Good Monday Morning.
Here is what’s on the President’s agenda today:
- In the morning, President Donald J. Trump will receive his daily intelligence briefing.
- In the afternoon, the President will have lunch with Vice President Mike Pence.
- The President will then meet with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
- Later in the afternoon, the President will participate in a Made in America product showcase.
It’s “Made in America” week
The Trump administration will spend the week highlighting the president’s domestic manufacturing agenda. On Monday, the president will showcase products manufactured in all 50 states.
“The week ahead is going to be a great opportunity to highlight and to celebrate American workers and American companies that are responsible for producing the goods marked ‘Made in America’ that are a gold standard throughout the world,” White House director of media affairs Helen Aguirre Ferre said Sunday.
New York will be represented by iconic piano manufacturer, Steinway & Sons. Founded in 1853 in New York City, Steinway will offer special financing deals for the rest of July on its pianos as part of the event. “There are only a handful of brands that have the kind of American legacy that Steinway has,” Ron Losby, CEO of Steinway Musical Instruments, said in a statement.
On Wednesday, Trump will issue a proclamation on the importance of making products in America. And on Saturday Trump will travel to Newport News, Va., for the commissioning of the new aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford.
One item that is also on the Trump agenda: tariffs to incentivize American companies to keep their manufacturing here in the U.S. “Everything is on the table,” a White House official said.
Hot mess in the Senate delayed after McCain surgery
The Senate will delay consideration of the latest healthcare bill iteration while Senator McCain recovers from a surgical procedure.
McConnell’s decision amounted to another setback for GOP efforts, promoted by President Donald Trump, to repeal and replace “Obamacare” after years of promises. McConnell issued his statement late Saturday not long after McCain’s office disclosed that he had undergone surgery to remove a blood clot from above his left eye, and had been advised by his doctors to stay in Arizona next week to recover.
The GOP senators don’t have any votes to spare for their bill, so McCain is a necessary participant in the process of passing this hot mess.
“While John is recovering, the Senate will continue our work on legislative items and nominations, and will defer consideration of the Better Care Act,” said McConnell, R-Ky. It was not clear when the Senate would take up the bill again.
“We wish Senator McCain a speedy recovery,” White House director of media affairs Helen Aguirre Ferre said Sunday.
McCain’s procedure seems kind of serious:
In Phoenix, Mayo Clinic Hospital doctors said McCain underwent a “minimally invasive” procedure to remove the nearly 2-inch (5-centimeter) clot and that the surgery went “very well,” a hospital statement said. McCain was reported to be resting comfortably at his home in Arizona.
Pathology reports on the clot were expected in the next several days.
Stand by to see how this develops.
Rand: They don’t have the votes
Senator Rand Paul told Fox News Sunday that he does not think Senate Majority Leader McConnell has the votes to pass the new Obamacare bill.
“I still think the entire 52 of us can get together on a more narrow, clean repeal,” the Kentucky Republican said.
He is not the only senator that will oppose the bill. Senator Susan Collins told ABC’s “This Week” that she didn’t know if the bill could pass and that it would be “extremely close.” She said that eight to ten Republicans have “deep concerns.”
“But how this would all translate out, I’m not certain, and I never underestimate Leader McConnell’s skills,” she said.
The days of social engineering at the Department of Education are over
According to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, the agency’s Office of Civil Rights will return “to its role as a neutral, impartial, investigative agency.”
In a letter to Sen. Patty Murray (D), DeVos asserted that the department’s civil rights arm under the Obama administration “had descended into a pattern of overreaching, of setting out to punish and embarrass institutions rather than work with them to correct civil rights violations and of ignoring public input prior to issuing new rules.”
The agency will not issue any more “dear colleague” letters that hand down edicts of “new regulations via administrative fiat.”
The letter was a response to 34 Senate Democrats who wrote to DeVos asking for a list of civil rights investigations that the Trump administration has closed or dismissed. DeVos did not respond directly to that request.
DeVos wrote that the Obama Department of Education OCR’s activism may have been “politically expedient” but it “deprived the public of meaningful opportunities to provide input. At my direction, the department will no longer mask new regulations as Dear Colleague letters and will issue new regulations only after appropriate notice and public comment.”
Good.
James Carville: Democrats will have a hard time taking back the Senate
But a good chance of taking back the House.
“I think right now most Democrats are trying to focus on the 2018 elections and trying to recruit people and keep incumbents, and you know I would say we have a pretty good chance of taking the House back. The Senate is very, very difficult,” Carville told New York City radio host John Catsimatidis Sunday morning.
“The only places where we have an opportunity for pick up are, you know, Nevada is pretty good. After that Arizona is less good, then you’re down to Texas and Alabama, and for Democrats to win the Senate back, they have to pick up three seats,” Carville concluded.
I don’t know if the Democrats can take back the House. What is the platform their challengers are promoting to win a House seat? Is it #resist? Is that the winning platform? It’s still early but until the Democrats have a platform that will resonate with voters they won’t win anything.
First woman to play ‘Doctor Who’ sparks backlash
Nope for me, just NOPE, NOPE, NOPE.
I’m a big Doctor Who fan, but I haven’t tuned in to the current season after the first two episodes. The season has been rather uninteresting to me. And now…
Meet the Thirteenth Doctor #DoctorWho #Doctor13 pic.twitter.com/uALi0maO9o
— BBC (@BBC) July 16, 2017
“There’s really no f—king need. The Dr. is male,” one user wrote. “Hate how it’s fashionable to make male characters female. It’s utter s—.”
“Worst decision ever. The doctor who role belongs to a man, wait always has, and always should,” another wrote. “The doctor has always been a man for a reason – because it isn’t a female role. The have killed the tradition of a classic show.”
Another female fan wrote that she was “gutted” that “Doctor Who” had “sold out to the (politically correct) squad.”
Of course, those who did not like turning the character into a woman were called “misogynist,” but Doctor Who is a time lord, not a time lady. Why not leave the character as it was intended and make another show with a woman as the lead in a sci-fi series? These kinds of social engineering projects don’t end well.
Photo of the day:
Jacobs Crawley, of Boerne, Texas, comes off Little Muffin during saddle bronc rodeo finals action at the Calgary Stampede in Calgary, Alberta, Sunday, July 16, 2017. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP)
Other morsels:
Martin Landau, Oscar-winning film and TV actor, dies at 89
George A. Romero, ‘Night of the Living Dead’ director, dies at 77
Sen. Dean Heller’s Las Vegas office broken into, police say
Man hangs himself in O’Hare Airport bathroom
Army veteran fired from Home Depot in Texas after trying to stop shoplifters
Anti-Trump protests staged at U.S. Women’s Open
Chinese scientists clone genetically altered dog, say they’re ready to mass produce ‘super dogs’
Israel to reopen Jerusalem holy site after terror attack
Caitlyn Jenner mulling over Senate run: ‘I have considered it’
Teen facing 15 charges in connection to London acid attacks
And that’s all I’ve got, now go beat back the angry mobs!
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