The Bedbugs Bite. Wonkagenda For Wed., August 28, 2019

Bedbugs, border walls, and Brexit. Your morning news brief!

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

Yes, Trump is STILL whining about bedbugs this morning. I guess it really is bedbug week. Hopefully nobody starts associating Doral and Mar-a-Lago with bedbugs. Here's a Lil Bub video! 

Lil BUB Will Travel for FOOD    www.youtube.com 

Trump is just grabbing cash from everywhere and anywhere in order to build his goddamn wall. Yesterday CNN reported Homeland Security took $155 million in disaster relief from FEMA ('cause we can just nuke the hurricanes) to pay for migrant jails and the deportation express. Meanwhile, Politico is reporting that the Pentagon will reallocate an additional $2.5 billionto start building roads, lighting, and Trump's big, black wall. Additionally, the Washington Post reports that Trump is so determined to get his wall built before the 2020 elections that he's told officials to just "take the land" from private owners, and that he'd simply pardon any crimes his minions commit in the process.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has been given the green light to to DRILL, BABY DRILL in the 16.7 million acre Tongass National Forest in Alaska. The Washington Post notes Alaska Republicans Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Sen. Lisa Murkowski have been begging the Trump administration to let some loggers start chopping down the natural beauty, and that Trump has been obsessed with big, fat, logs, and raking forests. Deforestation? What could possibly go wrong? 

David Farenthold reports Attorney General Bill Barr has booked his annual 200-person holidary party at Trump's DC trash palace, likely netting Trump an easy $30,000. The boozy affair is coming out of Barr's own pocket, according to DOJ officials who say other hotels in the area were booked. A contract signed by Barr says he's agreed to spend $4,500 for the room, and charge at least $135 per person for the buffet and open bar, but it's unclear if he'll actually have to pay as much as all the other rich jackoffs trying to pay tribute.

Deutsche Bank essentially just told a federal court that it's got a copy of Trump's taxes , but the bank really doesn't want to share with the rest of the class.

After delicate snowflakes in the Alabama GOP approved a resolution calling for Rep. Ilhan Omar to be "You're Fired" from Congress, Omar hit back by saying she won her Minnesota district by 78 percent, and suggested Alabama Republicans stop nominating ALLEGED pedophiles, like Roy Moore, for the Senate.

Sorry, @ALGOPHQ, but this is a representative democracy. I was elected with 78% of the vote by the people of Minn… https: //t.co/rNlA5Si3Lc

— Ilhan Omar (@Ilhan Omar) 1566941741.0 

Trump's 2020 campaign sent an email to donors "attacking "Socialist" Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her call to abolish the Electoral College. The email directs supporters to sign a petition and echoes his racist shitposts, stating, "this country belongs to AMERICANS from EVERY zip code not just the Coastal Elites and Liberal Mega Donors. This is our country, not theirs." AOC responded by retweeting a 2012 shitpost from Trump bitching about the Electoral College and Obama.

Politico reports Bernie Sanders switched up his campaign style so he's not just yelling a three-year-old stump speech at people for an hour. Instead, Sanders has been holding empathetic town halls where people talk about their feelings, addictions, PTSD, and poverty, and campaign staffers say it's helping. Message: I care.

Looks like the third debate line-up is set after a new Quinnipiac poll this morning showing that Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg would trounce Trump in a 2020 head-to-head match up. Additionally, the new Q poll shows a majority of people think the economy is falling into the shitter.Fun Fact: "Wouldn't Vote" got two percent, which means it could be in the debate, but Tom Steyer and DINO Rep. Tulsi Gabbard won't!

Facebook says it will make people buying political ads cough up more info about themselves. As part of the new rules, Facebook says ad buyers will have to include info on who's funding the ad by submitting tax ID info, or FEC registration information. However, since Uncle Sam doesn't require advocacy groups to reveal their donors, Facebook won't either.

After Obama sidestepped the DNC with the creation of his own parallel political arm, Organizing for Action, the DNC is vowing to never to let some grassroots geeks leave it scrounging for cash if a Democrat wins the White House. The DNC wants 2020 candidates to pledge not to create "parallel or duplicative" groups that can force the party to compete for donors, and it's asking candidates to discourage supporters from launching their own groups. Politico reports at least 16 candidates have signed on, and notes that most of the state party staffers are unpaid volunteers.

Republicans are starting to freak out about losing the North Carolina 9th. The party has begun diverting heavyweight politicos and cash to shore up the seat, and Trump's 2020 campaign has begun using it as a testing ground for its scorched Earth strategy next year.

The Every Town for Gun Safety Action Fund is dropping new ads to pressure Republican Senators Cory Gardner, Marco Rubio, and Rick Scott, to lean on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and support background checks and red flag laws. The 30-second ad recalls the mass shootings in Aurora, Dayton, El Paso, and Parkland, and asks #MoscowMitch to stop being such a coward.

Mitch McConnell: This Has to Stop    www.youtube.com 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he wants to suspend Parliament for a month just as MPs are returning from their summer holiday. MPs fear the child punching jackass is attempting to force the country into a hard Brexit on Oct. 31 by shortening the length of time MPs could debate any possible Brexit negotiation. The AP reports 160 pissed-off MPs have sent Johnson a letter so he knows just how angry they are, and back bench bomb-throwing conservatives are already calling for a vote of no confidence in Johnson.

An ISIS/ISIL/whatever fighter was killed when his cheap, explosive-filled drone ran low on batteries and auto-piloted itself back home and detonated over his head. The Sun quotes a UK military source saying, "The hope is his stupidity will put off other insurgents."

A Florida man has become the fourth white supremacist to be arrested and convicted for his role in the 2017 "Unite the Right" beating in of Deandre Harris. Good.

Lowes, the second-largest hardware chain in the US, is super sorry for an internal sales spotlight video that featured the executive vice president of its stores saying a compact drill would be perfect for "Some of our Hispanic pros with smaller hands." The Washington Post notes that this comes as Lowes is in the process of laying off thousands of employees while the executive despite hauling in 2.3 billion in profits last year.

And here's your morning Nice Time: CHEETAH CUBS! 

7 Week Old Cheetah Cub Kris Exploring a New Space - Cincinnati Zoo    www.youtube.com 

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