Year: 2018

Johnson Says Response to Russian Election Interference Was ‘Out of Proportion’

Buck Banks

“I’ve been pretty upfront that the election interference — as serious as that was, and unacceptable — is not the greatest threat to our democracy. We’ve blown it way out of proportion.”

— Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), back from a trip to Moscow, saying that Congress “went too far in punishing Russia for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election,” Roll Call reports.

Republican National Committee Has Already Contacted 20 Million Voters

Buck Banks

20 million

“The RNC told NBC News it has already made 20 million traditional voter contacts by phone or door knocking this election cycle, a large number for a non-presidential election year. … That’s just part of the total 487 million contacts it says it has already made this cycle, including emails opened (250 million), calls made for data gathering purposes (183 million), digital petitions or surveys completed (19 million), direct mail sent (9.6 million), and get-out-the-vote calls made (5.6 million).”

Trump Has Upped His Lying Game

Buck Banks

14.3/day

“Until this month, President Trump had not made more than 60 false claims in any single week of his presidency. He has now made 100 false claims in each of the last two weeks,” the Toronto Star reports. “After shattering his old record by uttering an astonishing 103 false claims two weeks ago, an average of 14.7 per cent, Trump delivered precisely 100 false claims last week, an average of 14.3 per day.”

GOP Candidate Claims Christendom Under Attack

Buck Banks

“We are being told that Western civilization is the problem in the world. Outside of Western civilization there is only barbarism. … Our Judeo-Christian ethic is what is civilization. And that is what is under attack here and abroad. It also goes by a different name. Christendom. It’s under attack. And even speaking about it can bring you under attack. It has brought me under attack.”

— Kansas state Sen. Steve Fitzgerald (R), who is running for Congress, told a group of Republicans that “outside of Western civilization there is only barbarism,” CNN reports.

Government Can’t Find the Parents of 38 Detained Children

Buck Banks

38

Government lawyers said that “they cannot locate the parents of 38 migrant children under the age of 5, as a federal judge indicated he is open to extending the deadline for reuniting nearly 3,000 children separated from their mothers and fathers while crossing the US-Mexico border,” NBC News reports. “For 19 children, their parents have been released from custody into the U.S. and their whereabouts are unknown. The parents of another 19 children have been deported.”

‘Trump’s Trojan Horse,’ a Poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Buck Banks

Trump’s Trojan Horse
by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Homer didn’t live long enough
To tell of Trump’s White House
Which is his Trojan horse
From which all the president’s men
Burst out to destroy democracy
And install corporations
As absolute rulers of the world
Ever more powerful than nations
And it’s happening as we sleep
Bow down, oh Common Man
Bow down!

There’s a Partisan Patriotism Gap

Buck Banks

76 percent

Overall, the YouGov poll found that 76 percent of Americans consider themselves “very” or “somewhat” patriotic. But between Republicans and Democrats, there were pretty big differences: A whopping 97 percent of Republicans placed themselves in the “very” or “somewhat” categories, compared with 71 percent of Democrats. That’s a gap of 26 percentage points. Even more starkly, 72 percent of Republicans consider themselves to be “very” patriotic (the highest level of patriotism), compared with 29 percent of Democrats — a 43-point gap.