Waffle House killer was a sovereign citizen who wanted to meet Donald Trump. Update!

Courtesy of USA Today:

The suspected gunman on the run after riddling a Tennessee Waffle House with bullets dubbed himself a "sovereign citizen," before being arrested in July 2017 outside the White House. 

Travis Reinking, 29, used that term — which the FBI has also used to describe a group of anti-government extremists — during a clash last year with the Secret Service, according to a police report obtained by USA TODAY. 

Reinking told agents he needed to see President Trump and defined himself as sovereign citizen who had a right to inspect the grounds, according to an arrest report by the Metropolitan Police Department in D.C. He was arrested on an unlawful entry charge after refusing to leave the area. 

The FBI has said sovereign citizens "believe that even though they physically reside in this country, they are separate or 'sovereign' from the United States." 

The agency has also defined sovereign citizens as "anti-government extremists who claim the federal government is operating outside its jurisdiction and they are therefore not bound by government authority—including the courts, taxing entities, motor vehicle departments, and even law enforcement."

You may remember that Alaska's own domestic terrorist, Schaeffer Cox, also identifies himself as a sovereign citizen.

So you know, they're crazy.

After that incident at the White House the Secret Service actually took Renking's guns away and gave them to his father. A solution that had only one problem.

Courtesy of Newsweek:

Police said the father of suspected Waffle House shooter Travis Reinking handed his son back an AR-15 found at the scene, after it had been seized by authorities in relation to another incident.

That's right, daddy gave his guns back.

After all this is America, right?

There is at least one hero here and that is the young man who actually disarmed this killer bare handed.

What can really stop a bad guy with a gun? A good guy with quick thinking, bravery and the presence of mind to act. James Shaw is truly a hero. https://t.co/M9M2AesueW via @HuffPost

— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) April 23, 2018

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

James Shaw Jr. said he was dining at the restaurant near Nashville with a friend when suspected gunman Travis Reinking, armed with an AR-15, opened fire at people outside and then inside the establishment just before 3:30 a.m. 

Shaw said he jumped behind a nearby door and suffered a minor gunshot wound to his arm in the process. As he waited to see if he would live or die, Reinking’s gun appeared to jam, giving him a chance to charge.

“It was about that time that I made up my mind ― because there was no way to lock that door ― that if it was going to come down to it, he was going to have to work to kill me,” Shaw said at a press conference. “I rushed him and it actually worked out to my favor.” 

Shaw tackled Reinking and grabbed the gun’s barrel with his bare hand, an act that badly burned him in the process. 

Shaw said he didn’t feel the metal’s scorching heat on his skin. Instead, he continued to grip the firearm before tossing it over a counter. He then proceeded to physically remove Reinking out of the restaurant. Reinking disappeared on foot and remained at large as of late Sunday afternoon. 

Thanks to Mr. Shaw's courage there were not more people killed of wounded in this attack.

However it should be noted that if there had been stricter gun laws, or if  Reinking's dad was not such a fucking idiot, Shaw's life would not have been put at risk in the first place.

Getting a gun, especially an AR-15, should not be as easy as buying a pack of gum.

There should be an extensive background check, a waiting period, and then a viable reason given for why you think you need a gun in the first place.

And if the answer given is I hear voices in my head, my bitch of a wife is getting a little mouthy at home, or I am a sovereign citizen and I want to defend myself in case the government comes to take me away, then the answer should be a resounding "NO!"

Update: They finally caught this asshole.

BREAKING: Travis Reinking apprehended moments ago in a wooded area near Old Hickory Blvd & Hobson Pk. pic.twitter.com/00ukga37s6

— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) April 23, 2018

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

The police said Monday that they had arrested a suspect in the killing of four people at a Waffle House in Nashville, ending a wide search that had unnerved one of the largest cities in the South.

About 160 law enforcement officials had been involved in the search for the suspect, Travis Reinking, 29, who officials said used an AR-15 rifle to carry out a rampage at a restaurant southeast of downtown on Sunday morning. 

The police said they arrested Mr. Reinking on Monday afternoon in a wooded area near the apartment complex where he lived, bringing an end to a manhunt that had stretched into its second day.

Well at least that's some good news. 

Devin Nunes' challengers are using his obstruction of Russian investigations against him in their campaigns.

Courtesy of USA Today:  

Rep. Devin Nunes' handling of the Russia investigation as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee has become a major campaign issue as he seeks a ninth term in Congress. 

