New Photos Prove Trump Flushed Documents; Biden's Climate Bill Passes the Senate

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | August 8, 2022 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | August 8, 2022 |

In case you missed it, with punitive damages, a jury has ruled that Alex Jones must pay $49.3 million to the parents of victims of the Sandy Hook massacre for claiming the nation’s deadliest school shooting was a hoax. This was only the first of three cases against Alex Jones. It will hopefully send a message about dangerous misinformation to other peddlers of it. It may also bode well for the cases against Fox News, OAN, and Newsmax for defamation by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic. Those networks are on the hook for potentially billions of dollars for outrageous election claims. It’s taking a while, but at least some of the more egregiously false claims are coming home to roost for Donald Trump, his allies, and other purveyors of misinformation.

— Meanwhile, although Donald Trump has repeatedly denied that he flushed documents that he did not want to be preserved, Maggie Haberman suggests otherwise and, uh, has receipts.

AXIOS' BIG POOP… er, Scoop.

Photos from @maggieNYT of Trump's White House filing system.

This is NOT a gag, though it may make you gag https://t.co/ls49o580xt

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) August 8, 2022

— Speaking of Trump, he’s still got a stranglehold over the Republican base. After a rambling, fascistic 108-minute speech he gave at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) over the weekend, he dominated a straw poll of attendees asked who their first choice for the Republican nominee would be in 2024. Sixty-nine percent of attendees selected Trump. Ron DeSantis was a distance second with 24 percent. Ted Cruz was third with, uh, two percent. Cruz’s transphobic comments at the CPAC conference apparently were for naught.

“Tough guy” Ted Cruz feels more threatened by pronouns than by Donald Trump attacking his wife.

Ted Cruz is a coward. Just like Josh Hawley. pic.twitter.com/UJIV6vH4xk

— Gabe Sanchez (@iamgabesanchez) July 23, 2022

— In much, much better news, the Senate passed Joe Biden’s climate change bill, which is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent by the end of the decade. Again, I am incredibly excited about this bill. Is it everything that Democrats wanted? Not even close! But it’s also more than we could have imagined three weeks ago. It’s the best bill the most conservative Democrat in an evenly split Senate would agree to, which tends to be how politics work in America.

It’s also thanks to a new — and very American — approach: Instead of taxing industries and individuals for their carbon use, the bill incentivizes Americans to switch to green energy. We are a capitalist country. Americans too often do what is in their individual best interests instead of the collective best interests of the planet, but if — say — electric vehicles are cheaper than gas vehicles, more Americans will choose electric vehicles. Because we’re selfish. Basically, the bill ensures that the climate’s best interests align with Americans’ best interests. It’s how you parent a six-year-old: Positive reinforcement, instead of punishment. It’s also what worked in Norway, where there are more electric vehicles per capita than in any other nation.

The bill will go to the House after their brief recess, where it is expected to pass and be signed by President Joe Biden in the coming weeks. It will also allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices and increase Obamacare subsidies for several more years.