New week, next on the mechanical bull.
The big news of the day is Trump's utter clusterfuck of how he handled Charlottesville. While everyone else and their mother distanced themselves from racist domestic terrorists, Trump managed to spend three days avoiding any negative comments about the Alt-Right, read a weak-kneed response that he didn't want to read that didn't really condemn anything, and ended the day floating the idea of pardoning Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was recently convicted for violating court orders multiple times in his extremely racist persecution of hispanics in Arizona.
Condemning Nazis is a political gimme. It's the Empty Net Goal of politics. You say "Nazi bad, violence bad, America good" and call it a day. What Trump did was turn around, fire it at his own goalie, cross check him away from the rebound, shoot it in, then tomahawk slash everyone on his team.
Almost like Donald Trump is an actual, honest to goodness racist.
John Schindler released This Article going in depth about the ties between Russia and the Neo-Nazis. Very interesting.
It took Trump three days to release a half-hearted rebuke against Neo-Nazis, but about an hour to attack Kenneth Frazier, CEO of Merck, for stepping down from Trump's business group in defiance of Trump's inaction on Charlottesville. Ken is black. He also attacked the media and Democrats for the violence.
WaPo released this story About Staff Members Looking to Work With Russia. This shows intent from the Russians, as well as some staff being cautious. Keep in mind, these were emails released by the Trump Campaign. They'll try to spin it as if this is all there is. Interesting note is the date of some of these emails, April 27. The same day of the Mayflower Meeting with Trump, Sessions, Kushner, and Ambassador Kislyak, this particular staffer talks about how Putin wants to meet face to face with Trump. A little too particular for my taste.
Trump interrupted his vacation by returning to the White House for half a day in the middle of a renovation. Reddit was theorizing why. One weird one could be that he was in town for an interview with Mueller's team, or even testifying in front of a grand jury. I don't think it's likely, but Bill Clinton did so over a secured line from the Oval Office. Weirder things have happened.
North Korea was quiet today, but expect something later this week.
Anti-hate protests are heating up across the country. Stay safe out there.
The CEO for Under Armour, Kevin Plank, just joined Kenneth Frazier and Elon Musk in leaving Trump's manufacturing council. Let's see how long until Trump attacks the white guy.
Trump's approval ratings are slipping. Gallup has him at 34-61% approval vs disapproval. That is 34%, polled before Charlottesville and his cowardly response. This is record low territory in a good economy, low gas prices, no disasters, and no military action. Expect to see more Republicans distance themselves from him. If that rating hits 25%, the pressure to remove him will be smothering.
Mueller wants to interview people in the West Wing, including Reince Preibus. That could explain some of the noise.
Jared Kushner could be tied up in a bribery case in Israel. The billionaire he was working with was arrested today. Part of that includes money laundering via real estate.
Fuck, just Read this.
The last few items was basically a live blogging of Rachel Maddow. I highly recommend watching her program. She does what I attempt to do here, but she's much better at it.
That better be it for tonight.
None of this is Normal 