Hey, remember how the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed and everybody went Yay! and then American conservative ideologues thought it would be a bright idea to immediately privatize a major economic system that had been centralized for generations and then all the power ended up in the hands of a few oligarchs who were then easily cowed by a former KGB agent on the make and now shit’s perennially fucked for the neighbors?

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One of our favorite SNL sketches is thirty years old. In it, Phil Hartman plays Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office, doing his Charming Old Codger bit for visitors. But as soon as they leave, he takes charge, commanding his hapless minions with supreme intelligence and authority.

It was hilarious — then and now — because it was so obviously not the case, despite efforts to portray Reagan as fully engaged in his own administration. And when it aired in December 1986, the Iran-Contra scandal had been revealed only weeks earlier.

Similar sketches were written for George W. Bush, who might have been slightly more engaged than Reagan, but not nearly as engaged as Dick Cheney. Just imagine Will Ferrell saying “I’m the Decider”, and a whole era springs to mind.

And then there’s Donald Trump, who couldn’t be less engaged.

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“49% of GOP voters nationally say they think that ACORN stole the election for President Obama. We found that 52% of Republicans thought that ACORN stole the 2008 election for Obama, so this is a modest decline, but perhaps smaller than might have been expected given that ACORN doesn’t exist anymore.” [PPP, via Political Wire]

“Gov. Mitt Romney’s campaign toasted its top donors Wednesday aboard a 150-foot yacht flying the flag of the Cayman Islands.” The yacht is called — wait for it — the Cracker Bay. [ABC]

Update: It’s Bermuda. We should know better than to trust Brian Ross.

Update II:

Upon further review, there are in fact multiple Cayman Island flags, and it appears that the original report by ABC News’ Brian Ross correctly identified the flag flying on the boat in question. The Washington Free Beacon regrets the error.

We should know better than to trust the Washington Free Beacon.

Right-Wing Site Falsely Accuses ABC News Of Misreporting Romney Party Yacht’s Cayman Flag [Mediaite]

Mitt in Michigan: “I love being home, in this place where Ann and I were raised, where the both of us were born. No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place where we were born and raised.” [TPM]

Fucking idiots:

New York congressman Anthony Weiner resigned in disgrace a full year ago, admitting to having sent lewd photos to female fans of his on Twitter.

But for one corner of the Internet, Weinergate is very much not over. A group of liberal bloggers believe that Anthony Weiner was blackmailed by Andrew Breitbart into a false confession, and are carrying out a lonely Twitter crusade to spread their theory — in spite of the fact that Weiner himself has never claimed this to be the case.

Even Weiner’s constituents didn’t want him to resign, but because we are a “Christian Nation”, the fainting-couch faithful (and Pelosi) got their way. He sent dick pix people. Get over it.

Meet the Weiner Truthers [Buzzfeed]

Lady gets on a plane, wearing this t-shirt. Flight proceeds uneventfully. But as the plane is about to land, she’s approached by the flight attendant:

She then proceeded to tell me that I needed to speak with the captain before disembarking the plane and that the shirt I was wearing was offensive.

Here’s how ThinkProgress headlines it:

Woman Kicked Off Flight For Wearing A Pro-Choice T-Shirt

Yeah. Right. We’re all for obscene outrage, but own what you wear.