An important New York Times story yesterday explained how President Trump embraces conspiracy theories to distract from his own corruption. Here are just a few of his favorites:
- The U.S. government’s prior knowledge of 9/11
- Mueller’s election meddling
- The Obama Administration wiretapping Trump Tower
And now: “Spygate.”
To their credit, some Republican representatives in Congress and even Fox News hosts are bluntly debunking Trump’s latest scam claiming that an FBI “spy” was implanted in his campaign. But as Meet the Press illustrated on Sunday, the “Spygate” distraction had already served its purpose.
Even worse, Trump’s conspiracies and racist rhetoric create a permissive space for other racists and conspiracy theorists (as evidenced by Ambien victim Roseanne Barr).
To have the President of the United States sowing this false, divisive rhetoric from the Oval Office is disturbing and destructive to our democracy, and it needs a real check in Congress.
ACTION OF THE DAY
#HandsOffSNAP. The House of Representatives is planning another vote on the 2018 Farm Bill, which will strip food assistance from 2 million Americans. Go to HandsOffSNAP.org and tell your member of Congress to vote against the Farm Bill.
STEPPING FORWARD, FALLING BACK
In a huge victory for women in Ireland, Irish citizens overwhelmingly voted to repeal Ireland’s Eighth Amendment, one of the “most restrictive abortion bans in the developed world.” Irish women living around the globe traveled home to cast this historic vote.
Just days later, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Planned Parenthood of Arkansas v. Jegley. The decision means that there will be only one legal abortion provider in Arkansas.
This should serve as a warning: in this country, you don’t need to repeal Roe to erode women’s reproductive rights. Conservative courts are already chipping away at the right to abortion.
PORN KILLS?
Porn, not guns, is evidently the cause of school shootings, according to Tennessee Rep. Diane Black.
Black jumped on the blame-anything-but-guns bandwagon, calling pornography a “big part of the root cause.” She is the latest in a long line of conservatives blaming mass school shooting on absolutely anything—except guns.