Both the California Republican and his Democratic challenger, Fresno County Deputy District Attorney Andrew Janz, are using Nunes' high-profile role in the bitterly partisan Russia inquiry to appeal for campaign cash throughout the nation.

 Janz said he has raised more than $1 million in the first quarter of 2018 in part because donors were upset by the now famous "Nunes memo" — which accused the FBI and Department of Justice of abusing their surveillance power to target a Trump campaign aide with ties to Russia. 

Democrats have denounced the memo as a blatant attempt by President Trump and House Republicans to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin and possible obstruction of justice by the president. 

"Traditionally, the prosecution of crimes has been a non-partisan activity, so I'm really disappointed to see my opponent and the Trump White House attacking federal law enforcement agencies and officials," said Janz, who has worked with FBI agents as a prosecutor. "It really undermines our criminal justice system, which is a cornerstone of our democracy."

That's very smart. I see Nunes' obstructionism as his main weakness. 

And I am going to be watching this race very closely because Devin Nunes is at the top of my list of motherfuckers that gots to go.

Mississippi nine year old boy shoots sister in the head when she refuse to give up video game controller.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

A 13-year-old girl has died after authorities say she was shot Saturday by her 9-year-old brother, local media reported. 

Monroe County Sheriff Cecil Cantrell said the girl would not give up a video game controller when her brother wanted it. 

Cantrell said she was shot in the back of the head, and that the bullet went through her brain. The girl was rushed to Le Bonheur's Children's Hospital in Memphis. Cantrell said late Sunday that she died of her injuries, WLOV-TV and other media reported. 

Authorities don't yet know how the child had access to the weapon they say he used to shoot his sister. 

It's also unclear how much knowledge the boy had of the dangers of guns.

Well he knew enough to point and shoot, and that is what makes guns so fucking dangerous.

This cannot be blamed on video games, or violent television shows, this happened because somebody in these children's lives did not understand the concept of gun safety and did not put this weapon in a secure location where the children could not access it.

So once again the gun that was purchased to keep people safe, ended up taking another innocent life.

Overwhelmingly voters want to elect politicians that will stand up to Donald Trump.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

Americans are mad, and that is putting Republicans at risk. 

A new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll finds voters looking toward the midterm elections are overwhelmingly unhappy with the country's direction, dissatisfied with its political leadership, and interested in electing a Congress that will confront President Trump. 

By close to 2-1, 58%-32%, those surveyed say they want to elect a Congress that mostly stands up to the president, not one that mostly cooperates with him. 

The level of voter unrest is rare at a time of prosperity, when a 55% majority rate the economy as being in a recovery. Even that assessment has a partisan cast: Republicans are twice as likely as Democrats to say the economy is growing. 

Seven in 10 Republicans say the country is headed in the right direction. But more than eight in 10 Democrats say it's off on the wrong track, and seven in 10 independents agree with them.

This of course reinforces what we have already witnessed in these special elections where Democrats are emerging victorious in places that have traditionally been GOP strongholds.

That blue wave is definitely coming, and it is being driven by women, minorities, and the newly energized young people of this country.

This could be a bloodbath.

Metaphorically speaking of course.

If you are planning to come to Alaska in the winter, you might want to pack your shorts.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

If you want to escape the cold, should you head to ... Alaska? 

While most of the lower 48 states continue to endure a hideous deep freeze, Alaska has had an unusually warm start to winter. 

In fact, several locations in northern and central Alaska — such as Utqiaġvik (Barrow), Bettles, Kotzebue and McGrath — all had their warmest December on record, according to climatologist Brian Brettschneider. Fairbanks had its 2nd-warmest December. Over the first three weeks of the month, the city was a whopping 20 degrees above average. 

And midday Tuesday, at 48 degrees, Anchorage's Merrill Field Airport was warmer than almost the entire Lower 48 states, including cities such as Jacksonville, Houston, Atlanta and New Orleans. 

Anchorage had its fifth-warmest December: an average temperature more than 7 degrees above average.

Alaska wasn't just warm in December: Utqiaġvik (Barrow) had its second-warmest year on record. In fact, the tiny city on the state's north coast warmed so fast in 2017, the weather data from the city were automatically flagged as unreal and removed from the climate database, the Capital Weather Gang said. 

