We’re Looking For A Few Good Reads

And the week offers us our usual collection of news, for good, bad, and Trump. Among the stories we’re following are:

Over on Vox, we read Trump tells 57,000 Hondurans who’ve lived in the US for 20 years to get out by Dara Lind. It seems that our dear and glorious orange-headed duce is kicking out nearly sixty thousand good Americans who just happen to have been born elsewhere. In effect, Lind notes, Trump plans to turn legal immigrants into “illegal” ones with the stroke of a pen. Wonder how long it will be before he tries to apply the same principle to anyone who voted for Obama.

You know you’re in trouble when even Faux…er, Fox News says you’re a lying bastard. Rebecca Shapiro, writing in Huffpost, notes that Fox News Host Neil Cavuto recently stunned his audience with a scalding, on-the-air attack on Trump. Great Stuff, but we wonder how on earth Cavuto keeps his job in the toxic world of Fox. Maybe he’s their token honest guy, and they keep him around just in case they might need a little integrity someday.

Fun article over on the Guardian. T​he life and times of Steven Seagal​ – from developing aromatherapy oils to attending Putin’s swearing in looks at that great American sinus infection…er, artist, Steven Seagal, who has gone from kickboxing bad guys on TV to palling around with Putin. It’s a very funny piece, and very sad, in that it talks about a man who seems to have fallen into his own myth-making, and gotten lost there.

Fascinating essay in The Atlantic, I’m Not Black, I’m Kanye by the amazing Ta-Nehisi Coates. In it, Coates examines the case of Kanye’s odd embrace of Trump. He does not excuse Kanye, but he does seek to understand and explain him. Well worth a read.

Amusing piece over on Huffpost, Fox News Judicial Analyst Issues Dark Warning To Trump Over Michael Cohen, by Rebecca Shapiro. Seems that even ex-Judge and now Faux News spewer Andrew Napolitano is terrified by the fact that Michael (“I can make you a deal”) Cohen is under indictment. Shapiro quotes Nappy Napolitano as saying, “Why was a Russian billionaire giving a half-a-million dollars to the president’s lawyer at the time the lawyer was paying not only Stormy Daniels but, according to Rudy Giuliani, other women to remain silent about their relationships to the president?” Gee, Andy. You think there just might be a problem in all that?

Meanwhile, Chris Cillizaa, CNN’s Editor-at-large, gives us Donald Trump just accidentally revealed something very important about his ‘fake news’ attacks. Seems that in a recent tweet, the Orange One noted that “The Fake News is working overtime. Just reported that, despite the tremendous success we are having with the economy & all things else, 91% of the Network News about me is negative (Fake). Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?” The kicker? Note that equation: negative news = fake. Meaning that, in der Drumpf’s head, if it doesn’t kiss his ass, it is not true.

Very nice essay on Business Insider this week. Daniella Greenbaum, in
It’s becoming clearer than ever what the Republican Party’s deal with the devil entails, looks at just what it is costing the GOP to embrace Trump. And what is that price? Let’s just quote the Bible. What profiteth a man to gain the whole world…if he loses his soul?

And last but not least, let’s take a moment to give three cheers to Meghan McCain, who is telling Trumpian idiots exactly where they can stick their criticisms of her father, John McCain. Mike Debonis, writing in the Washington Post, notes that she wasn’t shaken by the sneering comments from White House staffer Kelly Sadler and General Thomas McInerney. Indeed, she replied with a cheery and brutally honest evaluation of the two of them. “My father’s legacy is going to be talked about for hundreds and hundreds of years,” she said. “These people? Nothingburgers. Nobody’s going to remember you.”

Funny how the truth hurts.