Aaron Rupar
@atrupar
Stormy Daniels hush payments could not be reached for comment

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1131223845992652805

Donald Trump’s golf habit has already cost taxpayers at least $102 million in extra travel and security expenses, and next month will achieve a new milestone: a seven-figure presidential visit to another country so he can play at his own course.

U.S. taxpayers have spent $81 million for the president’s two dozen trips to Florida, according to a HuffPost analysis. They spent $17 million for his 15 trips to New Jersey, another $1 million so he could visit his resort in Los Angeles and at least $3 million for his two days in Scotland last summer ― $1.3 million of which went just for rental cars for the massive entourage that accompanies a president abroad.

And, notwithstanding Trump’s campaign promise that if elected he would not play golf at all, the White House has done preliminary work for Trump’s visit to his resort on the west coast of Ireland next month, according to Irish media and government sources, even though no official meeting with Irish leaders is planned in the capital, Dublin.



Late Tuesday afternoon, the White House announced that Trump would meet with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar in Shannon, just 30 miles by air from Trump’s golf resort in Doonbeg. It will be the first time Trump will visit a foreign country — with the staggering footprint of personnel and equipment that entails — for the main purpose of playing golf, though an official purpose was layered on after the fact.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-golf-102-million-taxpayers_n_5ce46727e4b09b23e65a01bb

On Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) held a press conference in which she accused President Donald Trump of being “engaged in a cover-up.”

Still, the speaker did not call for impeachment. However, she did say that there should be a “respectful sharing of ideas” regarding whether the president should be impeached.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/05/pelosi-trump-is-engaged-in-a-cover-up/

Kyle Griffin
@kylegriffin1
Breaking on
@MSNBC
: Nicolle Wallace just reported that members of the House Judiciary Committee have subpoenaed Don McGahn's former chief of staff, Annie Donaldson, whose notes were central to Mueller's obstruction report, as well as Hope Hicks, for testimony and more docs.
4:05 PM · May 21, 2019 · Twitter Web Client

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1130927531060858880

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/05/trump-is-employing-this-insidious-strategy-to-attack-social-security-and-avoid-a-massive-2020-backlash/

Last week, the Trump administration revealed that it is planning to employ the so-called chained Consumer Price Index (CPI) in a way that does not need congressional approval. “Chained CPI” might sound technical and boring, but anyone who has closely followed the Social Security debate knows better. It has long been proposed as a deceptive, hard-to-understand way to cut our earned Social Security benefits.

Trump plans to switch to the chained CPI to index the federal definition of poverty. If he succeeds, the impact will be that over time, fewer people will meet the government’s definition of poverty—even though in reality, they will not be any less poor. The definition is crucial to qualify for a variety of federal benefits, including Medicaid, as well as food and housing assistance. The announcement was written blandly about considering a variety of different measures, but anyone who knows the issue well can easily read the writing on the wall.

So, what does this have to do with Social Security? Like the poverty level, Social Security’s modest benefits are automatically adjusted to keep pace with inflation. If not adjusted, those benefits will erode, slowly but inexorably losing their purchasing power over time. These annual adjustments are already too low, but they are better than no adjustment at all. The chained CPI would make these adjustments even less adequate. The top line of the following chart shows what a more accurate adjustment would look like. The line below it shows what the current adjustment does to benefits, and the bottom line shows what the stingier chained CPI would do:



Proponents of the chained CPI say that it is better at measuring “substitution,” but don’t be fooled. The current inadequate measure already takes into account substitution of similar items. This is the idea that if the price of beef goes up, you can substitute chicken. In contrast, the chained CPI involves what are called substitutions across categories. If your planned vacation abroad goes up, you can stay home and buy a flat screen television and concert tickets instead.

The Washington Post

@washingtonpost

McGahn fails to show at Judiciary hearing, amping up anger among House Democrats

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1130842420659314688

MSNBC
@MSNBC
Chairman Nadler: "Nothing in these unjustified and unjustifiable legal attacks will stop us from pressing forward with our work on behalf of the American people.

We will hold this president accountable — one way, or the other."

https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/1130841188209188865