Natasha Lennard at Esquire reminds us that over 200 Inauguration Day protestors are still facing "felony riot" charges, the penalty for which could be a $25,000 fine, ten years in the clink, or both. Also, too, when a right-winger beats up a left-winger at a protest, he tends not to get charged with anything. How will the police prove probable cause (i.e., that each and every person they arrested actually actively incited other people to commit vandalism and the like)? Sadly, a lot of defendants might plead out before then.
Uh oh: Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN) faces hostile questioning about health care and President Trump at a breakfast with local chambers of commerce. And even admonishes the crowd to "be civil" at one point! Republicans get a little breathing room when they claim that "paid protestors" swarm their town halls, but chambers of commerce are supposed to be their people! Hmm, maybe things really are coming apart for Republicans this time.
Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) tells a crowd of constituents angry that he voted to repeal FCC internet privacy rules that "nobody's got to use the internet." He goes on to say that "I don't think it's my job to tell you that you cannot get advertising for your information being sold," when, actually, the FCC rules allowed you to opt out of privacy protections if you chose. That first quotation should be an easy campaign ad, though.
Mr. Sensenbrenner's fellow Wisconsin House Rep, Speaker Paul Ryan, didn't hold any town halls at all during the February recess -- but he did raise over $650,000 at upwards of six non-Wisconsin locations. Meeting with his real constituents, I suppose! And you may recall that in 2011 he was charging his constituents money to go to his town halls, like the people work for him and not the other way around. These two items are also campaign ads just waiting to write themselves.
Is your Tea Party uncle telling you that President Trump "increased your Social Security"? That's abject rubbish -- our government announced the latest Social Security cost-of-living adjustment (or COLA) back in December; Mr. Trump had nothing to do with it. You know, just like Mr. Obama had nothing to do with the "quadrupling of the deficit" in early 2009, since he didn't write that budget or demand the bankster bailout that inflated it.
Finally, while discussing the latest Trump flatugasm against protestors yesterday, I neglected to mention that he ended one of his twitterings with "The election is over!" By which he means, of course, that democracy is over, at least until the next election (though I'm sure he's working on that!), and that elections are the only days Americans are to be permitted to express their will. Well, them's fighting words.
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