It’s been a very long day and I’m very tired from setting up a new poll and from doing the research and preparing the graphics for tomorrow’s Monthly Report. Please pardon my brevity.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 3:29 (average 5:01). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From The New Yorker: Commenting on Donald Trump’s first hundred days in office, Vice-President Mike Pence told Fox News on Sunday, “To tell you the truth, I really thought I’d be President by now.”
“When I agreed to run on the ticket with him, I said to myself, ‘Mike, after he’s been in the White House for a few weeks, he’ll be a total train wreck and you’ll be able to slide into the big-boy chair,’ ” Pence said. “I never in a million years thought he’d last a hundred days. My best guess was thirty.”
The former Indiana governor said that, with such seemingly fatal missteps as Trump’s failed health-care plan and travel bans, as well as any number of unhinged outbursts, “It feels like I’ve come close to getting in there maybe ten or twelve times. But close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”
Calling the past hundred days “the longest hundred days of my life,” Pence said that he has no choice now but to “sit and wait for my moment.”
Andy has made it clear that impeaching Trump is not enough. We also need to dump dozens of Republicans in the Presidential succession queue simultaneously. RESIST!!
From Daily Kos: A man armed with a machete and a bag full of knives seriously injured a Kentucky student Friday morning in a politically motivated attack at a campus coffee shop….
“The day of reckoning is here,” the man said, according to witnesses.
He then approached two women at the café.
“He asked the first girl if she was a Democrat or a Republican, she said Republican, (and) he said okay, then asked some other girl,” said witness Michael Soder. “By that time, some of my friends were running out and yelling for us to leave, and I tried to stay behind to see if — I mean I didn’t know what to do, I wanted to help, but I knew I should get out of there.”
Another witness shared a similar account.
“He asked somebody what their political affiliation was, they said ‘Republican,’ and the guy said, ‘You are safe,’ and then I realized what was going on and started getting people out,” said witness Tristan Reynolds.
The assailant, who police said was a former student, then pulled out a machete and attacked a woman in the café. [emphasis original]
I guess I need to retire the term Al Dubya after all these years. Al Drumpfenfarten is a greater terrorist threat to America and the World than al Qaeda or the Daesh ever were. RESIST!!
From NY Times: Congressional leaders reached a bipartisan agreement on Sunday to fund the government through September, effectively ending any suspense about the possibility of a government shutdown next weekend.
The agreement, which still must be voted on by lawmakers, includes increased funding for the military and for border security. But it does not include funding for the wall that President Trump wants to build along the border with Mexico, one of his major campaign promises.
The deal increases funding for the National Institutes of Health, despite the Trump administration’s request that its budget be reduced for the rest of the fiscal year. And it provides millions of dollars to reimburse costs incurred by local law enforcement agencies to protect Mr. Trump and his family — a boon to New York City, which has had the costly task of helping to protect Trump Tower.
The spending package would be the first significant bipartisan measure approved by Congress during the Trump presidency. Republicans, despite having control of both houses of Congress and the White House, were unable to pass any marquee legislation in the president’s first 100 days.
I’ll reserve judgment until I have more info, but it appears we got as much as we gave up or more, and the compromise appears better than a government shutdown. RESIST!!
Cartoon:
After years of promises and months of delays, House Republicans passed their version of an Obamacare repeal and replacement Thursday, muscling the far-right legislation through their chamber by feverishly pressuring moderates in the closing days.
