Agent Strzok

Peter Strzok was fired from the Mueller probe for damning texts he exchanged with his girlfriend.  (Like Colin Powell, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Barbara Bush, Karl Rove and so many others, they thought it would be a disaster if Trump won.)

Turns out, he sent damning texts about Hillary and Bernie, too. And especially damning texts about the Russians.

Turns out, further, that the FX series, The Americans, is based on a counter-espionage case he successfully oversaw.

Rachel Maddow had that whole amazing story Wednesday.  (And then another about Paul Manafort.)

But if you listen to nothing else, listen to Stzrok’s brief opening statement yesterday.

It’s hard for me to imagine anyone, after doing so, doubting his integrity — let alone siding with Devon Nunez or Trey Gowdy or any of the other Republicans working so hard to quash and discredit the Mueller probe that has already led to multiple indictments and guilty pleas. (They who ran eight investigations of Benghazi, which amounted to exactly nothing.)

Okay.  There’s that.

Here’s this:

In addition to the help he got from Putin,* Trump used “health care” to get elected.  He promised “everybody great health care at a tiny fraction of the cost” (just as he would “absolutely” release his tax returns if he ran for president).  But, as Krystal Ball notes in this quick take, he is doing the opposite.

Krystal started the People’s House Project to recruit and support candidates like Richard Ojeda who are going to win in unlikely places. (Paratrooper Richard Ojeda is redefining what it means to be a Democrat in a deeply red state.)

Because we really have to fix this nightmare. 

There are so many reasons!

The insanity of rejecting the Paris Climate Accords . . . the insanity of rejecting the Iran nuclear deal (a million times better than the North Korea “deal” that’s thus far no deal at all) . . . the insanity of rejecting the Transpacific Partnership and handing our leadership to China . . . the insanity of starting a trade war.  With Canada!

The insanity of allowing a vulgar, incompetent, constantly-lying, sociopath to decimate the State Department, attack the intelligence community, brand the press “the enemy of the people,” and wreck America’s standing in the world.

Under Trump’s leadership, even breast feeding is under attack:

Opposition to Breast-Feeding Resolution by U.S. Stuns World Health Officials.

A resolution to encourage breast-feeding was expected to be approved quickly and easily by the hundreds of government delegates who gathered this spring in Geneva for the United Nations-affiliated World Health Assembly.

Based on decades of research, the resolution says that mother’s milk is healthiest for children and countries should strive to limit the inaccurate or misleading marketing of breast milk substitutes.

Then the United States delegation, embracing the interests of infant formula manufacturers, upended the deliberations. . . .

I inherited the happy gene, so think the mid-terms will produce a massive reaction to this insanity.  America will begin, at least, to pull out of its tailspin.  But it’s no sure thing.

Have a great weekend.

*Remember, whatever Trump and his team may have had to do with it, it is the unanimous conclusion of our intelligence community that the Russians worked to help him win.  It is ridiculous to imagine that had no effect on anyone’s vote.