The weather up here is warming so rapidly that the permafrost is melting and whole towns are in danger of collapsing.

In Anchorage, where I live, I have only had to shovel my driveway about four times this winter and honestly the snow was so minimal that I probably could have skipped one of those.

Typically I would have shoveled more than a dozen times by now, and have snowdrifts five feet high along my driveway.

The other day somebody asked me if this was how winters usually are up here, and I replied with "They are now."

I don't know what this means long term, but we could see a say when people flock to Alaska to escape the freezing temperatures in the lower 48.

Won't that be a kick in the ass?

Guess what? Your tax dollars are being used to protect Donald Trump's private businesses from lawsuits.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

Taxpayers are footing the legal bill for at least 10 Justice Department lawyers and paralegals to work on lawsuits related to President Trump's private businesses. 

Neither the White House nor the Justice Department will say how much it is costing taxpayers, but federal payroll records show the salaries of the government lawyers assigned to the cases range from about $133,000 to $185,000. 

The government legal team is defending President Trump in four lawsuits stemming from his unusual decision not to divest himself from hundreds of his companies that are entangled with customers that include foreign governments and officials. 

In the cases, Justice Department attorneys are not defending policy actions Trump took as president. Instead, the taxpayer-funded lawyers are making the case that it is not unconstitutional for the president's private companies to earn profits from foreign governments and officials while he's in office. 

The government lawyers and Trump's private attorneys are making the same arguments — that the Constitution's ban on a president taking gifts from foreign interests in exchange for official actions does not apply to foreign government customers buying things from Trump's companies. The plaintiffs, including ethics groups and competing businesses, argue the payments pose an unconstitutional conflict of interest.

Hey, remember when the Founding Fathers laid out all of those rules to protect this country from becoming an oligarchy or from being taken over by a dictator?

Boy those were the good old days, weren't they? 

EPA chief comforts fossil fuel companies by assuring him that new report which specifically blames climate change on humans will not impact his policy decisions.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said a newly released government report that lays most of the blame for the rise of global temperatures to human activity won't deter him from continuing to roll back the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, a major rule aimed at combating climate change. 

"We’re taking the very necessary step to evaluate our authority under the Clean Air Act and we’ll take steps that are required to issue a subsequent rule. That’s our focus," Pruitt said in an interview with USA TODAY Tuesday. "Does this report have any bearing on that? No it doesn’t. It doesn’t impact the withdrawal and it doesn’t impact the replacement."

You might be asking yourself why a scientific report would have zero impact on EPA policies, considering the job they are supposed to perform, and the answer to that is because it's only some report done by scientists.

Courtesy of the LA Times:  

Rigorous, independent research and analysis should undergird everything the government does. Nowhere is that more true than at the Environmental Protection Agency, which crafts and enforces a wide range of regulations aimed at limiting damage to the environment — and to people — from pollutants. Democratic administrations tend to use data to justify more aggressive regulation, while Republican administrations tend to prefer a lighter touch. But the current administration is following a third path, seemingly bent on converting the EPA into a science-be-damned rubber stamp for industry. And if director Scott Pruitt is successful, we will be living in a much more dangerous environment.

So no, a report from a bunch of scientists will NOT have an impact on the polices of the EPA, because the head of the EPA, Scott Pruitt, simply does not believe in all that science mumbo jumbo.

For profit charter schools charge taxpayers for students who do not show up for classes.

Charter schools touted by @BetsyDeVos lure at-risk students and when they stop coming, the state keeps paying. https://t.co/iB0FOeQHxC

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) October 5, 2017

Courtesy of USA Today:

Last school year, Ohio’s cash-strapped education department paid Capital High $1.4 million in taxpayer dollars to teach students on the verge of dropping out. But on a Thursday in May, the storefront charter school run by for-profit EdisonLearning was mostly empty. 

In one room, vacant chairs faced 25 blank computer monitors. Three students sat in a science lab down the hall, and another nine in an unlit classroom, including one youth who sprawled out, head down, sleeping. 

Only three of the more than 170 students on Capital’s rolls attended class the required five hours that day, records obtained by ProPublica show. Almost two-thirds of the school’s students never showed up; others left early. Nearly a third of the roster failed to attend class all week.

