Dem
47
GOP
53
Time for another roundup of stories from the last few days.
Underwater... Bigly: A new poll from Reuters/Ipsos reports that 32% of Americans ike the idea of ending birthright citizenship. Meanwhile, 64% don't like the idea at all.
Our Take: This is the kind of profound insight you can really only develop with years of thinking and writing about politics: Having Americans oppose a signature policy initiative by a margin of 2-to-1, heading into a midterm election, is no bueno.
NICE, NICE Baby: Speaking of unpopular Trump administration policies, the President has figured out that he has a PR problem when it comes to ICE. He has also come up with a solution (or, at least, someone suggested a solution to him and he took ownership of it). His (apparent) plan: Change "Immigration and Customs Enforcement" to "National Immigration and Customs Enforcement." So, NICE instead of ICE. Problem solved!
Our Take: Trump was/is pretty good at licensing. He has never, ever been good at branding, which is why Trump steaks, Trump airlines, Trump vodka, etc. were all failures. If he has really deluded himself into thinking that this will do anything besides invite an avalanche of scorn and derision, he's nuts.
Planned... Cosmetic Procedures?: Having lost federal funding, at least until there's a Democratic trifecta again, Planned Parenthood (PP) has gotten creative in order to keep the doors open. Endowed, it would seem, with the necessary staff, equipment and client base, the organization has started offering Botox treatments. Since PP is a non-profit concern, their price for Botox ($9 per unit) is generally cheaper than any other provider.
Our Take: They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast.
Islamophilia: With the new, court-ordered map that will likely net them a U.S. House district in Utah, the state's Democratic operatives had to decide which candidate would get their endorsement. And the convention went with a candidate who seems to have been custom-designed to aggravate Donald Trump. It's Liban Mohamed, the liberal, Muslim son of Somali immigrants.
Our Take: There are still others in the primary, but the backing of the party functionaries is big. If Mohamed gets the nomination, and then the seat, Trump's head is going to explode. On the other hand, Democrats often prefer making statements rather than winning. If top priority were winning the seat, picking a native-born, third-generation Mormon Utahn might have been a good idea.
Just Joking: Another television star has made a joke at the expense of Donald Trump's mortality, on the heels of Jimmy Kimmel's joke of that sort that caused a conniption in the White House. It is improbable that we will see conniption v2.0, however, as the TV star in question is Donald Trump. Meeting with Charles III, and accompanied by the First Lady, Trump observed that his parents were married for 63 years, and then told Melania "[T]hat's a record we won't be able to match, darling. I'm sorry. Just not gonna work out that way."
Our Take: As everyone knows, the penalty for joking about the president's demise is that you're fired. We don't make the rules here, we just make sure they're enforced consistently. So, time to take care of business Congress.
End of Days: Many readers (thanks!) sent us the link to this website, which has also been on fire on social media. It's a countdown how many days are left in Trump's presidency. He just dropped below 1,000 days left (he's now down to 997), hence the surge on social media.
Our Take: That means that 464 days of his term have elapsed, as of this writing. Funny, feels more like 464 years.
And that's the latest. We want you to go to the window, open it, stick your head out and yell: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore." (Z & A)