Buenos dias and welcome to another edition of The Sky Isn’t Falling. The only people crying Wolf this week were the poor, pitiful flakes who can’t handle the truth. Happy Seis de Mayo [it’s the day we recover from Cinco de Mayo]
In case you are new, this is a place to leverage good news to offset the bad and to inspire ourselves to fight on. Our focus is on stories that are good for the resistance, the country and the world. Every single time tRump or one of his lackeys puts their foot in their mouth and commences to chew vigorously, the birth rate for fully formed resisters skyrockets. Every nutjob retirement is another enabler sent back to the fiery pit of republican recriminations. Every new scandal is another rallying cry for justice.
Pessimism or its handmaiden pessimistic realism have their place. This isn’t that place. If that is your intention, I’d appreciate it if you started Crappy News Conclave instead of trying to hijack this space.
Don’t forget to check out oldhippiedude’s Tweets ‘o the Week later on today and tune in again tomorrow at 7AM when Jessiestaf brings us Monday’s Good News Roundup.
Resist. Vote. Indict or Impeach. Imprison.
There was a lot of good news out there. Let’s get to it.
The Cold Open
If you could watch one SNL cold open this week, this would be the one.
The Breaking Good News
Is there trouble in the Bizarro White House Press Office? Sarah “Donnie’s Huckleberry” Sanders prefers to lie only if she’s sure she’s lying. Those other ‘accidental’ lies are just to much to bear. Business Insider: Sarah Sanders was reportedly so frustrated over being kept in the dark during the Rob Porter scandal that she publicly 'cursed and yelled' at the White House counsel.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was so frustrated over being kept in the dark at the height of the scandal surrounding former staff secretary Rob Porter that she publicly blew up at the White House counsel Don McGahn, The Washington Post reported.
A dozen West Wing staffers heard the "shouting match" that erupted between Sanders and McGahn in February, according to The Post. It reportedly stemmed from Sanders' anger over not being given enough information about the domestic abuse allegations that had just surfaced against Porter at the time.
Rudy is in the news and not in a good way. CNN: Rudy Giuliani, America's mayor, has jumped the shark.
Giuliani certainly seemed to relish the spotlight in his second act as political surrogate and legal counselor to President Donald Trump. And recognizing the friendly venue, he attacked the usual suspects -- "criminal" Hillary Clinton and "very perverted man" James Comey. He even made an odd, easily disproven
pronouncement -- as in no US president had ever been subpoenaed.
In one particularly loopy sequence, he
described Jared Kushner as a "fine man" but "disposable." Regarding the President's daughter Ivanka Trump -- "a fine woman" -- he warned special counsel Robert Mueller that investigating her would turn the country against him.
The Center for Investigative Reporting has been around for 40 years now. They’ve won some journalism awards and most of us have never heard of them. Now they are looking to crowdsource hate reporting. It’s an intriguing idea. The more light we direct at the haters and the quicker we do it, the better we make our country. Let’s not leave the bigots any safe scurry holes.
We recently completed a big project outlining how, across the country, people have been invoking the name of President Donald Trump in hate speech and hate-fueled attacks.
Reporting that story, we interviewed dozens of people of different ages, races, religions and sexual identities. By scouring the Documenting Hate database, we heard experiences that we, as individuals, never have lived or even fully understood. By listening to so many voices, we heard a pattern, and that pattern became an investigation, which then became a story.
…
So, we’re frequently going to be including a new section in this report called Help Wanted. This is exactly what it sounds like – a call for contributions of time, research, knowledge, data, contacts, sources and ideas from you, our readers. This is part of an effort we’re a part of called Join the Beat. It’s a collaboration between a bunch of news organizations, organized by the Membership Puzzle Project, to harness the crowd to make beat reporting better.
