* Kurtis Lee identifies the seven things Trump is obsessed about.
1. President Obama
2. Loyalty
3. Election win
4. Russia
5. Fake news
6. Hillary Clinton
7. Crowd size
* That list tracks pretty closely with data compiled by Philip Bump on what Trump is obsessed about during interviews.
* Charles Blow writes that Trump is America’s whiniest victim.
Donald Trump is the reigning king of American victimhood.
He is unceasingly pained, injured, aggrieved.
The primaries were unfair. The debates were unfair. The general election was unfair.
“No politician in history — and I say this with great surety — has been treated worse or more unfairly,” he laments…
It is in this near perfect state of perpetual aggrievement that Trump gives voice to a faction of America that also feels aggrieved. Trump won because he whines. He whines in a way that makes the weak feel less vulnerable and more vicious. He makes feeling sorry for himself feel like fighting back.
In this way he was a perfect reflection of the new Whiny Right. Trump is its instrument, articulation, embodiment. He’s not so much representative of it but of an idea — the waning power of whiteness, privilege, patriarchy, access, and the cultural and economic surety that accrues to the possessors of such. Trump represents their emerging status of victims-in-their-own-minds.
* Back in May, Trump suggested that what this country needs is a good government shutdown. According to Jonathan Swan, he might get his wish this fall.
Marc Short, the White House director of legislative affairs, says the Trump administration has clear expectations for the fall: “We get tax reform and we also complete funding of the government which includes rebuilding of the military and securing our border.” (Read: the wall.)
Sources inside and close to Republican Hill leadership, however, are privately less sanguine:
* Some say there’s a good chance of a government shutdown before the end of the year because of deep rifts over spending priorities.
* No one sees Trump’s wall getting much more than a symbolic nod, which is sure to anger Trump and the Bannon faction, and could lead to a shutdown.
* Tax reform in this calendar year seems increasingly unlikely. A bill and big debate? Yes. Something signed into law? Very hard given the points above and persistently deep disagreements over which loopholes to keep and how to pay for the tax cuts.
* It is worth noting that this happened on Saturday and there hasn’t been a peep from Trump or the White House about it.
A blast caused by what the FBI called “an improvised explosive device” rocked a Bloomington Islamic center before dawn Saturday, just as a small group of Muslim worshipers had gathered for the day’s first round of prayers.
No one was hurt in the explosion, which heavily damaged an imam’s office at the Dar Al Farooq Center and sent smoke wafting through the large building. Windows in the office were shattered, either by the blast or by an object thrown through them.
* Finally, this is a powerful ad from Proctor and Gamble. The fact that the topic is relevant in 2017 is both sad and shameful. My idea of the American Dream will be realized on the day African American parents not longer feel the need to have “the talk.”
