supplies wins major contract

“The dysfunction that has long characterized Trump’s White House has been particularly ill-suited for a viral outbreak that requires precision, focus and steady leadership.” [read on]

Of course TRUMP doesn't worry about getting the virus. Look at how he is protected



The climate Trump has created

Florida Covidiot: 'I Will Not Be Muzzled Like A Mad Dog!' [watch!]

As TX Spike Grows Dire, Gohmert Says He Won’t Wear A Mask Unless He Gets COVID


I know I have said this before, but how does Trump survive this?

President Donald Trump has refused to authorize any response after being briefed that Russia was offering bounties for the killing of U.S. troops, according to a bombshell new report in The New York Times. . . . "The intelligence finding was briefed to President Trump, and the White House's National Security Council discussed the problem at an interagency meeting in late March, the officials said. Officials developed a menu of potential options — starting with making a diplomatic complaint to Moscow and a demand that it stop, along with an escalating series of sanctions and other possible responses, but the White House has yet to authorize any step, the officials said," the newspaper explained. "Any involvement with the Taliban that resulted in the deaths of American troops would also be a huge escalation of Russia's so-called hybrid war against the United States, a strategy of destabilizing adversaries through a combination of such tactics as cyberattacks, the spread of fake news and covert and deniable military operations."


The Lincoln Project weighs in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiDkTOKI7Ro

America is ready for a broader conversation about race. Trump doesn't want to have that conversation

A new New York Times/Siena poll finds 59% of voters, including 52% of white voters, believe the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police in Minneapolis was “part of a broader pattern of excessive police violence toward African Americans.” The Black Lives Matter movement and the police had similar favorability ratings, with 44% of voters viewing the movement as “very favorable,” almost identical to the 43% rating for the police. “The numbers add to the mounting evidence that recent protests have significantly shifted public opinion on race, creating potential political allies for a movement that was, within the past decade, dismissed as fringe and divisive. It also highlights how President Trump is increasingly out of touch with a country he is seeking to lead for a second term: While he has shown little sympathy for the protesters and their fight for racial justice, and has continued to use racist language that many have denounced, voters feel favorably toward the protests and their cause.”

Trump wants to kill the ACA (again), and is promising (again) to provide something "FAR BETTER AND MUCH LESS EXPENSIVE . . . I will ALWAYS PROTECT PEOPLE WITH PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS!!!" But, manic caps aside, once it is gone there will be nothing to replace it, because there is no way he will get a new plan through Congress (he thinks the Dems will be desperate to compromise and the Repubs can roll them). And coverage for pre-existing conditions will be GONE.

The reality is that imperfect as it is, the ACA is all we have and if we get rid of it there is no feasible alternative that can pass -- certainly not something FAR BETTER. And of course we have seen no such proposal from Trump, ever. So his plan is, get rid of it, then trust me to come up with something. Are we suckers?


Trump’s Riskiest Move Yet

[NB: I suppose it would be a novel re-election move: I have eliminated health coverage for millions of Americans. Re-elect me so I can get it back again!]

Trump's scheme to pay for his Wall™ was illegal


In investigation news . . .  

Quid pro quo

President Donald Trump on Saturday further amplified speculation he's set to pardon Roger Stone before his longtime political adviser reports to federal prison. Trump retweeted a story on a petition calling on the president to pardon Stone, who was sentenced to 40 months in prison in February for witness-tampering and lying to Congress amid the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. “IT’s TIME TO #PardonRogerStone,” the original tweet read. . . .

In other news . . .   

Trump says TV ratings are "the real polls"


"A presidency in free fall"



What should have been an easy interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday horrified advisers when Trump offered a rambling, non-responsive answer to a simple question about his goals for a second term. In the same appearance, the normally self-assured president offered a tacit acknowledgment that he might lose when he said that Joe Biden is “gonna be your president because some people don't love me, maybe." . . . Behind the scenes, Trump and his team are taking steps to correct course. In the week since his Tulsa rally, the president has grudgingly conceded that he’s behind, according to three people who are familiar with his thinking. Trump, who vented for days about the event, is starting to take a more hands-on role in the campaign . . . Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who effectively oversees the campaign from the White House, is expected to play an even more active role. . .

Trump incredible staff turnover

President Trump has replaced his chief of staff, press secretary, legislative affairs director and domestic policy adviser and retooled his communications shop in a span of about three months and will soon bid goodbye to two top economic advisers. Trump’s White House has experienced a dizzying amount of staffing changes that began following his impeachment acquittal and seemed to accelerate with the arrival of new chief of staff Mark Meadows. Trump has presided over a record amount of turnover in the Cabinet and senior levels of his administration, demonstrating a penchant for removing and replacing top officials as well as swapping existing staff into new roles. . . .

Biden said 120 million dead instead of 120 thousand. Pretty embarrassing, I agree. But the volume of ridicule and derision he's getting from Trump and his supporters is way out of proportion. Let's look at some of Trump's gaffes, shall we?


