Your Daily Trump––Why "Just Kidding" Doesn't Work This Time

Why Trump was not “just joking” about gun owners assassinating Hillary.

An explanation in a series of tweets, from Mother Jones.

Henchman Rudy Giuliani explains it another way: if Trump wanted Hillary killed he’d order it done. Giuliani emphasizes that if he did so he would be doing the right thing. Reported by The Gothamist, with video.

Rolling Stone on the Trump command to fire when ready

Trump’s “shoot my opponent” joke is called Stochastic Terrorism. Unfortunately this is a word his supporters can’t pronounce. From BlueNationReview.

Meanwhile, most elected Republicans are refusing to walk away from Trump, despite everything. At some point we may have to rename Paul Ryan Paul von Hindenburg. For the GOP, though, there is no history prior to Ronald Reagan.

An open letter to Paul Ryan by Kurt Eichenwald in Newsweek sets out the dangerous outcomes Ryan's continued fealty would lead to.

Con games are about numbers that do not add up. Trump’s economic plan is a con. The Economist, the conservative bible of people with money, weighs in

The business-conservative WSJ’s conclusions about the party Trump ate

There’s talk of finding a way to ditch Trump before November and run somebody else instead… [Cue the armed revolt]

From Vox

From Bloomberg and ABCNews

The Atlanta Journal Constitution says a Georgia Elector (as in Electoral College) is considering refusing Trump his Electoral Vote if he wins the state.

The Politics of Unreason

H&RBlock lobbied to make our tax preparations more complicated so the poor would be unable to file their own taxes and H&RBlock would get more customers.

MotherJones reports

Rudy Giuliani looked at homeless people as vermin to be eliminated. This approach was tried once in Germany.

From the New York Times

The NRA used to be a responsible organization favoring the strict regulation of killing machines. That changed.

From VOX

One gun maker actually admitted America has a problem with gun violence. They were severely punished for this moment of reason.

Reported by Frontline/PBS

Americans usually equate Republican and Christian values. How did Christianity go from being on the side of the poor and less fortunate to being against them, working on the side of the rich and powerful?

I guess Jesus preferred rich people, loved war, opposed healing the sick and favored universal gun ownership. I must reread my New Testament. Maybe it’s in the Revised Standard Version.

From Salon, an article on the unChristianity of Christians today

The Republican half of our politics has become unhinged––but not like an eccentric neighbor we can tolerate and find amusing. (I’m one of those.) They’ve become the insane neighbor with the vicious dogs and the arsenal of weapons. He sics his dogs on kids who set foot on his grass. It’s the house where we hear shouting and crying late at night. Do we call the police? Now they want to build a ten foot spite wall along the property line. What do you do when your neighbor is insane?

Their actions affect all of us...

Andy Borowitz reports in this insanity

In 1936 only two states voted against FDR. Vermont and Maine. Two years later the Republican governor of Vermont had had it with the Republican Party and said so. The GOP was moderate then compared to now…

Bill Moyers takes a look back

Letter to George Will

(George Will gave some advice to Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker about the stupidity of science denial. Which prompted me to write this letter.)

Mr. Will,

I sympathize with your situation, having to advise a Republican frontrunner to acknowledge science and reality. It must be embarrassing.

John McCain corrected a woman in the crowd during his campaign who said Obama was a Muslim. Then it seemed the only rational thing to do.

The problem is the Republican Party has spent the years since then catering to this same ignorant prejudice. Actually they’ve been doing it longer, if you consider Lee Atwater's and Roger Ailes' and Pat Buchanan’s not so subtle dog whistle bigotry. This past week we also have Giuliani’s ugly, ignorant remarks.

Why cater to ignorance? Because it’s worked for you. It’s elected right wing Republicans, each one further right than the last, each one more out of touch with reality. Each one more cynical and dishonest and nutty.

And this has made your party the cynical dishonest nutty bigoted party. It wins elections for you.

Well (and I realize it’s totally wrong to use this analogy) this kind of nutty cynical dishonest bigotry also helped Hitler win elections.

If it works it becomes compulsory? That seems to be the rationale Republicans have imported from the business world. It’s wrong and dangerous in both places. It’s endangering the climate our food supply is based on, it’s endangering our democracy, it’s endangering our economy, it’s endangering our future.

You have a lot of work to do unwinding this.

Of course, if you think it’s more important to carry water for the Republicans in next year’s election… if that’s more important to you and the other commentators on the right, God help us.