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has championed charters and for-profit education, contending in Congressional testimony that school choice can lower absenteeism and dropout rates. But at schools like Capital, a ProPublica-USA Today investigation found, the drop-outs rarely drop in—and if they do, they don’t stay long. Such schools aggressively recruit as many students as possible, and sometimes count them even after they stop showing up, a practice that can generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for empty desks.

If Betsy DeVos has her way this will be how ALL of the country's educational needs will be met.

They will just continue charging the American people for an education that nobody shows up to receive.

You ever wonder how they create more Republicans?

THIS is how they create more Republicans. 

Homeland Security informs officials in 21 states that Russians attempted to hack their election systems in 2016.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

Russians attempted to hack elections systems in Wisconsin and 20 other states in the run-up to last year's presidential election, Wisconsin officials said Friday. 

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security notified states of the attempted breaches on Friday, said Michael Haas, director of the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The attempt in Wisconsin was unsuccessful, he said. 

According to the Associated Press, Alabama, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia and Washington were also among the 21 states targeted. 

Wisconsin's voter registration system was targeted, as were election systems in other states that have a presence on the internet, Haas said. Haas said he did not know which states other than Wisconsin were part of the attempt by what Homeland Security officials told him were “Russian government cyber actors."

I am not at all convinced that these were only "attempts."

I think there had to be some successful hacks, and I would not to at all surprised to learn that there were a number of them.

I also think that ultimately we will learn that there more than 21 states targeted.

As I have said before, we are still at the beginning of all this and it is certain that there is so much, much more we are going to learn. 

The good news is that the Russians do not seem to be doing much to alter the outcome of the German election. The bad news is that the American Right Wing seems to be taking up the slack.

Courtesy of USA Today:

An alliance of mostly anonymous online trolls and extremist agitators are meddling in Germany's election, but researchers say Russians aren’t to blame. 

Instead, they say, right-wing groups in the United States are behind materials popping up on YouTube, messaging board sites like 4chan and reddit and texting service Gab.ai. 

The evidence comes less than a week before Sunday's vote that is likely to hand German Chancellor Angela Merkel a fourth term. 

"So far we have not been able to track down any specific Russian activity," said Simon Hegelich," a professor of political science data at the Technical University of Munich who has advised the German government about the threat of hacking and false information. 

"A lot of the stuff we are seeing in Germany can be linked to, or is at least inspired by, the 'alt-right' movement in the U.S.," Hegelich said, referring to a loosely defined group whose far-right ideology includes racism and white nationalism. 

Many denigrate both leading candidates — Merkel and her conservative Christian Democratic Union party, and her chief rival, Martin Schulz of the left-of-center Social Democratic Party — with the hashtags #Merkel and #Schulz. 

And many of those posts originate in the U.S., adding to the impression that right-wing social media users in both countries may be trying to sway German public opinion. It's possible that some of this alt-right messaging coming out of the U.S. may be connected to Russian interference; that, too, is difficult to determine, Hegelich said. 

Really the take away from this is that it is now almost impossible to differentiate between Russian and Right Wing trolls.

I think that explains why despite the investigations into Russian collusion, Donald Trump is not losing much support from this particular demographic. 

Secretary of Defense blocks Trump's ban on transgender military personnel.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis late Tuesday announced that transgender troops will be allowed to continue serving in the military pending the results of a study by experts. 

The announcement follows an order from President Trump — first announced in a tweet — declaring that transgender service members can no longer serve in the military, effectively reversing an Obama administration policy. The order also affects the Department of Homeland Security, which houses the Coast Guard. 

"Once the panel reports its recommendations and following my consultation with the secretary of Homeland Security, I will provide my advice to the president concerning implementation of his policy direction," Mattis said in the statement. "In the interim, current policy with respect to currently serving members will remain in place." 

Mattis' move buys time for the Pentagon to determine how and if it will allow thousands of transgender troops to continue to serve, whether they will receive medical treatment, or how they will be discharged.

Gee, I wonder how long this study will take?

Perhaps three and a half years?

I think it's pretty clear that Mattis is not in favor of this ban and is putting the breaks on a  policy from his boss that he knows will damage troop moral and result in the loss of valuable new recruits.

Thank goodness there are some grownups working to keep this orange tinted toddler in check.

The Secret Service is going broke trying to protect Trump and his family, and keep up with their extravagant lifestyle.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

The Secret Service can no longer pay hundreds of agents it needs to carry out an expanded protective mission – in large part due to the sheer size of President Trump's family and efforts necessary to secure their multiple residences up and down the East Coast. 

