The Senate voted 63-37 to advance a resolution to cut off U.S. military assistance to Saudi Arabia, which is waging a war in Yemen that is a humanitarian disaster. Fourteen Republicans joined all Democrats in what is widely understood as a rebuke of the Trump administration, which has relentlessly kowtowed to the Saudis and continues to help them cover up their role in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Just for the record, that means over 70 percent of Republican senators still couldn’t even stand up to Trump after the murder of a U.S.-based journalist. The party of Lincoln!
Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith won yesterday’s Mississippi runoff election against Democrat Mike Espy, giving Republicans a 53-47 Senate majority next year. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Hyde-Smith received 54 percent of the vote to Espy’s 46 percent, in the state’s closest Senate election in 30 years. Good on you Mississippi, you’re a little less racist than in years past. But just a little!
Vice President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote to advance the nomination of Thomas Farr, a Trump judicial nominee with a sordid history of suppressing black voters in North Carolina. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) joined the Democrats in opposing Farr’s nomination, after Republicans again denied him a vote on his legislation to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. But don’t worry, Flake will find some way to be a coward again soon.
Just 24 hours after Mueller ended his cooperative agreement with Paul Manafort and asked federal judges to sentence him to prison, President Trump publicly dangled Manafort a pardon, telling the New York Post, “I wouldn’t take it off the table. Why would I take it off the table?” Even if the purpose of the pardon-dangle wasn’t to obstruct the investigation of himself, Trump still seems to think the pardon power was created so presidents can help their criminal friends. Speaking of which, Trump has a lot of criminal friends.
Stormy Daniels has accused her attorney Michael Avenatti of filing a defamation suit against Trump in her name over her objections and of ignoring her request for information on how he’s used funds her supporters donated to help her cover safety and legal-defense costs. Dude, that was, like, your one redeeming thing, and you still blew it! When you see a Milkshake Duck coming, that’s called an “Avenatti.”
The Dow rose 500 points as the Federal Reserve chairman suggested that the Fed may consider a pause in interest rate hikes. Who said the president’s self-interested and possibly corrupt meddling in Fed policy couldn’t do good?
A former Facebook employee wrote in a memo that Facebook has a “black people problem,” criticizing the company’s efforts at diversity and inclusion, and saying “Black employees are commonly told ‘I didn’t know black people worked at Facebook.’”
Margaret Atwood is writing a sequel to Handmaid’s Tale, citing “the world we’ve been living in” as inspiration. Really appreciate her giving us the punchline here.
No one will shut up about the big cow that isn’t actually a cow or the trailer for Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next” music video. From Tommy Vietor: Since when are there trailers for fucking music videos? Stop Snapchatting on my lawn.
