Sunday Roundup

This week, as Britain broke with the EU, some in the U.S. media broke with reality by continuing to normalize the unreal candidacy of Donald Trump. After a speech on Wednesday focusing on economics and attacks on Hillary Clinton, many pundits gave Trump the gift of analyzing the speech as if it had been delivered by someone other than the most dangerous and unstable nominee in modern history. "That's called the pivot," said Joe Scarborough, while Mark Halperin allowed that "the themes Trump chose... were well chosen," the speech "decently written," and that Trump is "better on prompter." In other words, focusing on weeds in a forest of demonstrable lies: the U.S., for example, is not "the highest taxed nation in the world." As noted by Politifact, which has debunked this claim three times, the U.S. is "nowhere near the top." Meanwhile, Democrats broke with House rules and staged a sit-in on the House floor to demand votes on gun control legislation. The effort was labeled a "publicity stunt," by Paul Ryan -- a break from irony from a man who endorsed Donald Trump.