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Sarah Palin (remember her?) is adjusting nicely to her new role as a full-time Internet troll.

After a very brief stint as a campaign surrogate for Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Palin spends most of her time now on social media posting inflammatory memes and lengthy commentaries on whatever happens to be in the news cycle.

And like a good troll, she is sloppy and lazy.

"Don't be Fooled! The Paris Climate Accord is a SCAM," read a cheap-looking meme posted to her Facebook wall this week. "They pretend it's about fixing our environment but it's really about stealing Billions from the American people and giving it to foreign companies, countries and lobbyists!"

The post included a photo of several well-dressed men cheering in what appeared to be a legislative chamber.

Palin's post came in reference to the president's announcement last week that he would pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement, a major accord aimed at curbing climate change.

One glaring problem with Palin's anti-Paris Agreement note was that the included picture didn't feature climate change lobbyists. It featured several current Republican members of the Florida House of Representatives, according to Politico's Marc Caputo.

Though Palin deleted the Facebook post shortly after Politico pointed out her mistake, it wasn't before Florida Republicans noticed. And, boy, did they have something to say about it.

"I'm appalled," Republican State Rep. Scott Plakon, who was featured in the now-deleted Facebook post, said as a joke.

He then added, "As the owner of a publishing company, I find it appalling that she would use a low-res picture like this when a high-res picture is readily available."

"I was almost in tears with laughter," he added. "I'm not sure what she's saying. Are we cheering for Paris or against it? I think she's saying we're celebrating Paris."

Former Republican State Rep. J.C. Planas wrote on Palin's Facebook wall prior to the photo's deletion, "That is a picture of REPUBLICAN Florida Legislators. Hahahahahahaha!!!! You are such an idiot!!!"

Former State Rep. Seth McKeel told Politico that he "assumed it was some idiot who found a random pic."

"Are they really suggesting Will and I took some vote on the Paris Climate Accord?" he asked.

Remember: It wasn't too long ago that Palin's endorsement meant the difference between winning and losing an election. Now current and former lawmakers are going on the record mocking her.

How things change.

You don't hear about Palin much these days. When you do, it's rarely, if ever, for something flattering.

She was able to cling to relevance after her vice presidential bid thanks to reality TV and a contributorship on Fox News. Both deals eventually ran dry, leaving her to rely on the right-wing public speaking circuit as her primary platform. That has also dried up for her.

The last time Palin enjoyed any sort of influence was in 2016 when she endorsed Trump in the GOP presidential primaries. She even appeared onstage with the Queens businessman at rallies. However, that brief burst of relevance was also short-lived, as she quickly disappeared entirely from Trump's rotation of preferred campaign surrogates. A spot in his administration was out of the question.

It has been a long road for Palin. From governor, to vice presidential candidate, to GOP kingmaker, to reality TV star, to right-wing Internet troll. She has come a long way.

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Sarah Palin, what did the Florida Republican Party ever do to you? - Washington Examiner

By Lawrence Hurley | WASHINGTON

WASHINGTON Republican officials from 16 U.S. states led by Texas said on Tuesday they have come to the defense of President Donald Trump's ban on travelers from six Muslim-majority nations, telling the Supreme Court the order did not unconstitutionally single out Muslims and was needed to protect national security.

The officials filed a legal brief with the Supreme Court as it mulls whether to take up the Trump administration's appeal of lower court rulings blocking the travel ban signed by the Republican president on March 6 and let it go into effect.

In the states' brief, filed on Monday, Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller wrote that the executive order does not mention religion at all and distinguishes people based only on nationality.

"The executive order therefore is emphatically not a 'Muslim ban,'" Keller wrote.

Keller added that courts should be careful when second-guessing a president's national security determinations, an argument that echoes the administration's view that the judiciary should defer to the president on such matters.

The brief said the order did not violation the Constitution's ban on the government favoring or disfavoring any particular religion or its guarantee of due process.

The filing came after the administration asked the high court last Thursday to allow the order to take effect. [nL1N1IZ03Q]

Aside from Texas, the officials were Republican state attorneys general from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and West Virginia, as well as Mississippi's Republican governor.

Three Republican attorneys general came from states with Democratic governors: Louisiana, Montana and West Virginia. Most of the states had also backed Trump earlier in the litigation.

Many Democratic state officials have opposed the ban in lower courts.

The high court is due to review legal papers filed by the ban's challengers, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, before acting. The briefs are due on Monday.

A key issue before the justices in whether Trump's comments during the 2016 president campaign, including calling for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States," can be used as evidence that his order was intended to discriminate against Muslims.

The administration filed emergency applications with the justices seeking to block lower court rulings that went against Trump's order barring entry for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days while the U.S. government implements stricter visa screening.

Trump's order also called for suspending all refugee admissions for 120 days.

The move comes after the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on May 25 upheld a Maryland judge's ruling blocking the order. [nL1N1IR1FY]

Potentially making it harder for his lawyers to win at the Supreme Court, Trump again commented on the case on Monday, tweeting complaints that his own administration had issued a "watered down, politically correct version" of an earlier order he signed on Jan. 27 that also was blocked by courts. [nL1N1J209L]

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)

WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday faulted North Carolina again in a racially tinged voting rights case, upholding a lower court's ruling that Republican lawmakers mapped state legislative districts in a way that diluted the clout of black voters.

WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that church-affiliated hospital systems do not have to comply with a federal law governing employee pensions, overturning lower court decisions that could have cost the hospitals billions of dollars.

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Republican officials from 16 states back Trump in travel ban fight - Reuters

Former Vice President Joe Biden will join Mitt Romney and other prominent Republicans at an annual summit in Utah this week.

Romney, the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, will interview Biden, on Friday as part of the three-day summit, the Associated Press reported .

