In Case You Missed It \u2013 June 6th<\/p>\n
The news this morning:\u00a0Eagles football team didn\u2019t show at the White House, but the ceremony went on anyway.\u00a0 It did raise the question; does the President know the words to the National Anthem?\u00a0 Paul Manafort contacted witnesses in his upcoming trial to make sure they got their story straight (he must not know that witness tampering goes in the \u201ccloud\u201d and stays in the \u201ccloud\u201d) and will probably be in jail before his trial begins.\u00a0This increases the pressure on him to cut a deal with the Mueller team:\u00a0 what does he know?\u00a0 And of course, primary elections across the country, setting the stage for a possible Democratic Congress after November.\u00a0 Does this mean impeachment?<\/p>\n
Kelly Sadler, the White House staffer who made the comment that it didn\u2019t matter what John McCain says because, \u201c\u2026he\u2019ll be dead soon,\u201d is out of the White House.\u00a0 Whether she left because of the comment, or for some other reason is unknown.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of Robert Kennedy (I can still remember the shock of hearing that as I woke up to the \u201cclock-radio\u201d) and the seventy-fourth anniversary of the D-Day Invasion.\u00a0 Bill Clinton discovered that the excuses about his sexual exploits that worked in the 1990\u2019s don\u2019t work in the \u201cMe-Too\u201d era.\u00a0 He faltered in a \u201csoftball\u201d interview with NBC\u2019s Craig Melvin. \u00a0Clinton needs to “fade away.”<\/p>\n
Speaking of \u201cMe-Too,\u201d remember the Stanford swimmer case, where the man was convicted of sexual assault (attacking an unconscious woman by a dumpster) but received a short six-month sentence where he served three?\u00a0 The judge who issued that sentence was recalled from office yesterday.<\/p>\n
But as the political news clogs the airways, there are changes quietly being made in the US government that will alter our world.\u00a0 President Trump has asked Secretary of Energy Rick Perry to use his emergency authority (until now confined to natural disasters) to force energy utilities to use more expensive and polluting coal plants rather than natural gas.\u00a0 Trump is trying to prop up the coal industry at the cost of both the environment and consumers.\u00a0 Employment in the coal industry is at 53,000; up from a low of 49,000 two years ago.<\/p>\n
Scott Pruitt, the embattled EPA Director, used his staff to search for used Trump Hotel mattresses as he looked for a new apartment.\u00a0 He also used his aides to help his wife find a job with fast food giant Chick-Fila.\u00a0The good news, as long as he keeps concentrating on this stuff, he won\u2019t get to damage the environment.<\/p>\n
Grizzly bears in the Yellowstone Park region were taken off of the endangered species list a year ago.\u00a0Bears had grown from a low of 136 in 1975 to around 700 in 2017.\u00a0 The Wyoming wildlife commission just approved a hunt for as many as twenty-two bears, the first time in four decades.\u00a0 This is how the bears got on the endangered list in the first place.<\/p>\n
The ongoing crisis at the border has grown worse, with thousands of children being held in temporary shelters, including a closed Wal-Mart, while the Administration continues to remove children from parents who arrive, both legally and illegally, to ask for refuge in the United States.\u00a0 The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has called on the US to end the practice:\u00a0 US Ambassador Nikki Haley responded by attacking the Commission.<\/p>\n
Vice President Pence is planning to go back to South America, working to ostracize Venezuela from the Organization of American States, and putting more pressure on the failing government there. The Vice President is getting out of the US and away from the political crisis. \u00a0He also sent his heartfelt concerns to the people of Guatemala, where a volcanic eruption has buried several villages.\u00a0 Hundreds are missing.<\/p>\n
But nothing is mentioned about Puerto Rico, where a Harvard study shows that thousands died (perhaps as many as 8,500) as a result of Hurricane Maria last year, not the sixty-four of the \u201cofficial\u201d count.\u00a0 There are no Congressional investigations planned, and there is no increased influx of Federal funding coming.\u00a0 Puerto Ricans, US citizens, are on their own.\u00a0The infrastructure, no-where near repaired, is so fragile that even a minor storm could knock out the island again.<\/p>\n
In another infrastructure crisis, the state of Michigan is ending its free bottled water program in Flint, Michigan.\u00a0 The Governor says that testing shows lead levels below the Federal limits, so the bottled water isn\u2019t needed.\u00a0 Many residents point out that the lead pipes that created the problem are still there, and water should be provided until they are replaced.\u00a0 But, Michigan is considering taxing a Nestle bottled water plant across the state.\u00a0 The plant pumps 400 gallons a minute to fill 4.8 million bottles a day.\u00a0 The cost for the water: $200\/well annual fee.\u00a0 Maybe a larger tax could be used to fix lead pipes.<\/p>\n
In case you missed it, the US and China are arguing about small manmade islands that China is claiming in the South China Sea.\u00a0 The Chinese have built these sea level reefs into military bases, including an airfield, in order to claim extending national sovereignty over the Sea almost to the Philippines.\u00a0 The US refuses to recognize the Chinese claims, and has sent both US warships and B-52 Bombers to do right-of-passage exercises in the area.\u00a0 As long as everyone keeps their fingers off the triggers, it will probably be OK.<\/p>\n
And to bring it all back around to the Mueller investigation again, a candidate for the New York State Attorney General office is running on one main issue:\u00a0 whatever happens in the Federal investigation, she will make sure the State of New York will prosecute the Trump family for their actions.\u00a0Federal pardons don\u2019t effect state charges.<\/p>\n
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