This IS A Bad Meme. Wonkagenda For Mon., Aug. 20, 2018

White House counsel is snitching, Giuliani can't handle the truth, and Blake Farenthold blames "f-tards" and #MeToo. Your morning news brief.

Morning Wonketariat! Here's some of the things wemaybe talking about today.

On Saturday the NY Times reported that White House counsel Don McGahn has been spilling his guts to Robert Mueller's team for months in fear that Trump would try and blame EVERYTHING on McGahn's shoddy legal advice.

After seeing that story, Trump lawyers ran around like headless chickens as they tried to figure out what McGahn told Mueller's team, apparently unaware that McGahn had been talking to Mueller about EVERYTHING.

Rudy Giuliani appeared on "Meet the Press" to lie about lying, and lie about Trump's lies on Russian fuckery and ALLEGED obstruction of justice, saying the "truth isn't the truth ." An exasperated Chuck Todd then facepalmed and said, "this is going to become a bad meme," as political nerds slammed their heads against their keyboards and made bad memes. [ Video ]

Federal investigators are investigating Michael Cohen for $20 million in bank and tax fraud violations via his ALLEGEDLY scammy taxi business, to see whether he broke campaign finance laws paying hush money to Trump's hoors.

Robert Mueller's team wants to send George Papadopoulos to prison for up to six months for lying to the FBI about his involvement in setting up that Trump Tower meeting with Russian agents for "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, and are asking the court to fine him $9,500. LOCK HIM UP!

Trump made some random tweets claiming Robert Mueller is like former Sen. Joe McCarthy, so a bunch of nerds pointed out that Trump's mentor, Roy Cohn, was McCarthy's hatchetman. 

Former RNC money man Elliott Broidy is under investigation for an influence peddling scheme between Chinese and Trump officials, and an attempt get the DOJ to kill an investigation into a shady Malaysian business for $75 million. LOCK HIM UP!

 Erik Prince is back in DC pushing a plan to privatize the war(s) in the Middle East with his gang of unaccountable hitmen-for-hire. Trump administration and NSC officials say there's no such plan in development; but NBC reports he's been pressing Trump for months to give him a blank check to go apeshit in Afghanistan.

Former CIA director John Brennan says he wants to sue Donald Trump for revoking his security clearance, and crapping all over his career as one of Uncle Sam's super spies. Not so much for himself, but for the "due process" and "accountability" things. Remember those?

Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee say that they're looking for more ways to roll back Medicare regulations by parotting Seema Verma's "Patients Over Paperwork" rhetoric that has already erased transparency and ethics laws.

Conservative dark money groups have spent $7.5 million in ads to pressure vulnerable Democrats and Republicans into supporting Trump's SCOTUS nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. By comparison, Democrats have spent a tenth of that.

Mick Mulvaney went on Fox News to call DC mayor Muriel Bowser "a nice lady," then mansplained Trump's military parade was canceled because DC hates Trump, not because the parade would cost $92 million.

A new investigation by Politico reveals that Betsy DeVos has been throwing investigations into mistreatment of transgender students into the pee-soaked bushes.

CNN reports Darren Beattie, a Trump speech writer and policy adviser, has been quit-fired by Trump's White House after it was revealed he gave 2016 speech to the "HL Mencken Club" with known white nationalists, John Derbyshire and Robert Weissberg, called "The Intelligentsia and the Right." HL Mencken's ghost is none too happy about the association either.

Quit-fired Trump officials can't get jobs outside Trumpworld, so they're being brought on (or bought-off) to pro-Trump political groups to shill bullshit. Well, everyone except Omarosa.

John Bolton is in Israel pushing the new lie that it's not Russia that's hacking US election systems, but China, Iran, and North Korea. Bolton told ABC's Martha Raddatz, "I can say definitively that it's a sufficient national security concern about Chinese meddling, Iranian meddling and North Korean meddling..."

The Senate race in North Dakota is getting nasty as misogynist Republican Rep. Kevin Cramer rides the Trump train and launches hand grenades at Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp while secretly gripping and grinning with CEOs and Trump apologists.

Republicans are also launching a slew of negative ads in a bid to hold the House. Leave it to Republicans to accuse other people of being rich drunks and deadbeat dads.

Disgraced fatcat and former Bro-caucus Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold is blaming the "f-tards" and #MeToo for ruining his political career. He also thinks repaying taxpayers for his sexual harassment settlements is "illegal" and that the media is are, "A-S-S-E-S."

There's a debate between Democratic moderates and progressives about lofty promises and fiscal accountability amidst skyrocketing deficits. Economics, how do they work?

In an appearance on MSNBC's Kasie DC,"alt-right" conspiracy theorist and Arizona Republican Senate candidate "Chemtrail" Kelli Ward defended her upcoming bus tour with Pizzagate/Red Pill pusher, Mike Cernovich by saying she didn't know what Cernovich's views are, or what the "alt-right" is because she's a mom -- also MAGA(!), antifa, and HER EMAILS. [ Video ]

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is being criticized for excluding reporters from two town halls , but she argues she did it to protect undocumented immigrants.

In anothernormal  violent weekend across Chicago's South and West sides, 57 people were shot, with 23 killed. Funny how a huge supply of easily-purchased guns next door in Indiana defeats Chicago gun laws.

A Georgia police chief is defending the use of a Taser on an 87-year-old woman wearing a "Muslim hat-looking thing" by saying the non-English speaking woman ignored police. "...There's a Taser pointed at her and there's a firearm that's unholstered there," the chief says, "Most people, that's kind of the universal command for stop."

A federal judge in the 9/11 death penalty trial has ruled prosecutors can't use FBI interrogations from Gitmo that may have been obtained through torture, adding that confessions must be voluntary.

Neo-Nationalist Nigel Farage is re-launching his Brexit campaign amid a growing calls for another referendum . In an op-ed for the the Telegraph, Farage writes, "The time has come to teach them a lesson — one that they will never forget." How quaint.

Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan passed away. He was 80.

Serafín Morán Santiago, a freelance journalist from Cuba, is being detained in Texas after fleeing the country for being accused of spreading propaganda. He tells McClatchy he's afraid Cuban officials will kill him over his repeated criticisms of the regime. Seems like a strange reason to lock him up here.

Twitter CEO @Jack Dorsey says Twitter staffers are "more left-leaning," but argues that doesn't guide their banhammers. Considering Alex Jones is still on Twitter, we label this "Myth Plausible." [Video ]

ICYMI: Right Wing Watch has a compendium of tech companies that are helping the white supremacists and neo-Nazis stay online pushing hate speech.

Lordy, Omarosa says she's got videotapes. 

Alyssa Milano protested the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh for SCOTUS by tweeting a photo of herself dressed as one of the handmaids from "The Handmaid's Tale" and holding a sign reading "Never Kavanaugh, Never Gilead."

Recovering Fox News talking head Lt. Col. Ralph Peters told Brian Stelter Fox is a bunch of "amoral" media hoors , and Trump is in "thrall to Vladimir Putin."

Your B. Barry Bamz has loads of time to sneak cigarettes and read, so here's a couple of books he's been checking out. 

John Oliver 'splainered trade and bitched out Rudy Giuliani for not being able to handle the truth. [ Video ]

Sacha Baron Cohen sat down with Howard Dean and Jill Stein to talk about Hillary Clinton's imaginary penis and why weather changes every year.  

And here's your morning Nice Time! Mountain Pygmy-possum!

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