"Biden is attending because he believes in bipartisanship and the importance of keeping good lines of communication open across the aisle," Biden spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield told the AP.

The event comes about a week after Biden launched a political action committee (PAC) called "American Possibilities," dedicated to encouraging and aiding Democratic candidates to run for office.

The invitation-only Experts and Enthusiasts (E2) Summit in Park City, Utah, will feature a number of prominent Republicans, including Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain , both vocal GOP critics of President Donald Trump , and House Speaker Paul Ryan , who was Romney's running mate in 2012.

The event will also feature former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, former CIA Director Mike Morell and Microsoft Chairman John Thompson, Politico reported.

Trump declined the invitation, according to the AP.

Biden is not the first Democrat to attend Romney's annual summit. Democratic strategist David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to former President Barack Obama, participated in the discussion.

At the summit last year, Romney, then a "Never Trump" Republican, told the crowd that Trump's nomination as the Republican candidate "is breaking my heart for the party."

Biden, a longtime politician who is now 74 years old, spurred speculation in recent months that he would run for president in 2020, though he has not officially announced any intention to do so.

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Joe Biden Will Speak At Republican Summit Hosted by Mitt Romney - Fortune

One GOP politician is facing renewed scrutiny after calling for violence in the wake of last weekends deadly terror attack on London Bridge.

In a controversial Facebook post, Louisiana Republican Congressman Clay Higgins wrote on June 4, The free world all of Christendom is at war with Islamic horror.

Continued Higgins, Not one penny of American treasure should be granted to any nation who harbors these heathen animals. Not a single radicalized Islamic suspect should be granted any measure of quarter. Their intended entry to the American homeland should be summarily denied.

Every conceivable measure should be engaged to hunt them down. Hunt them, identify them, and kill them. Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and righteous. Kill them all.

Though many were critical of Higgins statement, he told the Washington Post that it was being interpreted incorrectly. Higgins maintained that he was only calling for the death of Islamic terrorists, not all Muslims.

Many Muslims are American citizens and Id give my last lifes blood for any one of them, but that doesnt mean Im not going to speak out boldly and from my heart about the threat we face as a nation and as a world, the 55-year-old told the newspaper.

Higgins also maintained to the Post that hes a compassionate, loving human being, but that he has no love for people who blow up children at a concert, referencing last months terror attack on Manchester Arena.

In a different statement to CNN, Higgins further defended his stance, asserting, We are a world at war.

FROM PEN:People at the White House: The Final Interview with The Obamas

The enemy is radicalized Islamic jihadists. The terrorists certainly take advantage of the politically correct madness that consumes the West. They revel, that many in the western world are frightened to speak freely. Ive never been accused of being politically correct. I call things the way I see them, he said.

Higgins has been mired in controversy before prior to being elected to Congress, he was the St. Landry Paris Sheriffs Offices captain and PIO in Louisiana. His intense Crime Stoppers videos related to the sheriffs office eventually lead to his resignation from the position, according to CNN.

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Louisiana Republican Rep. on Radicalized Islamic Suspects: 'Hunt Them, Identify Them, and Kill Them' - PEOPLE.com

This article originally appeared on AlterNet.

As he insults NATO, jails immigrants and pulls out of the Paris Agreement, many American politicians cling to the idea that Donald Trump is an aberration, a new disease in American politics that both the party and the country as a whole are just beginning to grapple with. As anyone who remembers the actual fake news that led the country into the Iraq War, or who has followed the careers of operatives like Roger Stone (or just watched Get me Roger Stone) can tell you, Trumps rise has been decades in the making.

What happened on climate change, Paul Krugman writes in his Monday column, isnt an unusual caseand Trump isnt especially unusual for a modern Republican.

Facts and expertise went out of style years ago, andtodays G.O.P. doesnt do substance; it doesnt assemble evidence, or do analysis to formulate or even to justify its policy positions. Facts and hard thinking arent wanted, and anyone who tries to bring such things into the discussion is the enemy. When Trumpcare was assembled, Krugman asks, Did the administration and its allies consult with experts, study previous experience with health reform, and try to devise a plan that made sense? Of course not. In fact, House leaders made a point of ramming a bill through before the Congressional Budget Office, or for that matter anyone else, could assess its likely impact.

When the CBO analyzed the latest version of the bill, it estimated a whopping 23 million Americans would lose healthcare. Instead of making any attempt to defend the bill, Mick Mulvaney, the White House budget director, decided to discredit the CBO, claiming the office did a miserablejob of predicting the effects of the Affordable Care Act in 2009 and accused an office headed by a former Bush administration official of being biased toward Democrats. Never mind that Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price helped select the offices current director. Never mind that, as Krugman notes, the White House did do an internal analysis of an earlier version of Trumpcare, which was leaked to Politico. Its predictions were even more dire than those from the C.B.O.

These facts are politically inconvenient, and now, Truth as something that exists apart from and in possible opposition to political convenience, is no longer part of their philosophical universe, Krugman writes. He continues:

Influential conservatives have for years clung to what is basically a crazy conspiracy theory that the overwhelming scientific consensus that the earth is warming due to greenhouse-gas emissions is a hoax, somehow coordinated by thousands of researchers around the world. And at this point this is effectively the mainstream Republican position.

They continue to say its a hoax partly to protect the companies that profit from pollution, claiming that without regulation, the magic of the marketplace can solve all problems, while at the same time swearing that these magical markets would roll over and die if we put a modest price on carbon emissions, which is basically what climate policy would do. This is nonsense, Krugman contends, but its not supposed to be true, its supposed to be convenient: Republicans want to keep burning coal, and theyll say whatever helps produce that outcome.

Read the entire column.

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Paul Krugman: The Republican Party is destroying America's credibility by the day - Salon