The Mad King REAL MAD. Wonkagenda For Fri., Sept. 7, 2018

Trump loses it over THE OP-ED, a looming government shutdown, and Twitter Perma-bans Alex Jones. Your morning news brief!

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

Officials inside the Trump administration are climbing over one another to deny writing THE OP-ED, calling one another "cowards" and knifing each other as they hunt for a witch to burn and pretend to be patriots. 

While slurring and rambling his way through an hour-plus rally in Montana, Trump screamed that he wasn't running around the White House screaming, that his administration is doing fine. In fact, the deep state #Resistance makes him look better, or whatever. He then told his supporters if he's impeached, "It's your fault." Business Insider'sDavid Choi has some great video of a guy booted ou t of the Trump rally for repeatedly scoffing at Trump's ridiculous statements last night. \

Anomynous. pic.twitter.com/sJ36OGPgOy 
— Levi Gibian (@LeviGibian) September 7, 2018 

Charlie Pierce's wife, Margaret Doris, supposes Kellyanne Conway wrote THE OP-ED as a way to cover her ass after the fall of Trump. Then again, the very stable geniuses at Wikileaks think it's an old, conservative white male .

Elizabeth Warren wonders why Trump's henchmen don't use the 25th Amendment to kick him out of office if they think he's too stupid to be President. Brushing charges of a constitutional crisis aside, Warren said either he's A Idiot, or he's not.

Bloomberg's Jonathan Bernstein took a look at the wording 25th Amendment and opines the 25th Amendment iskind ofvague and wonky, having been created under the assumption that the President would never contest a forced resignation, and 2/3 of Congress would still have to go along with the whole shebang. FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU

For once Rudy Giuliani seems to have told the truth when he told the AP that Trump won't answer any questions about obstruction of justice from Robert Mueller, HOWEVER Giuliani backpedaled and told NBC News that there hadn't been any "commitment." Then he did it AGAIN when he told Politico, "I think we're pretty close to an agreement, maybe this weekend."

Natasha Bertrand has a new piece in the Atlantic detailing how a Florida court just blocked Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley from getting his hands on a deposition of THE DOSSIER author, Christopher Steele, where he ALLEGEDLY talks about how Russia used "botnets and porn traffic to transmit viruses, plant bugs, steal data and 'conduct altering operations' against the Democratic party leadership." Grassley's really having a bad week, isn't he?

Internal documents recently obtained by the Guardian via FOIA show that Trump ordered official pictures of his inauguration crowd to look bigger by cropping out all the blank space. You know what they say about the size of your inauguration crowd -- that everyone hates you and also you suck.

The Trump administration announced that it intends to hold immigrant children with their parents in detention centers indefinitely . Anonymous administration officials tell NBC News this is an attempt to scrap the 1997 Flores settlement that says immigrant parents and children can't be detained longer than 20 days.

Grifty bastard and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke used federal funding to get $43,000 worth of tickets to the Wolf Trap, a posh Northern Virginia amphitheater, according to a new report by the Interior Department's Inspector General. The report also found that Wolftrap hasn't been paying its dues to Uncle Sam, despite receiving oodles of Ameros and using federal resources.

Paul Ryan says he has "a very good understanding" with Trump about signing appropriations bills in order to avoid a government shutdown. On Wednesday Trump giggled to a gaggle of Republicans at the White House about a shutdown, saying, "If it happens, it happens," but last night he told Fox News that he "most likely" won't do it but he'd consider it over "border security." Meanwhile, the House Freedom crazies are split on whether they should shut down the government (again) just to make a point. Ugh.

Speaking of the Freedom Crazies, reps Steve Scalise and Mark Meadows are stabbing each other in the back as they make not-so-secret plans to replace Paul Ryan. Crom help us all.

In a shocking turn of events, Paul Ryan says he probably won't bring back so-called "pork projects" or earmarks, calling them a "corrupt" and "abusive process." He would know, wouldn't he?

FAA and water infrastructure spending bills have stalled in the House and Senate over whether or not states can enforce food and rest breaks on truckers, and over "issues" in the Land and Water Conservation Fund, an Interior Department program that protects national parks, water, and woodland critters. Wonder what those "issues" are?

A Richmond Circuit Court Judge just slapped the hell out of Virginia Republican Rep. Scott Taylor, and threw out every single petition signature to get Independent candidate Shaun Brown on the November ballot. The judge stated Taylor's staffers were responsible for "blatant forgeries ... such as the signatures of deceased persons" with the intent of defrauding the public. It's a lot like that Chris Farley movie. 

Somebody not-at-all connected to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz seems to have snuck into Beto O'Rourke's campaign as a volunteer and sent out a mass text calling for help getting undocumented immigrants to the polls, and asking about "the dangers of socialism."

The House Ethics Committee created a subcommittee to investigate Rep. Duncan Hunter's ALLEGED grift of campaign cash, but it's all an act as the DOJ has asked them not to interfere with its own investigation.

Delaware Democratic Sen. Tom Carper fought off a primary challenger from progressive activist and Air Force vet Kerri Evelyn Harris, winning with about 65 percent of the vote after precincts closed. Delaware , how exciting.

The NRCC has bailed out of negotiations with the DCCC to not use hacked "dirt" on the campaign trail this year. The deal fell through after the NRCC insisted on being able to use things leaked to the press, causing the DCCC to wonder why they bothered to to treat them as equals.

Tennessee Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen is running ahead of batshit crazy Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn.  

A new AJC poll shows Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp dead even at 45 percent of likely voters, and suggests that Abrams's progressive bonafides are beginning to resonate with more and more people. BONUS: Trump's LOW RATINGS in Georgia seem to be slipping as well, with a majority disapproval.

Your B. Barry Bamz is heading out on the campaign trail to kick some tires and light some fires as he stumps for Democrats across the country. His first speech is said to be a "pointed" critique of politics in the Trump-era.

The NYTimes is publishing real time polling data from congressional and gubernatorial races across the country, but what's even more interesting is that they've also published their methodology (if you're into that sort of nerdy stuff).

A man running as a Republican for the Kansas 26th District House seat has been charged with election perjury after submitting falsified records about his residency. Kris Kobach declined to comment.

At some point this weekend we're going to try to read this MASSIVE story on the DeVos family by Sam Tanenhaus in Vanity Fair about how the entire family has been engaged in a decades-long plan to sell off large chunks of America, piece by piece.

 Elon Musk bro'd out on the Joe Rogan bro-dcast, smoking weed, drinking whiskey, and dicking around with flamethrowers. With Tesla already suffering major production problems, cash shortages, maturing debt, a flurry of lawsuits, an SEC investigation, and a revolt from its board of directors, Tesla shares tanked overnight (again).

 Twitter perma-banned Alex Jones and Infowars after Jones spent Wednesday running around Capitol Hill harassing Twitter CEO @Jack Dorsey, the DC press corps, and Marco Rubio.And nothing of value was lost.

And here's your morning Nice Time! BIG KITTIES and boxes!
 

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