Month: September 2017

The Best Answer Yet to Trump’s “S.O.B Athletes” Slur

Trish

Dale Hansen is a Dallas sportscaster, which makes him an unlikely champion of protest rights, but he does have a history of being on the right side. His recent commentary is an exquisite combination of disdain (noting that his foot hurt too while he served in the military, a reference to Donald Trump’s Vietnam deferments for a bone spur) and solemnity.

It’s an ill wind that blows no good, and Hansen’s response to Trump, along with many others, might show that if nothing else, Trump is affording us an opportunity to display our better selves as we oppose him.

GOP Governors Launch ‘Fake News’ Site

Buck Banks

“The Republican Governors Association has quietly launched an online publication that looks like a media outlet and is branded as such on social media. The Free Telegraph blares headlines about the virtues of GOP governors, while framing Democrats negatively. It asks readers to sign up for breaking news alerts. It launched in the summer bearing no acknowledgement that it was a product of an official party committee whose sole purpose is to get more Republicans elected. … Only after the Associated Press inquired about the site last week was a disclosure added to The Free Telegraph’s pages identifying the publication’s partisan source.”

— Associated Press

The One Thing Ivanka Is Good For — Ending Meetings

Buck Banks

“Mr. Trump often invites his daughter Ivanka Trump into meetings to signal their conclusion — or to keep his interlocutors off balance. When Ms. Trump entered the office toward the end of the discussion on Wednesday, ostensibly to discuss tax reform, Republicans in the room reacted with astonishment and annoyance. … Mr. McConnell, who is barely on speaking terms with the president, quietly seethed, according to two people familiar with the situation. He breezed past other lawmakers and staff members in purse-lipped silence when he returned to the Capitol.”

— New York Times