Secret Service Director Randolph "Tex'' Alles, in an interview with USA TODAY, said more than 1,000 agents have already hit the federally mandated caps for salary and overtime allowances that were meant to last the entire year. 

The agency has faced a crushing workload since the height of the contentious election season, and it has not relented in the first seven months of the administration. Agents must protect Trump – who has traveled almost every weekend to his properties in Florida, New Jersey and Virginia – and his adult children whose business trips and vacations have taken them across the country and overseas. 

"The president has a large family, and our responsibility is required in law,'' Alles said. "I can't change that. I have no flexibility.'' 

Alles said the service is grappling with an unprecedented number of White House protectees. Under Trump, 42 people have protection, a number that includes 18 members of his family. That's up from 31 during the Obama administration. 

It is not just the large number of Trump family members and associates that is draining resources, it is also the number of locations the Secret Service is expected to cover and the amount of traveling they are required to do.

In response a number of agents are leaving the agency.

And that situation does not appear to be changing anytime soon:

The compensation crunch is so serious that the director has begun discussions with key lawmakers to raise the combined salary and overtime cap for agents, from $160,000 per year to $187,000 for at least the duration of Trump's first term. 

But even if such a proposal was approved, about 130 veteran agents would not be fully compensated for hundreds of hours already amassed, according to the agency. 

"I don't see this changing in the near term,'' Alles said. 

So not only do you have to protect Cheeto Hitler, but you may have to do it on your own time without any hope of compensation. 

I don't know why anybody should be surprised. After all this is EXACTLY how Trump treated contractors that worked for him in the past.

Donald Trump has multiple business deals with Russians who have ties to organized crime.

Courtesy of USA Today:

The president and his companies have been linked to at least 10 wealthy former Soviet businessmen with alleged ties to criminal organizations or money laundering. 

Among them: 

• A member of the firm that developed the Trump SoHo Hotel in New York is a twice-convicted felon who spent a year in prison for stabbing a man and later scouted for Trump investments in Russia. 

• An investor in the SoHo project was accused by Belgian authorities in 2011 in a $55 million money-laundering scheme. 

• Three owners of Trump condos in Florida and Manhattan were accused in federal indictments of belonging to a Russian-American organized crime group and working for a major international crime boss based in Russia. 

• A former mayor from Kazakhstan was accused in a federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles in 2014 of hiding millions of dollars looted from his city, some of which was spent on three Trump SoHo units. 

• A Ukrainian owner of two Trump condos in Florida was indicted in a money-laundering scheme involving a former prime minister of Ukraine.

I have to tell you that nothing about this even remotely surprises me.

From what I understand much of Russia is run like a state sponsored Mafia organization. And Trump himself comports himself like a mob boss in his affect and his techniques for bullying opponents into compliance.

I predict that this FBI investigation is going to uncover all kinds of interesting things about Donald J. Trump, and his business dealings, and that none of them will show him in a charitable light.

Thanks to Donald Trump's new immigration policies we are now detaining elderly Australian children's book authors?

Oz children author Mem Fox detained Los Angeles Airport.
We Australians are no longer welcome in Trump's USA @AlboMP https://t.co/iQVPe3D3NU pic.twitter.com/YvCaTSeiPC

— Kerry Seebohm (@KezzerOz) February 25, 2017

 Okay this is beyond disgusting.

And while we are on the topic they also detained Mohammad Ali's son.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

The son of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali was detained for hours by immigration officials earlier this month at a Florida airport, according to a family friend. 

Muhammad Ali Jr., 44, and his mother, Khalilah Camacho-Ali, the second wife of Muhammad Ali, were arriving at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Feb. 7 after returning from speaking at a Black History Month event in Montego Bay, Jamaica. They were pulled aside while going through customs because of their Arabic-sounding names, according to family friend and lawyer Chris Mancini. 

Immigration officials let Camacho-Ali go after she showed them a photo of herself with her ex-husband, but her son did not have such a photo and wasn't as lucky. Mancini said officials held and questioned Ali Jr. for nearly two hours, repeatedly asking him, "Where did you get your name from?" and "Are you Muslim?"

"Where did you get your name?"

That actually leaves me speechless.

This is our country now. 

Congressman moves ahead with using old law to gain access to Donald Trump's tax returns.

Oh shit!

