Monday 8/21/17 - Day 214: Solar Eclipse

After a month of for my own sanity, I'm now back and ready to keep you up-to-date with the latest shenanigans by our filthy administration. I've posted links to other aggregators for each of the days I missed, if you really want to catch up. Otherwise, here's a 2-minute rundown on how fucked up the month has been.

Today was completely dominated by a total solar eclipse, coast to coast. Not even the administration could doubt the science involved in the phenomenal natural spectacle.

But while the nation looked towards the sun and the moon...

• The Trump family has exhausted all funding for the Secret Service for the year (already). Over 1000 agents have exhausted their yearly allowance of hours, and many look like they won't be paid for their work. This is typical of Trump - employ somebody, and then don't pay them.
• The GOP is happily spending money at Trump's properties. Disgusting.
• In the wake of a variety of industry advisory committees being disbanded, we have a new one: the federal advisory panel for the National Climate Assessment just got the axe. The committee's chair has suggested that this move is short-sighted. I think he was being generous.
• The administration has pulled the plug in Obama's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, cutting grants three years into their five-year tenure. The reason? They had issue with the pilot program, rather than the current program. The real reason? They weren't promoting abstinence.
• The administration has halted research on the effects of mining coal by blowing up mountaintops. After recently allowing the mining of coal by blowing up mountaintops. Incredibly shady. What have they got to hide?
• The administration has also decided to undo Obama's ban on selling drinks in disposable plastic bottles in National Parks. Because a cabinet with deep-seated ties to industry just loves deregulation, right? Environmental protections? Not so much.
• Banon's "firing" looks more likely to have been a strategic move to enable him to more freely pursue the combined Bannon-Trump agenda. Indeed, he has already picked back up where he left off at Breitbart, declaring that he was "going to war for Trump". Ugh. If I never hear Bannon's name again, it will be too soon.
• There was a blink-and-you-missed-it white nationalism rally in Boston this weekend. There were also ~40,000 protestors there to greet them. Go Boston!