Some of this will be quickly forgotten after the man makes his speech tonight and unleashes a whole new wave of factually-challenged and contradictory statements…
- Trump wants an increase in the defense budget of $54 billion. Fred Kaplan explains why this is unnecessary, ridiculous and dangerous. I've never understood why people who fault Liberals for "throwing money at a problem" have this concept of Defense where the more you spend, the safer you are…and it really doesn't matter what you spend it on. Spending more is just a macho thing to do.
- Kevin Drum itemizes what Republicans have accomplished so far this year. It isn't a very impressive list.
- Ed Kilgore says that as much as Republicans want to do away with Obamacare, they want even more to snuff out Planned Parenthood. I wonder if any of them have ever thought, "Hey, I know how to get rid of Planned Parenthood! Let's set up and properly fund a big organization that does everything Planned Parenthood does for women except abortion!"
- Steve Benen writes about how Trump is running his administration more like a TV show than a division of government. He's especially concerned with "casting," making sure his people at least look like the right people. This may be so but how do you explain Stephen Miller?
I assume you all saw Jon Stewart on with Stephen Colbert last night. He was scolding the press for not doing its job and I couldn't help but think, "Some of them might be doing a better job if you were on TV more regularly."