Courtesy of USA Today: 

A New Jersey congressman says a rarely invoked 1924 law could be used to examine President Donald Trump's tax returns for possible conflicts of interest and Constitutional violations. 

Rep. Bill Pascrell, a Democrat who serves on the Ways and Means Committee, has asked the committee’s chairman, Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, to order the Treasury Department to provide tax returns to the committee. Brady's office did not respond to a request for comment Friday. 

After privately examining returns — Pascrell is seeking 10 years' worth — the committee could decide to share them with the full House, which would in effect make them public. The 1924 law gives congressional committees that set tax policy the power to examine tax returns. It was used in 1974 when Congress looked at President Richard Nixon's returns, and in 2014 when the Ways and Means Committee released confidential tax information as part of its investigation into the Internal Revenue Service's handling of applications for nonprofit status.

You may remember that I brought this ability by Congress to get their hands on Trump's tax returns on Wednesday. At the time I could not understand why nobody was dong this.

Well now they are.

I have no idea how long Trump can restrain himself from attacking this guy on Twitter, since we all know that this is perhaps one of his greatest fears.

I am not at all sure what is in these tax returns (Though I can imagine,) but whatever it is Trump is clearly desperate to keep them away from public scrutiny.

Unable to get Bruce Springsteen the Trump inaugural team hires a cover band instead. So much fail. Update!

Courtesy of USA Today:  

As Bruce Springsteen continues to criticize President-elect Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed "No. 1 Bruce Springsteen tribute band" is performing at an inaugural gala next week. 

The B-Street Band, a Belmar-based act that covers Bruce Springsteen songs, is booked for the Garden State Inaugural Gala on Jan. 19, one of the many formal Washington balls scheduled around Trump's inauguration. 

Gov. Chris Christie and First Lady Mary Pat Christie are serving as honorary chairs of the ball to "recapture the fun and romance of the Jersey Shore in elegant style." It is organized by the New Jersey State Society, a nonpartisan nonprofit that schedules activities and networking events for New Jerseyans living in the Washington area.

Kind of reminds of how Americans could not choose a real president so we got Doanld Trump instead.

Every day I think this whole Trump inaugural thing cannot get any more pathetic, and every day I am proven wrong.

By the way this band says that if the Boss tells them he does not want to them to perform his songs at the inauguration, they won't.

Update: Last minute news confirms that the inaugural team managed to snag a few desperate folks to entertain the....let's go with "throngs" that show up.

Country stars Lee Greenwood and Toby Keith are scheduled to perform. As well as the band 3 Doors Down, somebody named Jennifer Holliday, and Cowboy Troy.


However Paul Anka, who is in his seventies, has pulled out using a battle over child custody as his excuse.

Sounds like quite the show, sorry I will miss it but I have plans to do just about anything else instead.

Donald Trump to name Rick Perry as the Secretary of Energy, an agency he once forgot he wanted to eliminate completely.

I knew if I started wearing these that somebody would think I was smart enough for a job.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

President-elect Donald Trump will nominate former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to serve as secretary of Energy, according to reports by CBS News and NBC News. 

The former GOP presidential hopeful beat out two contenders for the Cabinet post: Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat representing West Virginia, and Ray Washburne, a Dallas investor working in oil and gas operations, CBS News reported. 

On Monday, Perry attended a meeting at Trump Towers but didn't take questions from reporters. 

The Energy Department is the same federal agency Perry wanted to eliminate — and then forgot to name when asked which departments he would shut down. 

"I will tell you, it is three agencies of government when I get there that are gone: Commerce, Education, and — what's the third one there? Let's see," Perry said during a Republican presidential primary debate in November 2011.

Perry followed that last part up with an "Oops."

Which is exactly what every idiot who voted for Donald Trump should also be saying about now.

By the way Rick Perry is on the board of the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline, which means those native American protesters better not get used to sleeping in their own beds anytime soon.

You know when I first suggested that Donald Trump was putting people in his cabinet to destroy the agencies they were responsible for I was half kidding.

This is no longer a joking matter.

Today President Obama made perhaps the most difficult phone call of his presidency.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

President Obama called President-elect Donald Trump Wednesday morning to congratulate him on his election victory and invite him to the White House on Thursday to discuss "the smooth transition of power," the White House said. 

Obama will discuss the election results in a statement to the press Wednesday from the White House, including "what steps we can take as a country to come together after this hard-fought election season," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said. 