The Stoneman Douglas kids are still active. I wonder what they have planned for the summer. In the meantime, there’s still fallout to process. Nick Isgro, the mayor of Waterville, Maine tweeted “Eat it, Hogg” at David Hogg. I suspect he wishes the could eat his words right about now. Yahoo News: Republican Mayor Who Taunted David Hogg To Now Face A Recall Vote
Former Waterville Mayor Karen Heck, a Democrat who previously endorsed Isgro, along with residents Hilary Koch and Jim Chiddix, spearheaded the recall effort.
statement to the Morning Sentinel on Thursday." data-reactid="12">The petition’s creators said the effort “has revealed how many Waterville citizens are concerned that Mayor Isgro is no longer able to fulfill the duty of acting as a good ambassador for Waterville,” in a statement to the Morning Sentinel on Thursday.
“He has failed to show leadership, accept responsibility for his actions, and has contributed to the divisiveness in our community,” the statement said.
Cameron Kasky tore into tRump for his NRA remarks Huffington Post: Parkland Survivor Rips ‘Professional Liar’ Donald Trump Over NRA Speech
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Cameron Kasky called Trump a “professional liar” who will “say anything to appease whatever crowd he’s at” in an interview on CNN’s “New Day” on Saturday morning.
“If he’s in front of families he might say something in support of commonsense gun reform,” said Kasky. “But then when he’s at the NRA, he’ll say something to get a big cheer.”
This Was the Week That Was
A lesson in how to mix a metaphor. As the birds of prey circle the plump flailing tRump pigeon, he’s feeling increasingly squeezed. I think I heard his tiny balls pop from way over here.
There’s a giant millipede out there dropping shoes faster than lies erupt out of Kellyanne’s mouth.
Legal Peril
There are at least 6 active civil lawsuits: Summer Zervos, Stormy Daniels, Andrew McCabe, Karen McDougal, Washington DC, Maryland
Daily Beast: Summer Zervos Subpoenas ‘Apprentice’ Archives in Lawsuit
Mother Jones: Trump’s Tweet About Stormy Daniels Backfired, and Now She’s Suing for Defamation
Law & Crime: McCabe’s Attorney Thanked Trump for Tweet Helping Possible Defamation Lawsuit
Politico: Ex-Playboy model will sue Trump if he calls her a liar, her attorney says
Rolling Stone: A Brief Survey of President Trump's Biggest Personal Lawsuits
There are at least three active criminal investigations: the SDNY (Cohen), Mueller (Papaflipolous, Gate), Schneiderman (tRump Foundation, Sekulow)
Time: Trump Lawyer Michael Cohen Hit With $282,000 in Back Taxes for His Taxi Business
New York: Has Michael Cohen Already Flipped on Donald Trump?
The Hill: Mueller requests 70 blank subpoenas in Manafort case
Daily Beast: Rod Rosenstein on House GOP Impeachment Threat: I Will Not Be Extorted
New York Times: New York Attorney General Seeks Power to Bypass Presidential Pardons
Newsweek: Trump vs. Mueller: Is the American Legal System Any Match for the President?
And the administration is on the receiving end of a leaky supertanker full of lawsuits too numerous to list with over 100 filings from New York alone.
Bornstein
Donnie’s very own physician made it back into the news with another potential crime to lay at tRump’s tiny feet. Toronto Star: Former Trump doctor Harold Bornstein ‘frightened and sad’ after office raid
Rudy
Ghouliani clambered out of his coffin, slathered on truth block SPF 9000 and appeared on Hannity’s American Horrors show. A plausible case can be made that he proceeded to demolish tRump and Cohen’s nonexistent credibility so he could distract the media from missiles being sold to the Ukraine so they’d stop cooperating with Mueller.
Vox: Ukraine cut off cooperation with Mueller to curry favor with Trump
With just one more clarification and Giuliani will have surrounded Ms Daniels. He will have fulfilled his fondest political ambition — being on all sides of an issue at the same time. He’s done the flip, the flop, the flap, the flail and the flummox. Next up is the flush.
Rudy and Donnie are having fun taking turns parking the Alternate Facts Tour bus on top of each other.
Washington Post: Trump acknowledges his lawyer was reimbursed after payment to Stormy Daniels
Washington Post: We filed a complaint about Trump’s ethics. Giuliani made it possible.
