Day 162: Mika and Joe

Yesterday, Trump went on the attack against the hosts of the Morning Joe, with a particularly misogynistic set of tweets. Today, he's doubled down completely.

• Here's the original outburst, which has been largely pilloried.
• They have responded by alleging blackmail from the administration. Trump has claimed its all a lie, but it appears that Joe and Mika were thorough about documenting everything and saving records of communication. One of the officials involved in the alleged blackmail has been identified as Kushner. Surprised?
• Even Republicans have rounded on Trump over this series of tweets, although they're got nothing more than talk so far.

The fact that this has dominated the news cycle for two days now is a reflection of the sad, sorry state of affairs we find this country in.

In other news:

• A bombshell of a report from the WSJ (alas, paywall) representing the first signs of collusion with Russia regarding election shenanigans. A further update from one of the sources of the WSJ article. This is interesting, and looks like it bears much deeper investigation.
• We have another incredibly questionable nomination from the White House, this time to head the DoJ's Civil Rights division. Apparently this guy has spent his legal career defending civil rights violations. Great. In another nomination, we have an anti-transgender activist nominated for a gender equality position. Every nomination has been with a view to completely dismantle their purview. It's so disgusting and depressing.
• I'm disgusted to report that Trump's travel ban went into effect today.
• The attack on voting rights has begun. In one action, the DoJ just asked every state for information on how they purge their voter rolls. In another, the House appropriations committee just voted to defund the electoral assistance commission. Otherwise, people with long histories of attempting to suppress the vote have been given positions of power on Trump's "electoral integrity commission".
• In addition, Trump's "Electoral Integrity Commission" has just sent out letters to every state asking for a scary amount of information on registered voters. This is not about electoral integrity, this is about voter suppression, and possibly also a national security risk from assimilating all that data in one place under short notice. Some states have already rightly told them to jump in a lake.
• The White House Council on Women and Girls has been dismantled. Because of course it has.
• We have reports that Trump, ignoring the advice of the vast majority of his cabinet, is hell-bent on imposing tariffs and starting a global trade war. Details soon, I guess?
• Pruitt is trying to find a way to disempower the scientific peer review process and circumvent it completely by setting up a new initiative to give climate deniers a microphone in the EPA. This is what arises when an administration doesn't believe in science. It's really scary.
• Trump has called for a simple repeal of Obamacare. Estimates are that that would cost 18 million their health insurance immediately, and 26 million soon thereafter. This guy doesn't care about good governing. He cares about his headlines and nothing else.
• Trump has started rewriting plans to allow for more off-shore drilling in the Arctic and Atlantic. This is incredibly dangerous, likely to do gross environmental damage, and completely ignores climate change.