* I’ve just got a couple of “quickies” for today. One is to note the massive fail of Trump’s “election integrity” commission. First there’s the near-universal non-compliance with their request for data from states.
Forty-four states have refused to provide certain types of voter information to the Trump administration’s election integrity commission, according to a CNN inquiry to all 50 states.
* Second, you know this whole mess is in trouble when even a Republican resigns.
Amid a wave of states refusing requests for personal voter data and a new legal complaint filed against its leader, the Trump administration’s “election integrity” panel saw its first resignation Monday night: Maryland’s Republican deputy secretary of state Luis E. Burundi.
* Third, gotta love my home-state Senator suggesting everyone should tell the commission to go jump in a lake as she sits on the beautiful shore of Lake Superior.
* This morning on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, Paul Glastris, Editor-in-Chief of the Washington Monthly, joined Mona Charen to talk about whether the American Dream is still attainable and if government has a role in helping Americans achieve it.
* David Remnick suggests that, in this era of Trump, we might find some solace in reading, “What To the Slave is the Fourth of July?” by Fredrick Douglass.
Frederick Douglass ended his Independence Day jeremiad in Rochester with steadfast optimism (“I do not despair of this country”). Read his closing lines, and what despair you might feel when listening to a President who abets ignorance, isolation, and cynicism is eased, at least somewhat. The “mental darkness” of earlier times is done, Douglass reminded his audience. “Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe.” There is yet hope for the “great principles” of the Declaration of Independence and “the genius of American Institutions.” There was reason for optimism then, as there is now. Donald Trump is not forever. Sometimes it just seems that way.
* Finally, at the fireworks tonight, keep in mind that when you hear this song, the grand finale is about to begin.