Daily Beast: ‘Was He Supposed To Do That?’: White House Scrambles as Rudy Giuliani ‘Pulls a Trump’
Mother Jones: Giuliani Attempts to Clean Up Explosive Statements on Trump’s Stormy Daniels Payment
The 49 Questions
Legend has it that on October 31, 1517 Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle church. On April 30th, 2018, just over 500 years later, an anonymous tRump sycophant mailed Mueller’s supposed 49 questions to The New York Times. The similarities stop there. tRump has tried to use the own-leak (a political own goal) to try to cast aspersions on the investigation into his bloated corrupt self-dealing pretend presidency. ‘Aspersion’ isn’t the right word. We’re talking about a steroid fueled caricature of a fantasy of a baseless charge, covered in poorly applied makeup and sporting an extra layer of smokey eye shadow. No matter how often he does it, the republican base still believes him when he promises “just the tip”. [Too much? “The tax reform scam check is in the mail” just wasn’t harsh enough. Sorry]
New York Times: What Mueller Wants to Ask Trump About Obstruction, and What It Means
Other News
The NRA has a bullseye painted on their finances. CNN: Exclusive: NRA gathers documents amid scrutiny over ties to Kremlin-linked banker
The tax cut scam continues to unravel. Raw Story: Here are 6 times Republicans have accidentally told the ugly truth about their tax cuts
It looks like medicaid expansion will pass in Virginia. Huffington Post: Virginia Is On The Verge Of Giving Health Coverage To 400,000, But There’s A Catch
Being a white supremacist is not a get out of jail free card. Daily Beast: 57 Indicted in White Supremacist Meth and Kidnapping Scheme and Newsweek: Charlottesville White Supremacist Found Guilty of Brutal Attack on Black Man and also Raw Story: Second white supremacist found guilty in group attack on a black man in Charlottesville
If he still has any deficit hawk supporters, this news should a least give them some existential angst. USA Today: U.S. Treasury says first-quarter borrowing set record of $488 billion
The two men wrongfully arrested at Starbucks have settled with Starbucks and sparked Philadelphia to start a young entrepreneurs program. AP: Black men arrested at Starbucks settle with city, company
Mandy Manning really earned her Teacher of the Year Award in the classroom. At The White House she earned a resistance prize. The Guardian: US teacher of the year stages silent protest as Trump awards prize. There was also a speech that didn’t happen when it should have. Raw Story: Watch: Teacher of the year reads the speech Trump banned on Van Jones
Some Democrats reared up on their hind legs and howled down the forced birthers in South Carolina. Daily Kos: SC Democrats kill SC Senate GOP's abortion ban with days-long filibuster!
RedState recently went through a purge of never-trumpers. The expectation was that the conservative conscience would be silenced. Looks like there’s still at least one hold out. RedState: American Conservatives Have a Raging Hypocrisy Problem
The sitting governor of Missouri is vying for the tRumpian Chair of Sex and Corruption at tRump U. In addition to the previous charges -- The Kansas City Star: Greitens lied about and misused charity donor list, report says. Unlike that other criminal fiasco in Washington DC, in Missouri even his fellow republicans aren’t supporting him. CNN: Missouri lawmakers seeking special session for impeachment proceedings against Greitens
This is most assuredly not good news. It’s bad news for a lot of farmers. My hope is that it is really bad news for republicans and their hurtful thoughtless policies. Bloomberg: China Shunning U.S. Soybeans on Trade Tensions, Bunge CEO Says. Supporting and enabling an uprepared, unqualified, unscrupulous Bleater-in-Chief to capriciously destroy lives and businesses is worse than unconscionable; it’s traitorous. [Disclosure: I co-own some farm property that grows soybeans and corn]
Musical Interlude
Nothing topical today. Just a very nice ballad from an under-appreciated musician (outside of Austin, Texas). I hope you like it. To the person who taught me about the Roy Smeck Stage Deluxe: Please share that bit of backstory in the comments.
SS Pruitaintia
The opposite of the Good Ship Lollipop is the SS Pruitaintia. It ran aground in a shoal of corruption and is now being self-torpedoed by more corruption just off the coast of Oklahoma.
Scott Pruitt is so openly corrupt that Vladimir Putin is jealous. Here’s a sampling of just some of the accusations surrounding Scottie, the Oklahoma Grifter.
