Your Thursday Trump Dump

Hey, are you aware that a jury has been selected for the trial of Bill Cosby and that opening arguments are scheduled for June 5th? Doesn't it seem like a few decades ago that the allegation that Bill Cosby was drugging and raping women was the biggest news story in the country? Now instead, it's each day's new reason why Donald Trump would be impeached if he was a Democratic President.

It looked like trial of Cos would be another Trial of the Century — we seem to get one about every twenty years — but now, we all have more important things to think about. Besides, all the reporters are busy being body-slammed by angry candidates or fighting back in The War on the Media, which really isn't a War on the Media. It's more like a War Against People Who Tell You Things You Don't Want To Believe Are True. Everyone seems to be fine with reporters who confirm their fantasies. Here are some who may or may not confirm yours…

  • It used to be that "tough guy" Republicans like Trump, Cruz and Huckabee said that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama could not possibly fight "Radical Islamic Terrorism" because they would not use that three-word phrase. That refusal proved they weren't serious, weren't strong enough, didn't understand the problem and were utterly unqualified for office. Well, guess what three-word phrase Trump no longer uses as president. William Saletan has more.
  • Matt Yglesias explains why there's no possible way for Republicans to "fix" health care in a manner that would be acceptable to most voters.
  • Paul Ryan says "We want everybody who doesn't get health care from either Medicare or Medicaid or from their job, about 11% of Americans, we want them, too, to get access to affordable health care." Jonathan Chait says that's a flat-out lie and notes that nothing Ryan has ever proposed would do that and his proposals would in fact take us in the opposite direction.
  • Trump used to be utterly pro-choice. What changed him? I suspect it was a realization that the "pro-life" people could be mobilized to his advantage…and nothing else. As Bridgette Dunlap reports, his administration is doing all that it can to make it difficult and expensive for a woman to obtain a safe abortion. Trying to convince women not to have them hasn't worked so well so this is the new approach.

Frank Rich recently interviewed Stephen Colbert, who (you'll be shocked to hear) did not have nice things to say about Mr. Trump. You can read about them here.