PROGRESSIVE DISCUSSION - MONDAY 7/9 - SUNDAY 7/22

Here we go off to a new week with pretty much the same old news . . .

I am happy that more boys have been rescued in Thailand. That news is an uplifting way to start the day. Praying that the rest will be safely rescued, and that no further harm will come to any of those still trapped or to those trying to save them.

Then I read the news from the US, and it's the same old stuff. Saw a post on FB and then saw a second article about this on CNN's website. The US tried to kill a World Health Organization resolution to promote breast feeding. What the heck is up with that?!! Of course we know what's up with that--big business. Those makers of baby formula don't want mothers anywhere breastfeeding their children, and this government always sides with big business even when it is not in the interest of babies. Just more of the same profits over people.

Guiliani seems to confirm that yes, the JA did ask Comey to give Michael Flynn a break, which we all knew he did anyway. I will be so glad when this whole thing is over and done with. Let the chips fall where they may.

Morning all - just checking in as the world order does a slow 180. Makes you wonder if that wasn't the plan all along. Nuts!

Well, I emailed my concerns about SC Judge pick, no matter who it is, to Heidi Heidkamp today. Hers ads concerning her reelection here in ND this fall are beginning to concern me. I know she is trying to appease the Conservative voters in this Red State but they come across as sucking up to JA as well. Not liking it at all. Her vote for SC Judge will pretty much determine if I vote for her this Fall. Her opponent is a real ick, so won't vote for him either. Just way to much on the line for generations for me to give her my vote if she votes in favor of JA pick... So discouraging!

I'm not watching tonight either. Actually DGD is playing on TV in the Annual ND Lions Club Tourney where the selected Senior athletes from Class A & Class B schools play against each other. So, Class A girls play against Class B girls, who generally come from small rural community schools. Class A girls come from the larger city schools. They play one game in Bismarck tonight & 1 game in Fargo tomorrow night. We will watch on TV. I know this isn't much interest to anyone but me, but it just feels good to type something other than the depressing state of politics & JA supporters! So there ya go....LOL

Better choice to watch your DGD play ball, Linda. I'll be rooting for her team here in TN. No way will I be watching the JA's carnival barker bring 'em in and fill 'em with hate reality show.

As for the SC pick, I don't have much hope for anything there. More than likely the Rs will all follow along like lemmings regardless of who he picks, and their votes are all it will take. The best we can hope is that whoever he picks will turn out to surprise them and not always vote as they expect them to do. Ds really have no actual options. I'd like to see some Rs like Susan Collins and maybe a few others at least make a stab at not just meekly doing his bidding, but I don't hold out any real hope for that.

It figures that he would choose goods that don't affect his or the family's bottom line to put tariffs on. No way is he going to dip into anything that costs them. My only hope about the trade war he is starting is that it will backfire, and when it starts hurting the pocketbooks of some of his followers they will start realizing what fools he has made of them all. That may not happen, or even if it does it may not happen before the mid-terms. But, if the tariffs stick it may happen in time for 2020 although my guess is he'll lift them before then. And for anyone reading this, I do NOT want farmers or any Americans to be hurt by his policies but I think they very much will be.

Meanwhile you have American jobs(not million/billionaires) being lost because of the tariffs on Mexico steel:
www.cbsnews.com/news/factory-workers-lose-jobs-as-steel-tariffs-put-business-in-crisis-mode/

I'd love to know the qualifiers that gave some companies an exclusion on the tariffs, but others were denied (like the one in this article).

"Last week, Commerce Department granted seven companies a total of 42 exclusion requests, and denied 56 steel exclusion requests from 11 other companies, explaining in a statement that "exclusions generally are granted if there is no domestic availability and there are no overriding national security concerns with regard to the specific product.""

Another article said they may end up shutting down all together if they don't get some sort of waiver

Happily celebrating this morning the news that all those trapped in the cave are safely out! Such wonderful news! Also happy that Linda's DGD's team won last night's game. Now hoping they will win the next one as well. Sounds like this was a close, good game.

Kavanaugh for the JA's SC pick--it figures. He's the one that said presidents should be shielded from litigation, a 180 degree turnaround from when he was working for Ken Starr going after Clinton. From the little I have read about him thus far, he seems to be pretty far out there to the right. He's a Washington insider, but all that blather about draining the swamp is clearly just rhetoric to the JA's base as he has during his entire time in office  just continued to fill the swamp without a peep out of them. Linda, you're right about the Rs trying to paint Ds as only saying No. They have such short memories. The entire time Obama was in office, the Republicans did NOTHING but obstruct and cry no. They were not even willing to look at Merrit Garland. The only word in their vocabulary about anything was "No, No, No!" repeated over and over ad infinitum. How quickly they forget (or they just don't care that they are being hypocritical.) From what I've read about Kavanaugh, there is nothing I can find to agree with him about from gun control to birth control. But, he will be our next SC Justice, and he will affect each and everyone of our lives for the next 30 years. The choice of him says a lot about the JA, however, and his fear of what the Mueller investigation may ultimately reveal.

Got a call from the nursing home about 10 last night. My mom had a bad fall, but thankfully no broken bones. She thought she heard my dad out in the hallway, and she was trying to get out of bed to go see about him. Fell out of bed onto her face. Fortunately the bed was in its lowest position. She had a bloody nose, knot on her forehead, bruises, and will be very sore, but it could have been much worse so I am thankful there were no broken bones. Neither my mom or my dad can walk at all any longer. My dad, of course, was in bed asleep oblivious to it all, and I am thankful for that as well.