Obama's Vacation Over

No more safe haven....

"President Obama has left Martha’s Vineyard. Now what?" by Darlene Superville Associated Press  August 21, 2016

EDGARTOWN — President Obama is returning from vacation ready for a busy fall, including pressing Congress for money to protect against the Zika virus and fending off lawmakers’ attacks over the administration’s $400 million ‘‘leverage’’ payment to Iran.

I'd actually rather he just stay on vacation.

Obama also is expected to campaign doggedly to help elect Democrat Hillary Clinton as his successor.

That is concerning to me, insofar as something bad happening. I began threading this together thinking of the Clinton body count and her dimming prospects for election going forward. Were that to happen, would it not be beyond the Clinton's to take out Obama? 

Think about it. It would throw the country into chaos, further certain agendas depending on the patsy upon which it is pinned (Trump supporter would kill his candidacy!) and would generate sympathy as well as confer legendary status upon Obama and thus benefiting Clinton the way Johnson benefited from JFK's death. Biden would do the caretaker bit for a few months until the official handoff.

For the record, I want nothing to happen to the president or any of the candidates, as odious as they are. It would be a terrible, terrible thing for America. 

Related(?): 

"Like all relationships, this one has changed with time. Trump has fought back in recent weeks with the silent treatment. Trump’s silence on Warren is a sign he is listening to his advisers, said Mark S. Mellman, a Democratic political strategist and president and chief executive of The Mellman Group, in Washington, D.C. “The fact that there is any chance that Donald Trump could be —” Warren paused, and then said, “I can’t even finish that sentence.” She started over, “It would be fun if there was no chance Donald Trump could be president of the United States. That takes all the fun out of it.”

That a threat? 

There is a way he has no chance, and wouldn't an assassination be fun! 

Wow, Liz! What a detestable and odious creature has she become! 

And where is all the hubbub from the ma$$ media regarding such a hateful comment?

Obama returned from a 16-day getaway to Martha’s Vineyard with his wife, Michelle, and daughters, Malia and Sasha. He began Sunday by going on a hike with his wife and followed with his 10th round of vacation golf, before heading to the airport.

His first order of business is a Tuesday trip to Baton Rouge, La., to survey damage from flooding that killed at least 13 people and forced thousands into shelters.

Trump beat him to it.

Obama resisted pressure from Louisianans and others to interrupt his vacation to tour the ruins and meet with officials and flood victims.

Yeah, how "courageous" of him.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump filled the void created by Obama’s absence, touring the ravaged area Friday with his running mate, Governor Mike Pence of Indiana, and helping to unload a supply truck.

He was going to win Louisiana anyway.

Obama planned to spend the rest of the week in meetings, largely to prepare for an upcoming weeklong trip to Asia, his 11th and probably final visit to the region as president.

???? 

Probably? 

That's rather cryptic? 

What does the pre$$ know that we are as of yet unaware but suspicious? 

Good to know he is going from one vacation to the next.

After Congress completes its seven-week break after Labor Day, Obama and aides probably will focus on what the White House can get from lawmakers before they leave town again to campaign for reelection. The House and Senate will have just a month to pass a catch-all spending bill by the Sept. 30 end of the federal budget year to keep the government operating.

One wonders what corporate giveaways and favors are going to be loaded into the thing.

Lawmakers plan to leave Washington again at the end of September, returning after the Nov. 8 elections.

Sometimes I wish they would both stay out forever and shut down D.C. Let the states take care of themselves. D.C. only does harm.

The White House will continue to press lawmakers for money to help keep the mosquito-borne Zika virus from spreading and to develop a vaccine, now that Florida last week identified the popular Miami tourist haven of South Beach as the second site of Zika transmission on the US mainland. A section of Miami’s Wynwood arts district was the first.

See: Sick o' Zika Scare 

Nights just turned chilly up here last night.

Obama asked Congress for $1.9 billion this year for Zika prevention. Republicans offered $1.1 billion and added provisions that Democrats objected to, including language on Planned Parenthood and other issues, leaving the matter in limbo before Congress adjourned in mid-July. Lawmakers could end up adding Zika money to the broader spending bill.

