Trump tells Republicans to get health care done AFP (There’s fire on the mountain in Trumpland but nobody seems to be running. The president wants people to start running so he can save some face. Trump caring enough to try and save face……that’s new)
Washington (AFP) – President Donald Trump made a last-ditch bid to salvage a central campaign pledge Wednesday, deploying a mix of threats and flattery as he told Republican senators to pass health care reform before their summer break.
With his credibility on the line, Trump told a group of 49 Republican senators assembled at the White House that they must try again to repeal and replace Obamacare and not leave Washington until they do so. Read more
Minneapolis police officers were startled by noise before fatal shooting of Australian woman Good Morning America. (Maybe America should look into recruiting brave and courageous people for our police departments instead of the cowards we seem to have these days who seem to shoot at the sound of the wind.)
Minnesota state officials have identified the two Minneapolis Police Department officers involved in the fatal shooting of a 40-year-old Australian woman who called 911 on Saturday. Read more…
Justices uphold refugee ban but say grandparents still OK AP (Everybody but the grandparents. You hear that President Trump? Leave the grandmas and grandpas alone.)
The Supreme Court says the Trump administration can strictly enforce its ban on refugees, but is leaving in place a weakened travel ban that includes grandparents among relatives who can help visitors from six mostly Muslim countries get into the U.S.
The justices acted Wednesday on the administration’s appeal of a federal judge’s ruling last week. U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson ordered the government to allow in refugees formally working with a resettlement agency in the United States. Watson also vastly expanded the family relations that refugees and visitors can use to get into the country. Read more…
House Republicans Have a New Budget. Here Are 3 Ways it Could Affect You Time. (Basically take more from the poor and give to the rich. Seen one, seen all. GOP budgets aren’t very difficult to predict.)
As Senate Republicans’ health care reform package appeared doomed to disaster on Tuesday, their counterparts in the House looked to reset matters with a fresh budget proposal.
The House Republicans’ spending plan aims to balance the federal budget within a decade, reducing the deficit by $6.5 trillion, partially by cutting billions of dollars from entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Read more…
$5 billion in student loans may be dismissed because the lender lost the paperwork Business Insider. (Wouldn’t that be sweet justice for the poor, oppressed slaves who would escape the life of servitude they were about to be subjected to?)
Billions of dollars in student loans may be wiped out for tens of thousands of borrowers in the US because a lender didn’t keep track of the paperwork verifying ownership of the loans, according to The New York Times.
The National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts, which holds 800,000 private loans and is one of the country’s largest owners of private student loans, is at the center of the legal dispute, The Times reports. Read more…
How did Taliban fighters get their hands on US special-operations gear? Business Insider. (So, seriously, who is selling American made weapons to terrorists? Apart from the ones we arm officially, that is.)
Taliban fighters are packing new American-made heat — at least, according to their propaganda videos.
A recently released 70-minute video of Afghanistan Taliban training exercises produced by the insurgent organization’s media arm appears to show militants wielding firearms and equipment usually carried by U.S. special operations forces, Military Times reports. Read more…
CONGRESSMAN ASKS NASA IF THERE’S AN ANCIENT CIVILIZATION ON MARS. FOR REAL Newsweek. (He sits on the “science” committee. Just let that sink in for a moment.)
A Republican congressman from California on Tuesday asked members of a NASA panel if there had been ancient civilizations on Mars.
Addressing a NASA scientist testifying before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher said, “You have indicated that Mars was totally different thousands of years ago,” according to a video posted to YouTube. “Is it possible that there was a civilization on Mars thousands of years ago?” Read more…
Elon Musk: Running US on Solar Requires 100 Miles Square of Panels PC Magazine. (Easy to say, let’s see it happening before we jubilate.)
Last year, Elon Musk promised to fix South Australia’s power problems with a giant rechargeable battery. This year, he’s building that battery which will count as the world’s largest once installed. Now Musk is turning his attention to the US and believes it’s easily possible to power all of the US using solar power. Read more…
Megyn Kelly’s NBC Show Is Stuck In A Bad Pattern Huffington Post (I wonder why)
NBC host Megyn Kelly’s Sunday night news magazine has lost viewers every week since its June debut, and last weekend’s episode was no exception.
The July 16 episode of “Sunday Night With Megyn Kelly,” a spotlight on sexual harassment in Silicon Valley, raked in 3.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen data, marking the show’s lowest viewer turnout since its June debut. This past Sunday’s episode, the sixth to air, earned a 0.4 rating in the sought-after 18-49 age demographic, which means that a mere 0.4 percent of those in that age group participating in Nielsen’s rating service watched the show. Read more…
Corporate lobbying helped derail border tax: senior Republican Reuters (So, congressmen are bribed out of what they wanted to do. Tell me something new)
An aggressive corporate lobbying effort to derail a Republican-backed border tax has forced lawmakers working on tax reform to seek alternatives, Kevin Brady, chairman of the tax-writing U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, said on Wednesday.
The proposed border adjustment tax on U.S. companies that move jobs abroad and import products back into the U.S. market was meant to be a linchpin of a Republican tax overhaul in the House of Representatives. Read more…
