Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

Just when you think buying Greenland is bumbling bird brain Donald "The Chosen One" Trump's most ludicrous idea, this comes along:

President Trump has suggested multiple times to senior Homeland Security and national security officials that they explore using nuclear bombs to stop hurricanes from hitting the United States, according to sources who have heard the president's private remarks and been briefed on a National Security Council memorandum that recorded those comments.

Behind the scenes: During one hurricane briefing at the White House, Trump said, "I got it. I got it. Why don't we nuke them?" according to one source who was there. "They start forming off the coast of Africa, as they're moving across the Atlantic, we drop a bomb inside the eye of the hurricane and it disrupts it. Why can't we do that?" the source added, paraphrasing the president's remarks.

• Asked how the briefer reacted, the source recalled he said something to the effect of, "Sir, we'll look into that."
• Trump replied by asking incredulously how many hurricanes the U.S. could handle and reiterating his suggestion that the government intervene before they make landfall. 
• The briefer "was knocked back on his heels," the source in the room added. "You could hear a gnat fart in that meeting. People were astonished. After the meeting ended, we thought, 'What the f---? What do we do with this?'"  (our emphasis)
  

What do you do with this?  You invoke the 25th Amendment and get Uncle Sundowner away from the nuclear football!  (The article helpfully provides a link to NOAA's web page, where a fact sheet debunks this genius plan.)

Speaking of taking credit for genius ideas like buying Greenland,

Now I'm waiting for Tom Cotton to explain that, actually, nuking hurricanes is a terrific idea that everyone should be for, and in fact he was the one who suggested it to the President.

— John Scalzi (@scalzi) August 26, 2019

Rick Wilson wrote this before the report of the "nuke the hurricanes" plan buzzing out of the Very Stable Genius' "brain" became public:

It’s almost as if we need a recalibration of the insanity of the Trump era, a new set of definitions about what comprises normal presidential behavior.

Because what’s happening now left normal five towns back, stopped for smokes and brown liquor, and tossed the GPS out the window. This week wasn’t normal, and no amount of whistling past the graveyard will make it any different.

Donald Trump’s affect, speech patterns and overall delivery this week have been alternately horrifying and hilarious. A combination of waking hallucinations, verbal tics, lies surpassing even his usual fabulist standard, aphasias and lunatic blurtings, each public utterance was a moment where the eye of his aides either popped or rolled, depending on their level of cynicism.  [snip]

His sweaty, heavy-breathing press sprays on the White House lawn left reporters in a state of stunned silence, the spittle-flecked rantings of a man determined to machine-gun out a hundred ideas in the time a rational person would discuss two.

We started off with Jewish disloyalty — which, of course, functional agnostic Donald Trump knows only because he “wants them counting his money” — and jumped to the grand plan to conquer Greenland and seize America North from the hands of the perfidious Danes.

Wilson's a hoot and his take on the Very Stable Genius is biting and incisive.

Meanwhile, the humiliation of America continues at the hands of Putin's Puppet:

President Donald Trump says it’s “certainly possible” he’ll invite Vladimir Putin as a guest to next year’s Group of Seven summit in the U.S., setting up a flashpoint with fellow nations who ejected the Russian leader over annexation of Crimea.

Trump spoke in Biarritz, France, on Sunday as the day’s session of the G-7 was set to get underway. He has previously called to fully readmit Putin into what was once the G-8, while the bloc’s fellow nations have balked at readmitting Russia, which was kicked out of the group over its hostilities in Ukraine.

The U.S. will host next year’s G-7. Trump said ahead of a breakfast meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson that it’s possible he’d invite Putin as a guest but doesn’t yet know.

“It’s certainly possible, we’ll see,” Trump said, after earlier noting that he and other G-7 leaders had discussed the matter Saturday evening. "We had a very good discussion on Russia and President Putin, and a lively discussion, but, really, a good one," Trump said.

He's so eager, desperate, to please the man with the kompromat.

Moscow Mitch/ Massacre Mitch placed a simultaneously desperate and disingenuous op/ ed in The New York Effing Times a few days back, warning Democrats not to abolish the filibuster should they win the Senate in 2020.  We say, just another reason to abolish the filibuster!  Here's Li Zhou recalling recent history:

There’s a strong degree of irony to McConnell’s arguments: Even as he’s pushing for Democrats to keep the filibuster in the name of preserving Senate rules and tradition, he’s personally done significant damage to congressional norms.

As McConnell notes, Democrats were the first to change the filibuster rules on judicial nominees. What he doesn’t say, however, is that the reason Reid felt compelled to do so because McConnell had mounted an overwhelming obstruction of non-controversial judicial nominees. And that’s far from the only time McConnell has levied his power as majority leader to reject Senate norms.

When President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland was up for confirmation, McConnell didn’t even hold a hearing. Earlier this year, McConnell pushed through another rules change on judicial nominees, enabling lawmakers to confirm judges even faster. This congressional term, he has become known for blocking consideration of countless House bills, including on the topic of election security, declaring himself the “grim reaper” of Democratic legislation on Capitol Hill.

As usual, we close with our recommendation to head over to Infidel 753's link round-up (where we found the article above on Moscow Mitch/ Massacre Mitch and the filibuster).  Every week, he puts forth a great digest of items big and small where you'll invariably find something of interest.