The most anti-environmental president, ever


#ByeIvanka


The Lincoln Project is great at trolling Trump -- and it's getting to him

In the past few months, the Lincoln Project — a PAC with not much funding, as far as PACs go — has successfully established itself as a squatter in Trump’s mental space, thanks to several factors: members each boasting hundreds of thousands of social media followers, rapidly cut ads that respond to current events and a single-minded focus on buying airtime wherever Trump is most likely to be binging cable news that day, whether it’s the D.C. market or his golf courses across the country. And every time Trump freaks out — or every time the media covers his freakout — the Lincoln Project scores an incalculable amount of earned media, and millions of views online to boot. . .  [read on]

Bonus item: What a prank


***If you enjoy Progressive Blog Digest and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sharing its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com) with others via email or social media. Thanks for helping to spread the word!

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Saturday, June 27, 2020

IN DENIAL

People are really getting fed up with Trump's denialism. The numbers are going up at a faster rate than ever before -- we may be undercounting cases by a factor of ten -- and he is saying the pandemic is over

“A kid with the sniffles. That’s what he said, a kid with the sniffles. You don’t need me to tell you that that’s not true, right?” asked the “CNN Tonight” host.

Trump Plays Down Devastation Caused By COVID-19 As An ‘Artificial Problem’

Twitter Users Call B.S. On Donald Trump’s Latest Coronavirus Spin

Meanwhile . . .

A new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds 76% of Americans are concerned about contracting the coronavirus, levels of concern not seen in a month. Also interesting: 56% conclude that the country’s moving too quickly to reopen . . . [read on]

Trump's political position deteriorates as coronavirus spikes

When a reality TV president encounters reality


Trump said, in all seriousness (and has repeatedly said) that less testing would mean fewer cases of coronavirus. His minions rushed out to say he was "joking" (uh-huh). Then Trump blew that excuse out of the water: "I don't kid." Now, as his approval plummets, he says himself, Yeah I was joking


[NB: Problem is, saying he was joking is no excuse anyway. At a time when widespread testing is essential to a safe reopening, his message should be simply, and consistently, GO GET TESTED. Anything else is irresponsible.]

Trump's COVID failures



Dr. Anthony Fauci told the Washington Post that the Trump administration’s current testing strategy for coronavirus has proven inadequate . . . “Something’s not working. I mean, you can do all the diagramming you want, but something is not working.”

The Coronavirus Task Force is released from their secret underground bunker to be allowed to talk to the press. It was an exercise in absurdity, led by VP Mike Pence

REPORTER: How can the Trump campaign justify having rallies while you & experts give advice against having gatherings like that?
PENCE: "The freedom of speech, right to peaceably assemble is enshrined in the Constitution of the US, and we have an election coming up this fall." [read on]

A huge spike in numbers yesterday. Hotspots Texas, Arizona, and Florida think maybe they re-opened too quickly, too soon






Stocks collapse on the news -- which just goes to show that rushing to reopen was GREAT for the economy


The EU will block US visitors

The European Union will reportedly block most Americans from traveling to the bloc even as those countries reopen to other travelers, a policy that reflects the United States’s failure to fully control the coronavirus pandemic. . . .

Trump's buddy Vlad

Russia Offered Afghans Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops

In investigation news . . .

How AG Bill Barr has destroyed the Department of Justice


Bill Barr Is Eroding the Rule of Law. Don’t Let Him Get Away With It.

Barr says vote by mail will lead to counterfeiting, fraud -- then admits he has no evidence for that



In other news . . .

Great analysis

Trump Gets Trumpier Under Stress

Sean Hannity asked President Trump on Fox News about his plans if he’s re-elected for a second term. Here’s Trump’s answer: "Well one of the things that will be really great: you know, the word experience is still good. I always say talent is more important than experience. I’ve always said that. But the word experience is a very important word. It’s a very important meaning. I never did this before, I never slept over in Washington. I was in Washington I think 17 times, all of a sudden I’m the president of the United States, you know the story, I’m riding down Pennsylvania Avenue with our First Lady and I say, ‘This is great.’ But I didn’t know very many people in Washington, it wasn’t my thing. I was from Manhattan, from New York. Now I know everybody. And I have great people in the administration. You make some mistakes, like you know an idiot like Bolton, all he wanted to do is drop bombs on everybody. You don’t have to drop bombs on everybody. You don’t have to kill people."

Trump disapproval keeps climbing



I think he thinks he might lose and wants to drive one last nail into Obama's legacy while he still has a chance. Why else would you take the tone-deaf position of killing a POPULAR health care program IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC?

Trump Administration Asks Supreme Court To End Affordable Care Act


Fascinating: rallies don't help win state votes. (They may help with other things, like harvesting data, generating video for news and social media, and boosting the Big Baby's ego and morale)


The House passes DC statehood -- and the Republican arguments against it sound very . . . familiar

House passes H.R. 51, Washington, D.C. Statehood bill

The Case Against D.C. Statehood Hasn’t Changed Since Marion Barry . . . It’s always been racist, partisan, and nonsensical. . .

What Tom Cotton’s Racist Speech Against D.C. Statehood Says About the GOP

Bonus item: Sarah Cooper!


***If you enjoy Progressive Blog Digest and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sharing its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com) with others via email or social media. Thanks for helping to spread the word!

I don’t get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don’t run ads, etc.). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a “mission,” it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
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