Barr is a liar just like his boss

The president gets to appoint his cabinet, subject to Senate approval, and so it is not a surprise when he picks people who favor his policies. But of all the cabinet positions, the attorney general is the one who is expected to be most independent of the president. This is reasonable, since the AG is responsible for the impartial application of the laws and the Department of Justice has immense power over individuals. Unfortunately, it is not unusual for AGs to seek to please the president at the expense of justice but the current AG Bill Barr has been extraordinarily brazen in his efforts to advance Trump’s agenda and to avoid criticizing him even when he advocates illegal actions, such as when Trump recently urged people to vote twice. Trump was supposedly suggesting this to expose the weaknesses of the election system, laying the groundwork for challenging his defeat in November.
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Postmaster General in trouble over straw donors

In the endless procession of Trump cronies indulging in illegalities, the latest is Louis DeJoy, his pick to be Postmaster General who immediately began trying to cripple the US Postal Service. The Republican attempts to hobble this venerable national institution have been long standing even though the framers of the US Constitution explicitly included it in the powers allocated to Congress in that founding document, as laid out in Article 1, Section 8 that reads in part: “To establish post offices and post roads.”
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The deadly consequences of Trump’s magical thinking

From the very beginning of this pandemic, Donald Trump has downplayed the seriousness of it and avoided taking the tough actions required to curb it. Tim Dickinson has compiled a list of the 22 times that Trump has indulged in magical thinking, claiming that the virus would just go away all by itself, because of warmer weather or by some kind of ‘miracle’ or that it was not dangerous or some such nonsense, ignoring the warnings of public health experts that we needed concerted national action, and praising himself relentlessly for his non-action.
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A metaphor for the Trump campaign becomes real

The Republicans now disowning themselves from Trump and the Republicans after helping to create the very climate he has exploited to create the current chaos have been described using the well-worn metaphor of rats deserting a sinking ship. In Austin, Texas, that metaphor came to life.

A spokesperson for the Travis County sheriff’s office in Texas says “several” boats sank Saturday while taking part in a parade in support of President Donald Trump.

“We responded to multiple calls of boats in distress, several of them sank,” but there are no reports of fatalities or injuries and investigators have not determined how many boats sank on the lake near Austin, according to sheriff’s spokesperson Kristen Dark.
…

“We have no reason to suspect foul play in any of these,” sinkings, Dark said.

Dark said weather conditions were generally calm and meteorologist Paul Yura with the National Weather Service in Austin/San Antonio said there were were no storms in the area at the time and winds were generally 10 mph or less.

“The lake should be fairly navigable, without issue at those wind speeds,” according to Yura.

It is not clear how many rats escaped.

Trump’s reckless comments on the military

For US politicians there are two sacred cows: God and the military. Even the stupidest of them know to always say only positive things about either in public. Trump had been particularly assiduous in this, waving the Bible about at photo ops and lavishly praising on the military. So it reflects an incredible level of obtuseness that Trump made derogatory remarks about soldiers who died, were injured, or captured in the many, many wars that the US has engaged in, calling them losers and suckers.
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The end of the NRA?


It seems that the National Rifle Association may be in greater trouble than we thought. New York states attorney general had brought charges against the organization that its top executives , especially Wayne LaPierre had been using its funds as their personal piggy bank to live high on the hog. This at a time when the organization had been losing revenue because of declining membership and had had to make cutbacks to staff benefits.
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