In turn, incensed lawmakers have promised to keep the heat on the administration over $400 million it delivered to Iran in January. Republicans say the money was ransom, paid to win freedom for four Americans who were being held in Iran. Questioned about the payment earlier this month, Obama said: ‘‘We do not pay ransom. We didn’t here. And we. . . won’t in the future.’’

The president and other officials denied any linkage. But administration officials also said it made little sense not to ‘‘retain maximum leverage,’’ as State Department spokesman John Kirby put it last week, with the money long owed to Iran, to ensure the US citizens’ release.

The explanations have failed to satisfy critics in and out of Congress. Trump has begun telling supporters at his campaign rallies that Obama ‘‘openly and blatantly’’ lied about the prisoners. House Speaker Paul Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, said Obama has set a ‘‘dangerous precedent’’ and owes the public a ‘‘full accounting of his actions.’’ 

Little late for you guys to be complaining, ain't it? 

He should have been impeached over using the IRS against his political enemies if nothing else, and you guys let it go.

Obama opens the fall — and what is expected to be an intense effort to boost Clinton to the White House — in improved standing with the public, according to the Pew Research Center. His job approval rating stands at 53 percent, compared with 42 percent disapproval. That’s about the same as just before July’s political conventions. 

I no longer believe pre$$ polls, except to say you halve his approval and halve his disapproval (then add that number to it). That's the real poll. So he's at about 26 approve, 63 disapprove, and that is about the mood of the country.

But Obama’s standing among independent voters has reached positive territory for the first time since December 2012, a month after his reelection. Fifty-three percent of independents approve of Obama’s job performance, the center found, while 40 percent disapprove. Independents had split 46 percent to 46 percent on the question in June.

Obama won’t spend much time at the White House on his return. After the Louisiana visit, the president heads to Nevada on Aug. 31 to discuss environmental protection at the Lake Tahoe Summit....

And then it is on to Asia.

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First stop:

"As floodwaters recede, disbelief mixes with determination" Associated Press  August 18, 2016

DENHAM SPRINGS, La. — With an estimated 40,000 homes damaged by deadly flooding, Louisiana could be looking at its biggest housing crunch since the miserable, bumbling aftermath of Hurricane Katrina a decade ago. 

This storm that came through may well be worse, which is why Obama was avoiding it. 

Seems like cosmic justice in a way. Here he has been getting a pass on his failed presidency with the pre$$ proclaiming it some massive success, and the Gods from up high dumped on it -- much to the suffering of the Louisiana people who have already been through a Gulf gusher on his watch!

People whose homes were swamped by some of the heaviest rains Louisiana has ever seen are staying in shelters, bunking with friends or relatives, or sleeping in trailers on their front lawns. Others unable or unwilling to leave their homes are living amid mud and the ever-present risk of mold in the steamy August heat.

Many victims will need a place to stay while they rebuild. Countless others didn’t have flood insurance and may not have the means to repair their homes. They may have to find new places.

Better give Airbnb a call.

Exactly how many will need short-term housing is unclear, but state housing officials are already urging landlords to allow short-term leases and encouraging people to rent out any empty space they might have.

‘‘If you have a unit that’s an old mother-in-law suite and you can rent it out, let us know,’’ said Keith Cunningham, who heads the Louisiana Housing Corporation, the state housing agency.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, whose very name became a punchline during Katrina, said it will look into lining up rental properties for those left homeless and will consider using temporary housing units.

But FEMA administrator Craig Fugate gave assurances that the temporary units won’t be the old FEMA travel trailers — a reference to the ones brought in after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita that were found to have toxic levels of formaldehyde.

It was all in the wood.

The flooding that has struck the Baton Rouge and Lafayette areas has left at least 11 people dead.

More than 30,000 have been rescued, and at least 70,000 have registered for federal disaster assistance. At the height, 11,000 people were staying in shelters, though that had dropped to 6,000 by Wednesday.

