FairAndUNbalanced.com

 
From Frances Langum:

But this story is NOT about douchebag Dinesh.

It’s about Michael Cohen. And sending him a message to “stay strong” and not flip. (I don’t know how that works if Cohen is facing state charges in New York but maybe Trump forgot about that.) And on Stephanie Ruhle’s program, legal analyst Seth Waxman didn’t sugarcoat it:

SETH WAXMAN: Could this be any more transparent? His fixer for ten years is alleged to be involved in passing campaign contributions from others through to his campaign in the context of Stormy Daniels or passing Russian funds through, and then kind of out of nowhere, Mr. Trump pardons D’souza who is accused of doing just that. I can’t see this as anything other than trying to send information–Donald Trump to say “I will take care of you in the future, just stand by me.”

Add “abuse of power” to the impeachable offenses, folks.

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From Jon Perr at PERRspectives:

If Donald Trump was a Marvel character, his name might be something like “DeceptiCon.” That is, the never-before-seen frequency and magnitude of Trump’s lies combine to create a Cloak of Confusion, a black hole-like force from which the truth seemingly cannot escape. Defying the laws of physics and logic, he was after all a Schrödinger’s Candidate, often for and against the same thing at the same time. And now as the Heisenberg Uncertainty President, it is virtually impossible to ever simultaneously know what Trump would believe, say, and do on any issue. Most insidious of all, DeceptiCon has produced learned helplessness in almost all who observe him, especially among members of the media. Slowly but surely, the search for objective truth is abandoned as Trump’s unceasing torrent of frauds, falsehoods, and fictions is gradually accepted as routine, normal, and even entertaining.

This process was essentially complete well before Election Day in November 2016. On August 18, 2016, Trump relaunched his campaign under the guidance of Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon. In what was billed as a major address in Charlotte, North Carolina, Republican nominee Trump pledged:

“One thing I can promise you is this: I will always tell you the truth.”

Of course, his meta vow wasn’t true. Not even close.

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From Infidel753:

The bad-hairstyle summit in Singapore has ended with news of a deal — but there’s less here than meets the eye.

The full text of the joint statement is here; an analysis is here. Most of it is diplomatic fluff and vague promises about improving relations in the future; there is language about recovering POW/MIA remains which will be meaningful to those who have POW/MIA relatives. The main issue is addressed in a single sentence:

3. Reaffirming the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the DPRK commits to work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Note that even this is explicitly presented not as something new, but as a reaffirmation of something already declared at the April 27 summit between North and South Korea. The phrase “work toward” is odd. North Korea is a dictatorship.

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From Tommy Christopher:

Trump’s “spy” lies took a serious beating this week. Even Fox News legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano absolutely crushed them in about 20 seconds.

On Tuesday night’s “The Story With Martha MacCallum,” Napolitano was asked to weigh in on Trump’s false claim that the FBI was “spying” on his campaign at the direction of the Obama administration.

“The allegations by Mayor Giuliani over the weekend, which would lead to us to believe that the Trump people think that the FBI had an undercover agent who inveigled his way into the campaign, and was there as a spy on the campaign, seem to be baseless,” Napolitano said. “There’s no evidence for that whatsoever.”

Napolitano added that the FBI’s alleged use of an informant “talking to people on the periphery of the campaign, that is standard operating procedure in intelligence gathering, and in criminal investigations.”

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From The Journal of Improbable Research:

What correlation, if any, is there between the study of chemistry and talents for classical music composition?

Answers are unclear, but the late emeritus professor of chemistry at the Catholic University of America, Leopold May, provided an excellent resource for those wishing to investigate further.

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From Sanofi:

People of all races, religions and nationalities work at Sanofi every day to improve the lives of people around the world. While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.

— Sanofi US (@SanofiUS) May 30, 2018

 
From tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors:

Stelter is one of the better people on CNN, I enjoy him a lot, but his show is a lot of inside baseball analysis of the media (ratings! money! box office!) and one can make the case that it is the Villagers praising themselves. It’s often an awards show without the awards, and a lot of high-minded drivel about their own importance, interrupted by ads.

In this summary of his show, I think Stelter tries too hard to keep his impartiality cred. A lie, regardless of its intent, is still a lie.

I think having some sort of sliding scale from “a deflection, an exaggeration and a straight up lie” is a disservice. So when does a factually untrue statement slide from a deflection into an exaggeration? When does it become a straight-up lie? How do we know when a journalist is letting it slide for some reason? We don’t.

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A young Malian migrant is being lauded in France after he scaled the outside of a building in Paris to rescue a young child dangling from a balcony.

They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

— Donald Trump, June 16, 2015

 
From CATO’s Julian Sanchez:

We had no contact of any sort with Russia.

OK, there was contact, but not about the campaign.

Ok, there was contact about the campaign, but no collusion.

Well, look, nobody used the WORD “collusion.” pic.twitter.com/XnFdnlcnwk

— Julian Sanchez (@normative) May 21, 2018

 

Past President Bill Clinton posted a simple message about the enormous gratitude we feel toward those who served our country.

Past President George W. Bush posted a gracious message about the sacrifices of those who died defending our country, expressing the intense gratitude we feel toward each of them.

Past President Barack Obama posted a beautiful message about the sacrifices of those who died defending our country, and how we can express our tremendous gratitude.

Current President Donald Trump posted a message about the sacrifices of those who died defending our country, and the profound gratitude those fallen heroes would feel toward him for all he is doing as President.