I was taken by surprise at the short-term deal that Donald Trump made with the Democratic leaders to extend the debt ceiling and the budget financing until December 8, 2017. Both those issues had faced September deadlines and I thought that Trump would refuse to pass ‘clean’ bills that accomplished just those things and would use them as a threat to shut down the government if he did not get funding for his wall or get the tax cuts for the rich that he and the Republicans want so dearly.
[Read more…]

John Oliver says that the way that Donald Trump’s DACA decision played out shows how Trump speaks when he has no idea what he is doing.

He reviews the various developments in the last week from the awful to the cringe-worthy, throwing the feckless Republican leadership into the mix.

The former Mexican president turns out to have quite the comedy chops. He has produced some memorable digs using salty language at Donald Trump and his plans to build the wall, but now he goes further and says that he is going to run for US president in 2020. He makes the announcement in this campaign video where he discusses his platform and his strategy for winning.
[Read more…]

Hillary Clinton is on a book tour to promote her new memoir. As is her custom, she is charging high prices for the privilege of listening to her and rich people get to get close to her by paying a higher price. Given the fact that her practice of selling access haunted her during the campaign, and that surely she must not need money anymore given her wealth, why she keeps feeding the image of being greedy is incomprehensible.
[Read more…]