By letting Medicaid cost increases rise slower than the rate of medical inflation, the Senate version of Trumpcare/Ryancare/McConnellcare will eventually destroy Medicaid. But hey, that will set the stage for massive tax cuts on millionaires; as Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are both millionaires (along with their cohort), we shouldn’t be surprised. Oh, and saying that the Republican bill will get people killed for lack of treatment is now hate speech — the kind that got Steve Scalise shot! Presumably totally different from when Republicans screeched about Obamacare death panels, just like the Obama-as-Julius Caesar production was totally different from the Trump Caesar.
•You probably know AG Jeff Sessions wants to go after marijuana, even in states where it’s legal. Turns out he also wants to prosecute medical marijuana because, drugs! We could face a massive increase in crime at some indeterminate time in the future! International drug rings! Plus he saw Reefer Madness once and it really scared him! Okay, I made up that last part, but seriously, what’s his glitch?
•And yet Frank Bruni is worried that Sessions reputation is being unfairly tarnished.
•Education Secretary Betsy DeVos wants to delay rules on for-profit colleges that would make it harder to scam students: taking tuition (heavily backed by federal aid) and not giving them useful skills or education. Some state governments are doing their best to compensate for the lack of federal protection. Oh, DeVos also wants to put the head of a company that originates and refinances student loans in charge of the student aid office.
•Republicans in Congress are doing their best to weaken lots of other protections for consumers.
•As Lance Mannion points out, Republican moderates aren’t what most people consider moderates.
•General Robert E. Lee is held up as the face of the moderate, non-racist part of the Lost Cause. It’s not true.
•The Far Right in Europe is raising funds to interfere with rescue missions saving refugees from drowning on the trip to Europe.
•Trump’s lawyer is claiming that James Comey talking about his conversation with Trump violates executive privilege. It doesn’t.
•DC and Maryland are suing Trump for violating the anti-emoluments clause of the Constitution.
•Sam Brownback, Kansas governor and theocrat who thinks rape is God’s way to give women a baby, has run the state’s economy into the ground. They’ve finally had enough.
•The Russian hacks of our electoral system are looking much more horrifying.
•Speaking of hacks, President Shit Gibbon scoffed during the campaign that it was only the Democratic National Committee that got hacked because he was computer-savvy and told the RNC to prevent that. Apparently they didn’t listen.
•When modifying mortgages, Wells Fargo allegedly added years to the length of the mortgage without telling the homeowner. That led to lots more interest and fees for the bank.
•More right-wing freaking out about the Julius Caesar production that made Caesar look like Trump. Meanwhile, conservatives prove once again how they’re opposed to political violence. Case in point, Trump administration member William Bradford, who thinks legal scholars who aren’t anti-Islam enough are legitimate military targets.
•To end on a cheerful note, here’s New Zealander Taiki Waititi on how to help racism — you don’t have to be openly, horribly racist, just smile at other people’s racism and they’ll know you have their back! (yes, it’s satire. Good satire)
•David Brooks looks back at when Whitewater, rather than email servers, was the issue thrown at the Clintons. He gets the facts wrong (of course he does, he’s Brooks) so he can pretend it was much, much worse than the current Russia revelations.
•A Southern Baptist minister presents a proclamation calling on the Southern Baptist Convention to denounce racism and the alt-right. It ran into trouble.
*Are you a woman? Have you had more than one partner? Online incels (involuntary celibates) say you shouldn’t go to college.
