If you are going to read just one thing today, read this bit. *45 is on his way to eclipsing the all time lies told record well before his impeachment. With the head start that he has, it would take a major scandal to keep him away from enough microphones to top the list sooner rather than later. The most remarkable part is the average number of false claims per day. At an average of better than four per day, Trump is going to be in the record books soon.
In the 45 days Trump has been in office, we’ve counted 194 false or misleading claims from WaPo FactChecker
Democracy Dies in Darkness
and in other news about toddlers and temper tantrums that will make you shudder
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See, here’s what sticks in my craw about the “wire tapping Obama” scandal and the Tweet storm that launched it into the body politic. The thing that irritates me the most is that Hair Furor cannot mix his historical metaphors like that. If you are going to propagandize and slander, then you need to be on the playbook all the time. How are all the other neo nationalists going to be able to keep their talking points straight if the leader can’t?
Would someone please think of the Hitler Youth? For once?
White House offers no evidence, seeks probe of ‘politically motivated investigation’ during 2016 campaign at WaPo
Democracy Dies in Darkness
Early Saturday, Trump — apparently in response to reports by a conservative radio host and on the conservative website Breitbart — accused Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower and engaging in a “Nixon/Watergate” effort to undermine his presidency.
[How hard is it to get an intelligence wiretap? Pretty hard.]
But a senior U.S. official said Saturday that there was no such wiretap. A spokesman for Obama also said that the former president never authorized a wiretap of Trump or any other American citizen.
Sunday Late Night Movie of the Week
Trumbo starring Bryan Cranston, who is basking in the long awaited recognition of his talent as an actor and story teller. (you should watch Sneaky Pete, even if you have to pay Amazon, it's worth it!) Trumbo is the story of screenwriter and progressive activist Dalton Trumbo. Trumbo was “blacklisted” in the wave of McCarthyism under the sway of the House UnAmerican Activities Commission (HUAC).
Trumbo and other blacklisted writers employed a wealth of pseudonyms to write some of American cinema’s finest films. See a list of Trumbo's awards which includes two ghostwritten best writing Oscars. The Trumbo movie is worth the watch for no other reason than the insights it offers about hacking the Hollywood machine. The film also looks at the personal cost his family paid for the man’s outrageous work ethic.
The supporting cast is equally amazing. Diane Lane, Louis CK, Hellen Mirren, John Goodman, Stephen Root, Michael Stuhlbarg, Alan Tudyk, and John Getz. Need I say more? Hell, I even liked Elle Fanning and I thought Dakota had just about ruined me for Fannings in perpetuity.
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And, finally, a recommended read
Harriet Tubman fled a life of slavery in Maryland. Now a new visitor center opens on the land she escaped at WaPo
Democracy Dies in Darkness
Tubman’s life spanned most of the 19th and part of the 20th century, took her across the Eastern United State and Canada, and saw her fight for civil rights, women’s rights and the cause of the Union in the Civil War.
But it was here in the mosquito-infested swamps and woods, and the local plantations and river ports, that the slave girl “Minty” Ross became the liberator, Harriet Tubman.
Here, Tubman was beaten as a child by a mistress who slept with a whip under her pillow. Here, she checked muskrat traps, broke flax and hauled logs with a team of oxen she was permitted to purchase.
And here, scholars say, amid a fracas one night, she was struck on the head with an iron weight and suffered a debilitating brain injury that would alter her life.
Tubman understood the haunting landscape where she lived and was said to possess a mystical “charm” that protected her, according to biographer Kate Clifford Larson.
“She was a genius,” Larson said in a recent telephone interview. “Even though she couldn’t read or write, she was born with a gift.”
“When she worked in the woods with her father, he taught her how to survive,” Larson said. “How to feed herself, how to protect herself, how to navigate through those woods that are really dark at night.”
TOP COMMENTS
from your humble diarist:
I am pleased to find some regular nominators to TC making their own noteworthy contributions to the discussion tonight.
Yasuragi lays it out straight on who gets to call it “History” in Ida B. Wells: Women's History Month shero by Sister Dee.
quaoar updates Give Em Hell Harry's famous sign in Memo to Trump: The buck stops with the president by Mark E Andersen.
TRPChicago gets philosophical with some fellow Kossacks in Sniveling idiots: The media, a teleprompter, and the toxic bigotry of sycophantic desperation by Lawrence Lewis.
jwinIL14 brings the meme of the day to Hunter’s FP White House, Republican leaders struggle to respond to Trump's latest untethered pronouncements.
keep sending in those cards and letters y’all. It’s how the show works ...
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday, March 4, 2017, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
Top Pictures for yesterday, March 4, 2017. Click any picture to be taken to the full comment or picture. Thank you jotter!
everyone have a good week, and remember that we are all pulling on the same oars ...
I leave you with this elegy for a moment that was lost at the Oscars