Earnest provided few details of Obama's phone call with the president-elect, other than to say he called from the White House residence in the early morning hours.

I CANNOT imagine how the President felt making that phone call.

It must have been excruciating.

Nor can I imagine what he is going to feel like handing over the presidency to him in January.

It must be similar to an artist handing over a glass sculpture to a three year old for safe keeping.

He probably fears he will never see it in one piece ever again.

The AP and USA Today combine forces to study just how any children are dying from gun violence in this country every year.

Here is what the study found as reported by the New York Daily News:  

The findings: During the first six months of this year, minors died from accidental shootings — at their own hands, or at the hands of other children or adults — at a pace of one every other day, far more than limited federal statistics indicate.

Using information collected by the Gun Violence Archive, a nonpartisan research group, news reports and public sources, the media outlets spent six months analyzing the circumstances of every death and injury from accidental shootings involving children ages 17 and younger from Jan. 1, 2014, to June 30 of this year — more than 1,000 incidents in all. Among the findings: 

— Deaths and injuries spike for children under 5, with 3-year-olds the most common shooters and victims among young children. Nearly 90 3-year-olds were killed or injured in the shootings, the vast majority of which were self-inflicted. 

— Accidental shootings spike again for ages 15-17, when victims are most often fatally shot by other children but typically survive self-inflicted gunshots. 

— They most often happen at the children's homes, with handguns legally owned by adults for self-protection. They are more likely to occur on weekends or around holidays such as Christmas. 

— States in the South, including Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia, are among those with the highest per capita rates of accidental shootings involving minors. 

In all, more than 320 minors age 17 and under and more than 30 adults were killed in accidental shootings involving minors. Nearly 700 other children and 78 adults were injured. 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 74 minors died from accidental discharges of firearms in 2014, the latest year for which comparable data are available. The AP and USA TODAY analysis counted 113 for that year, suggesting the federal government missed a third of the cases.

Great, so now we know that the information that we had which horrified us concerning the number of children dying due to gun violence, is actually watered down and the REAL numbers are even more horrific.

And all it does is to reinforce the knowledge that the guns people buy to protect their families actually put their families at greater risk.

Just try to imagine how many more children would be alive today without the 2nd Amendment to protect us in this country.

Not once in their 34 year history has USA Today weighed in on a presidential race. Donald Trump changed that policy.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

In the 34-year history of USA TODAY, the Editorial Board has never taken sides in the presidential race. Instead, we’ve expressed opinions about the major issues and haven’t presumed to tell our readers, who have a variety of priorities and values, which choice is best for them. Because every presidential race is different, we revisit our no-endorsement policy every four years. We’ve never seen reason to alter our approach. Until now. 

This year, the choice isn’t between two capable major party nominees who happen to have significant ideological differences. This year, one of the candidates — Republican nominee Donald Trump — is, by unanimous consensus of the Editorial Board, unfit for the presidency. 

From the day he declared his candidacy 15 months ago through this week’s first presidential debate, Trump has demonstrated repeatedly that he lacks the temperament, knowledge, steadiness and honesty that America needs from its presidents. 

Whether through indifference or ignorance, Trump has betrayed fundamental commitments made by all presidents since the end of World War II. These commitments include unwavering support for NATO allies, steadfast opposition to Russian aggression, and the absolute certainty that the United States will make good on its debts. He has expressed troubling admiration for authoritarian leaders and scant regard for constitutional protections.

The editorial board then goes on to lay out all of the reasons that Trump is unfit to lead this nation

These include the following:

• He is erratic. (Just see his Twitter rant from this morning to confirm this.)
  
• He is ill-equipped to be commander in chief. (Duh!)
• He traffics in prejudice. (Yes and it seems that every alt-Right Nazi is working on his campaign now.)
  
• His business career is checkered. (Understatement.)
• He isn’t leveling with the American people. (Yeah, how much are you really worth Donald?)
  
• He speaks recklessly. He has coarsened the national dialogue. (Once again, duh!)
  
• He’s a serial liar. (And yet everybody keeps talking about Hillary Clinton's dishonesty.)
  

Personally I would be willing to bet that almost all of us have a list eerily similar to this one for why we would never support a Trump candidacy, and the thing is that more and more people are compiling their own lists every day. 

So how many newspapers have come out in support of Hillary now, while also warning people away from Doanld Trump?