Haven't done one of these for a while. Trump doing something harmful and outrageous is feeling less and less like news. It's like getting up each morning, as I often do, to find that raccoons have pooped in my back yard. (There are times when it seems like they're coming from all over the city to do this. I've started leaving out Cottonelle for the dear creatures.)
Here are some articles I've read in the last twenty-four hours or so about what's going on in Trumpworld…
- Here's a piece Fred Kaplan wrote about National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster. Assuming McMaster is fired, as most are assuming, we're going to be hearing a lot about that firing for months after.
- Matt Yglesias has finally found an issue on which Democrats and Republicans can agree: We all hate Mitch McConnell.
- Jonathan Chait suggests a possible reason that Donald Trump is behaving like a very guilty man. That possible reason does not seem to have occurred to many of his supporters.
- I'm thinking of making everyone in my life sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement where if they say something about me I don't like, they have to pay me $10 million dollars. But I'll wait to see how well that works out for Mr. Trump.
- Daniel Larison believes, as I do, that the Iraq War was a serious mistake and a serious crime. Alas, too many people just don't accept the premise that the United States doesn't make serious mistakes (except maybe when your political opponents are in power) and our leaders don't commit serious crimes.
- Sinan Antoon, a native of Iraq, tells what it was like from his perspective.
- I think I disagree with articles like this one that says Trump lies to his base because he thinks they're stupid. I think he lies to them because he understands that they emotionally like the results they think they're getting so they'll play along with him. Back when President Obama's position was that he was kinda/sorta against Gay Marriage, a lot of us played along with that because we sensed he was playing a long-term game that would eventually get us what we wanted on that issue.
- Amy Davidson Sorkin is trying to figure out why Trump is playing the Stormy Daniels case the way he's playing it. We may understand that better when we find out what it is he's trying to stop her from revealing. I'm guessing it's that in the heat of passion, he shouted out his own name and then fired her.
- And Paul Krugman discusses how Trump is surrounding himself with people who believe that if tax cuts for the rich don't help the economy…try, try again.
I assume you all watched John Oliver last Sunday or that you've caught one of the replays. In these Times of Trump, we are very fortunate to have a man who can find that much humor in that much bad news.