Idiocracy

Just in from Pew Research: Most Americans (70%) say they would not be particularly bothered if they heard people speak a language other than English in a public place, including 47% who say they would not be bothered at all. Still, a sizable share (29%) says this would bother them at least some. According to the new survey, 47 percent …

The New York Times reports: Printouts from Mr. Trump’s official Internal Revenue Service tax transcripts, with the figures from his federal tax form, the 1040, for the years 1985 to 1994 — represents the fullest and most detailed look to date at the president’s taxes, information he has kept from public view. Though the information does not cover the tax …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump for months has griped, complained and tweeted about what he says is the unfair Russia “witch hunt” investigation that has consumed nearly half of his presidency. Now, the president has floated a possible solution: two bonus years. White House officials and others close to the president said he was joking and is not serious …

ABC News reports: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday praised the Arctic region — and its rapidly shrinking levels of sea ice — for its economic opportunities, despite continued warnings about the catastrophic effects of climate change. “The Arctic is at the forefront of opportunity and abundance,” Pompeo said in remarks in Rovaniemi, Finland. “It houses 13 percent of …

Roll Call reports: President Donald Trump issued an executive order today that directed the Department of Homeland Security to work with the Office of Management and Budget to create a rotational program that will “serve as a mechanism for knowledge transfer” across agencies. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of DHS, along with OMB and other agencies will also …

Fox News dutifully reports: Nancy Pelosi won’t be stockpiling this swag. President Trump’s post-Mueller-report victory lap includes new merchandise such as $30 “Collusion Delusion” T-shirts and “Witch Hunt!” mugs. Buyers are also snatching up white tees that reproduce Trump’s March 24, 1:42 p.m. tweet following Attorney General William Barr’s announcement of his summary of Mueller’s findings: “Complete and Total EXONERATION.” …

Mediaite reports: President Donald Trump is calling for Fox News to take one of the networks biggest critics off their air, in a Sunday morning retweet of Twitter User @HH41848213, aka “HowardH” who joined Twitter in 2016 and has roughly 235 followers until today. Donald Trump’s use of Twitter has flouted previous presidential decorum for years. But the retweeting of …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Sunday blamed “political correctness” for the decision to disqualify the Kentucky Derby’s first-place finisher, claiming that the best horse did not win. “Country House,” a horse with just 65-1 odds to win, was named the winner on Saturday in the annual event’s first-ever “inquiry ruling.” Race officials made the decision after disqualifying “Maximum Security” …

“Bill Barr is so far up Trump’s ass he bumped into Hannity. So Barr went before the Senate this week, on Wednesday, and the Democrats looked all so happy after they gave him a good grilling. But I think they missed the big picture. Trump is still President and the big gotcha was they got Barr to commit perjury, which …

The Huffington Post reports: Donald Trump went on yet another wild retweet rampage Saturday morning. He also attacked the media, shared a tweet with an Islamophobic caption and promoted a Trump Organization-owned golf course. Trump began the spree at 9 a.m. when he shared a video from far-right conspiracy-monger Alex Jones’ Infowars website, which itself has been banned or suspended …

Glorious Leader is ending his week of 200+ tweets by raging about the latest crop of far-right extremists to be banned from various social media platforms. This whining comes hours after his eldest son made similar complaints. As those of us who attended a fifth grade civics class know, freedom of speech doesn’t apply when it comes to private companies. …

The Washington Post reports: Donald Trump Jr. on Friday charged that Facebook had engaged in a “purposeful & calculated silencing of conservatives” online, a day after the social-networking giant permanently banned far-right figures and organizations including Alex Jones, the host of InfoWars. While Trump Jr. did not mention Jones or others by name, the president’s eldest son broadly said that …

The Daily Beast reports: Blackwater founder Erik Prince arranged for political activist James O’Keefe’s conservative group Project Veritas to receive more than one round of “training in intelligence and elicitation techniques,” The Intercept reports. In 2016, the self-styled “guerrilla journalist” group reportedly got lessons from a retired military intelligence operative. The training lasted several weeks and ended with the operative, …

Yahoo News reports: Conservative YouTubers Diamond & Silk, who are also “Fox Nation personalities,” were brought on Fox & Friends to talk about why Cohen stepped out of line by bringing a range of poultry-themed visual gags to the hearing to ridicule the attorney general’s cowardice. “He’s racially insensitive, that’s what I think,” said Lynette Hardaway, with no further explanation. …

The New York Times reports: President Trump said he would not nominate Stephen Moore for a seat on the Federal Reserve board after several Republican lawmakers raised concerns about the conservative economist’s previous comments denigrating women. Mr. Moore, who continued to insist as recently as Thursday that he retained Mr. Trump’s support, appeared unlikely to win Senate confirmation after Republican …

Mediaite reports: Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) brought props to the House Judiciary Committee hearing that Attorney General William Barr cancelled on: a ceramic chicken and a jumbo bucket of KFC. The spin House Democrats want to convey is clear: that Barr is too scared to appear for questioning on his handling of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and report. Rep. …

Reuters reports: Florida’s legislature on Wednesday passed a bill allowing teachers to carry guns in the classroom, expanding a program launched after the deadly high school shooting in Parkland with the aim of preventing another such massacre. Florida’s House of Representatives voted 65 to 47 to pass the bill after hours of debate over two days in which the Republican …

The Daily Beast reports: Donald Trump went on a wild retweet frenzy Wednesday morning, sharing 60 apparently supportive messages from firefighters after a prominent union announced its endorsement of former Vice President Joe Biden. The retweet rampage was unusual in itself, but the twist came when one of his supposed supporters changed their username to “Fuck Donald Trump.” The username …

The New York Daily News reports: Kimberly Guilfoyle — a former Fox News host and girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr. — has joined President Trump’s reelection campaign as a senior adviser, the campaign said on Monday. Guilfoyle, who had been serving as the vice chairwoman of a pro-Trump super PAC, was selected for the position as a crowded field of …

Josh Israel reports at Think Progress: The International Association of Fire Fighters, a labor union representing more than 300,000 firefighters and emergency medical service providers, endorsed Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign on Monday. Fox and Friends host Brian Kilmeade apparently found this very concerning. In a Monday morning interview with the union’s general president, Harold Schaitberger, Kilmeade repeatedly demanded …