Day 146: Shooting

Another day, another slew of bad news. I long for the days when I could trust the administration to do something reasonable.

• A lone gunman with an axe to grind against Republicans started shooting at a congressional baseball team practice, hitting a Republican congressman among others, before dying in a shootout with police. Of course, Republicans are now crying out for laxer gun control laws. It's been repeatedly noted that almost all gun violence occurs from people with a history of domestic violence, including this one. Is there a reason people refuse to listen? The obvious answer is terrifying.
• In addition to this shooting, which made national news, there were at least two other shootings in the US today. Why the fuck can't we do something about this, like every other civilized country in the world?
• Trump reassured the mayor of a Virginia island that is vanishing from climate change and rising sea levels that the island isn't going anywhere, and that we just need to deal with erosion. These people have their heads so far in the sand they're going to hit water soon.
• In an attempt to mitigate the argument at the Supreme Court that his travel ban has already expired and so their hearing is moot anyway, Trump amended his executive order to start it over for another 90 days. Well, the original 90 days weren't important (we've had almost 146!), why would the next 90 be? This is ridiculous.
• Trump's picks for federal courts sound like great people. All have been so far drawn from the rolls of the ultra-conservative Federalist Society. This is what stacking the judiciary looks like. At least one of them had a trainwreck of a confirmation hearing though. Maybe select better candidates for judges?
• The Senate passed that bill hitting Russia with sanctions. Tillerson is still batting for Russia.
• Mueller is now investigating Trump for obstruction of justice. Good.
• Almost 200 democrats in Congress are suing Trump for his foreign business dealings. This one is well worth reading. I particularly like this paragraph: “It puts the government in the position of saying that nobody can address this — not hotel competitors, not states, not members of Congress. And you cannot get away with that in a rule-of-law system.”
• A reminder to please keep calling about the Republican's healthcare bill. 
• Betsy De Vos is planning to rework Obama-era rules restraining predatory for-profit schools. Because of course she is. The Obama regulations were long overdue, and relaxing them is not a satisfactory option. I remain disgusted with everything that De Vos does.
• And finally, because Sessions has flatly denied it, here is a photograph from Getty Images of Sessions with the Russian ambassador at the Mayflower Hotel last year. (Original)