Comment on Mike's Blog Roundup

You know how Big Money Media always refers to Justice John Roberts as "the moderate one?" I don't think we're gonna hear that again after these leaks of confidential memos written by Robert were revealed by The New York Times. Via the Daily Beast: The court’s Chief Justice John Roberts was clear to his fellow justices in February: He wanted the court to take up a case weighing Donald Trump’s right to presidential immunity—and he seemed inclined to protect the former president. “I think it likely that we will view the separation of powers analysis differently,” Roberts wrote to his Supreme Court peers, according to a private memo obtained by the Times.

Jamie Raskin, the Democrats' top investigator in the House, already has a pretty clear idea of what probes his committee will pursue if his party retakes the House majority. Raskin is particularly well positioned as his panel, the House Oversight Committee, gradually has become the House's go-to investigative body. Via Axios: Raskin told Axios in an interview that Democrats would "probably have a pretty good start based on everything we've been asking the Republicans to look into, that they refuse to do." That includes hearings on longstanding policy issues such as gun control, climate change and Supreme Court ethics, with the goal of persuading the public of the merits of policy action, he said. Raskin said he also would likely pursue Trump-focused investigations. Those could include issues such as the business dealings of former President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and Trump's business operations when he was in the White House, to help craft anti-corruption legislation.read more

Lawrence O'Donnell recently pointed a finger at a familiar source that always seems to give Donald Trump the benefit of a good "sane-washing"--a new phrase that perfectly captures how our media makes Trump seem not nearly as Incoherent. Weird. Crazy. Creepy. F*king nuts. The familiar source is the NY Times, the worst offender (there are others, like WaPo, AP, NPR, CNN and even hosts on Lawrence's own network earlier in the day) in taking Trump's hateful rhetoric, cognitive impairment, endless gibberish & serial lies and making it seem like he slightly exaggerated or lost his train of thought--or, let's be honest, even had a a f*king point. Stephanie Miller & Cliff Schecter--with some mockery and laughter tossed in--provide a great analysis of how with someone as mentally deranged as Trump, our media's making him palatable to low-info voters, who may catch a cable clip at the gym or headline in passing, turns a 20% loser into legit contender.

Mary Trump, a clinical psychologist who is Donald Trump's niece, told MSNBC that her uncle has "severe untreated psychiatric disorders." In an interview on Sunday, Mary Trump reflected on her uncle's recent debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. "She inflicted upon him a narcissistic injury so deep he will never recover from it, but I'm actually not being hyperbolic," she explained.

You Might Notice a Trend: The prelude to dangerous days. The Ink: Kamala won by being all the things. Constant Commoner: Something wicked this way comes – Trump in 2016. Just an Earth-Bound Misfit, I: Never interrupt your opponent while he's making a mistake. Governing: Another school shooting; another failure of gun policy. This installment by Batocchio.

Let’s pick up in Miami-Dade where we left off a couple months ago, when we saw an obvious legislative “flip opportunity” for the hard-pressed Democrats to pick up. Remember, Florida’s severely gerrymandered House has 84 Republicans and just 36 Democrats— a Democratic “Super-Minority”that has engendered Stockholm Syndrome in Tallahassee. HD-113 is a nice blue district in southern Miami-Dade that includes Key Biscayne, Dodge Island, Shenandoah, part of Little Havana and the part of Coconut Grove.