RNC First Night

I thought last night was pretty disgusting. Daniel Dale had my favorite summation of the first day of the RNC (some links from The Five Best Mother Jones

• The candidates wife was widely accused of plagiarism
• A congressman said on TV that whites have done more for civilization than non-whites
• A former child star defended a meme calling Hillary Clinton a "cunt"
• A soap opera actor called the president a Muslim
• A Duck Dynasty star accused some Americans of just wanting "free stuff"
• A sheriff celebrated the acquittals of offerces charged in Freddie Gray's death and called Black Lives Matter "anarchy"
• A mother of a Benghazi victim said "Hillary For Prison"
• The candidate phoned in to Fox News during the mother's speech
• The second-last speaker, a lieutenant-general, led a chant of "lock her up"
• Two speakers railed against "illegals"
• The opening prayer referred to Clinton and Democrats as "the enemy"

And to be clear, those "former child star" and "actors" weren't just random people in the press, they were speakers at the convention, on stage, during prime time, picked by the campaign!

And of course they were just factually wrong on most things. Here's what every speaker at the Republican convention should have, but didn't, tell you

• The border is more secure than it was eight years ago
• Fewer unauthorized immigrants are crossing the border than in 2008
• The Border Patrol's grown since 2008
• There are fewer unauthorized immigrants in the US than there were eight years ago
• Violent crime has declined each of the past eight years
• Terrorism's gone up since 2008 — but it's down from 2014 levels

Factcheck.org said Republican speakers twist facts on immigration, crime, Benghazi and employment:

• Two security contractors at the CIA annex in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, repeated their claim that they were told to “stand down” and not help Americans under attack. But multiple official reports say such an order was never issued.
• The sister of a slain Border Patrol agent said President Obama has left “border patrol agents thinly equipped,” and undermanned. In fact, both funding and staffing have increased under Obama.
• A Senate candidate claimed “neighborhoods have become more violent” under President Obama. In fact, the violent crime rate has gone down 20 percent under Obama, as of the most recent FBI statistics for 2014.
• Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Rep. Michael McCaul both wrongly claimed that Hillary Clinton supports “open borders.” She supported a bill that would have created a path to citizenship for those in the country illegally, but it also would have increased border security.
• Giuliani said that Clinton “advocated for the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya” and should be “accountable” for the country’s chaos. But he failed to mention that Trump, at the time, also supported the ouster of Gadhafi.
• Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions claimed that wages “have fallen,” when they’re up under Obama. He blamed immigration for a low labor force participation rate, when it’s mainly the result of demographics, including the aging of baby boomers.

More by CNN, Day 1 of GOP convention speeches: CNN vets the claims

Matt Yglesias describes 4 winners and 4 losers from the first night of the RNC

• Loser: The GOP’s future
• Loser: Neoconservatives
• Loser: Joni Ernst
• Loser: Melania Trump
• Winner: Donald Trump
• Winner: The city of Cleveland
• Winner: Rudy Giuliani - on how Trump will make America great again: "He will lead by leading."
• Winner: The Benghazi acrostic meme

That Stephen Colbert returned with a segment The Word: Trumpiness. "Truthiness was from the gut, but Trumpiness clearly comes from much further down the gastrointestinal tract."