The latest tally on House members who favor beginning impeachment inquiry hearings against President Donald J. Trump is now at 77. Read the rest

A GLAAD study claims that the number of young Americans comfortable with LGBTQ people has fallen from 53% to 45%, the second consecutive annual drop.

Variety:

Scenarios for the survey included learning a family member is LGBT, learning my doctor is LGBT, having LGBT members at my place of worship, seeing an LGBT co-worker’s wedding picture, having my child placed in a class with an LGBT teacher, seeing a same-sex couple holding hands and learning my child has a lesson on LGBT history in school.

The Index comes amidst a number of anti-LGBTQ violence and discrimination incidents. Just last year, reported hate crimes rose 17 percent, making it the third consecutive year that such crimes increased.

Here's an executive summary of the poll, but it doesn't offer much to chew on in terms of how shaded or teleological the methodology is with respect to GLAAD's activist aims.

Nonetheless, the conclusion:

While young people are identifying as LGBTQ in higher rates than ever before, there has also been an uptick in non-LGBTQ young people pushing back against acceptance. The younger generation has traditionally been thought of as a beacon of progressive values. We have taken that idea for granted and this year’s results show that the sharp and quick rise in divisive rhetoric in politics and culture is having a negative influence on younger American

Trumpism involves endless mendacity and manipulation. But these new conservatives have definite enemies and aims. They offer an inspiring message of division and disgust for the youth of today. Read the rest

Sheelah Kolhatkar's 10,000 word New Yorker profile of Elizabeth Warren is mostly a "color piece," giving a sense of where Warren is coming from, personally and politically; as such, it's a good read, but mostly redundant if you've already read Warren's (very good) 2018 book This Fight Is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America's Middle Class; that said there's a couple of key political insights that are very timely for anyone trying to figure out whom to support in the Democratic presidential primary (I am a donor to both Warren's and Sanders's primary campaigns). Read the rest

We presume it can tell by the pixels.

As one YouTube commenter wrote, "These are the faces of people who regret learning English." Read the rest

With Theresa May stepping down as Conservative Party leader, her position—and with it the job of Prime Minister—will go to one of many candidates standing to replace her. In the first round of voting today, presumptive favorite Boris Johnson won the most votes and three others were knocked out. Seven proceed to the second vote next week.

Mark Harper, Andrea Leadsom and Esther McVey - have been knocked out, in the secret ballot held in the House of Commons. Mr Johnson received 114 votes, Jeremy Hunt was second with 43, and Michael Gove third with 37 votes.

The BBC graphic above shows how things shook out. Gove was badly hurt by last week's media exposé on the candidates' youthful drug habits due to the extent of his hypocrisy: as education secretary, he imposed a lifetime ban for teachers caught using drugs. Leadsom underperformed compared to opinion polling of party rank and file; she may have popularity issues among her peers in Parliament. Boris is not as inevitable as the first round suggests, as he received only 36% of the total, another candidate might surge as others drop out, and his propensity for gaffes and bigoted remarks offers latitude for a "June surprise". But he is surely the runaway favorite to lead his party—and Britain—into Brexit. Read the rest

Bill would extend fund expiration to 2090, no specific amount, whatever funds needed.

38.8% more than the same period a year ago

One's a crazy guy in a bow tie. The other's Tucker Carlson. Read the rest

Finally. It's been almost 3 years.

More Americans view made-up news as a 'very big problem' for the country, over terrorism, illegal immigration, racism, and sexism.

Authorities investigating Flint water crisis seize mobile devices from former Gov. Rick Snyder and 65 other officials.

Axios reporter Jonathan Swan has a reputation as a fawning interviewer, but he made Trump son-in-law and nepotism hire Jared Kushner very uncomfortable this weekend.

A particularly excruciating moment:

Q) Has Trump ever said anything racist?

KUSHNER: “Absolutely not. You can’t not be a racist for 69 years then run for president and be a racist.”

Q) Was Birtherism racist?

KUSHNER: “Um, look I wasn’t really involved in that...that was a long time ago.”pic.twitter.com/GzdB9pafCi

— Waleed Shahid (@_waleedshahid) June 2, 2019

The classic example of this interviewing technique — "repeat the question to highlight a comically evasive answer" — is embedded below. It's the BBC's Jeremy Paxman grilling UK politician Michael Howard. Action starts four minutes in.

Paxman vs. Howard is a well-loved performance, but the reason you don't see this technique every day is not because cable news interviews are softball (though they are). It's because a well-prepared interview subject can really punish it with a good answer. It's a haymaker, the crudest possible follow-up question, for use against someone forced by circumstances or stupidity to leap into your fist over and over again.

Props to Swan, though, for actually doing it. The fact he was so deferential and eager with Trump himself makes it better that he was so plainly contemptuous of Kushner.

There's good analysis of the interview at NYMag:

Elsewhere in the interview, Kushner balked at a question regarding his confidant on the Saudi peninsula, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Axios reporter Jonathan Swan asked if Kushner would join Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancée in calling on the Saudi government to be held accountable for the body of the slain American journalist.

Read the rest

Not THAT Mueller, the furry one. He has two Deputy Dawgs helping out.

Ken Cuccinelli is probably going to be confirmed soon as Donald Trump's new head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. He once praised and amplified a racist rant attacking Muslims by Brigitte Tudor, aka Brigitte Gabriel, a prominent anti-Muslim organizer based in the United States. Read the rest

If Donald Trump's bag man Bill Barr weren't such a malevolent son of a bitch, this wild quote of his from a CBS News interview would sound something like wisdom. Read the rest

This morning, Trump went on a rant about special counsel Bob Mueller, who reiterated yesterday that his investigation did not clear the President. He then tweeted that Russia helped him get elected—a first admission that the Putin regime's interference in the 2016 campaign helped put him in the White House.

Russia, Russia, Russia! That’s all you heard at the beginning of this Witch Hunt Hoax...And now Russia has disappeared because I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected. It was a crime that didn’t exist. So now the Dems and their partner, the Fake News Media,.....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2019

"I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected."

Then he denied it. The New York Times:

“No, Russia did not help me get elected,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for Colorado Springs. “I got me elected.” He spoke less than an hour after his Twitter post.

The original comment, a clause in one of several Twitter posts this morning, is an extraordinary admission from Mr. Trump, who has avoided saying publicly that Russia helped him win the presidency in 2016 through its election interference. American intelligence agencies and federal prosecutors have long concluded that Russia tried to influence voters.

Read the rest