This is what happens when some ill-informed bigots in three states drink their ‘Drain the Swamp’ Koolaid and promote a loud mouthed money launderer to Rezident of the United States.
Reuters: U.S. lawmakers seek details from EPA chief on fuel economy rule changes
AP: 2 top aides leave EPA amid ethics investigations
Denver Post: EPA fails public in lack of transparency on Superfund changes
ABC: EXCLUSIVE: EPA whistleblower says Pruitt 'lied' to Congress
The Hill: Prominent conservative helped plan, joined in Pruitt trip to Rome: report
The Atlantic: A Pruitt Aide's Attack on Zinke Angers the White House
Daily Kos: The EPA's strategy to take the heat off Scott Pruitt ... plant a story about Ryan Zinke
Daily Kos: Scott Pruitt wants to build an EPA office in his hometown—with all the craziness he brought to DC
The Hill: CNN panel breaks down laughing while discussing Pruitt allegations
USA Today: Report: EPA's Scott Pruitt went on $100K Morocco trip partially arranged by lobbyist
Sunday Funnies
“It’s vulgar and it begins with a ‘P’ -— President?”
A comment from Thursday’s GNR reminded me to include some Capitol Steps.
Bornstein dishes on Donnie.
What I Really Think. An NNNE Editorial
If you would indulge me, I’d like to take a moment away from my unbiased reporting of news to make a point about how news is covered.
I’m frustrated by the way we allow his enablers to frame the brutish dotard’s behavior. When tRump repeats a lie or outlandish proposal, the media reports that he is doubling down. They use a gambling metaphor to explain his behavior and since a lot of people gamble that choice of framing has an inherent bias that it’s ok to do what he did. A more accurate framing would be: once again tRump has slaughtered the truth, committed another murder to cover up that crime and then spent a couple of days desecrating the corpse. By using murder as the metaphorical framing for the behavior we make clear that it’s not ok. Using crime, illness, conquest, war, famine or death as the metaphorical vehicles to explain tRump’s actions can impact the debate.
One of our jobs as citizen reporters (and resisters?) is to not let sloppy framing normalize the abnormal hurtful garbage geysering out of the Koch-tRump propaganda machine. Push back wherever and whenever you can. They aren’t telling little white lies. They are broadcasting life destroying, pants on fire, certified 100% bullshit, big ass LIES and pretending they’ve done nothing wrong.
So how do we push back? The first thing is to learn to recognize it. After that talking about what they are doing with our friends and fellow resisters raises awareness. Directly objecting to framing that normalizes unethical behavior on facebook, on twitter, in letters to the editor or face-to-face has an effect. I still tell people “That wasn’t locker room talk. He was advocating criminal assault” every time I get the chance. I’ve seen push back on framing directly affect votes during canvassing efforts in PA-18. I’m sure there are lots of ways to push back I haven’t thought of yet. If you have any ideas please share them in the comments.
If the theory of metaphor interests you, I highly recommend George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s book Metaphors We Live By, University of Chicago Press, 1980. It had quite the impact on me back in my distant past. Amazon or Powell’s
Now back to our regularly scheduled diatribe.
Shameless Cat Porn
Today’s Quote(s)
There’s speaking truth to power and then there’s speaking truth to media. We need more of both.
The press has bravely and nobly eroded the public trust... What I'm advocating is the media come work for us again. Remove themselves from the symbiotic relationship that they have developed with the power structure of corporations and of the politicians. — Jon Stewart
The biases the media has are much bigger than conservative or liberal. They're about getting ratings, about making money, about doing stories that are easy to cover. — Al Franken
I think what no one in this room wants to admit is that Trump has helped all of you. He couldn’t sell steaks, or vodka, or water, or college, or ties, or Eric—but he has helped you. He’s helped you sell your papers and your books and your TV. You helped create this monster and now you’re profiting off of him. And if you’re gonna profit off of Trump, you should at least give him some money—because he doesn’t have any. — Michelle Wolf
Finale
The Dead are going to play us out with the legendary Morning Dew from Cornell ‘77
Disclaimer: Good News Roundup and its affiliates are not responsible for any cleanup costs associated with any bladder leaks linked to perusing this material.