Those with flood insurance will be in a much better place to begin rebuilding — but there won’t be many of them.

Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon said that only 12 percent of the homes in hard-hit Baton Rouge were covered by flood insurance, and only 14 percent in Lafayette.

He called those figures shocking.

Across the flood-stricken area, many residents said they weren’t required to have flood insurance and didn’t have it, since nothing remotely like this had ever happened before.

Hmmmm.

Obama, hello?!!

‘‘My father’s owned this place for 70 years. Never seen it like this. We never thought we needed it,’’ said Chris Bankston, owner of an auto parts place in the Livingston Parish town of Albany where workers were shoveling debris and carrying out ruined equipment and furniture.

FEMA said more than 9,000 flood claims have been filed with the agency.

--more--"

Trump is already acting like a president, and has shamed Obama by getting there first. Louisiana will remember that in November. 

It gets worse:

"Search for living, dead: Louisiana fights back from flooding" by Rebecca Santana Associated Press  August 20, 2016

ST. AMANT, La. —At least 13 people died in the flooding, so powerful in some cases it disturbed the dead and sent caskets floating from cemeteries, that swept through parts of southern Louisiana after torrential rains lashed the region.

OH, MAN! 

GHOULISH!

While the waters have slowly receded, the hard work of rebuilding lives is just ramping up, with people cleaning out their homes while others struggle to find a place to stay.

They haven't even reinterred the dead yet!

In a uniquely Louisiana problem, some families are also trying to rebury relatives whose caskets were unearthed.

I'm told ‘‘this is bad.’’

In other areas the search for the living goes on.

Teams are going house to house, said Brant L. Thompson from the State Fire Marshal’s office. Breaking down the various parishes where floods swept through on a grid, search teams have been knocking on doors, checking for such signs of life as fresh tire tracks or debris piled up indicating someone is inside cleaning up.

‘‘If we go by and this house has waterline up to the roof line, no one’s been there, there’s no trash piled out by the road, we want to check that house to see if anyone inside that, maybe, perished,’’ said Clint Sistrunk, a firefighter....

It got that high?

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There search parties going door to door looking for bodies, and doesn't that remind you of something down there about 11 years ago or so?

Related:

"Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said Sunday that people around the country are just starting to pay attention to the extent of flooding that killed at least 13 people in Louisiana. He told CNN’s ‘‘State of the Nation’’ that the disaster has received less attention because it wasn’t a hurricane or named storm....."

And it might ruin someone's, you know, victory ride into the sunset of ex-president. 

You know who really needed the rain?

Newest wildfire advances on thousands of California homes

It's San Bernardino of all places!

"The news came as firefighters were taking the offensive to expand significant gains in corralling the fire. ‘‘We’ve got the ball; we’re on the move,’’ fire information officer Bob Poole said. Poole said it was ‘‘spectacular’’ to make progress so quickly against such a big fire that had firefighters on the defensive for the first 1½ days. Plans were underway to demobilize, ‘‘but the possibility is still there for explosive growth,’’ said Brad Pitassi, another fire spokesman." 

It depends on which way the wind is blowing.

"Officials said Saturday at least 105 homes and 213 outbuildings have been destroyed in the massive fire that burned ferociously through Southern California mountain communities this past week and was still smoldering Saturday. Those numbers could rise as damage assessment teams pore through the aftermath of the blaze about 60 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, Fire Marshal Mike Horton of the San Bernardino County Fire Department said. Drought conditions in California have left plenty of fuel for wildfires. The fire sparked Tuesday was 68 percent contained and firefighters were finally transitioning to mop-up phase, officials said."

At least they caught the guy who lit 'em all. 

You know who never goes on vacation?

"Ever untraditional, Donald Trump elects to pass on vacations" by Tracy Jan Globe Staff  August 21, 2016

WASHINGTON — President Obama just finished two leisurely weeks on Martha’s Vineyard during his annual getaway. Bill and Hillary Clinton, too, used to summer on the Vineyard during their White House years, until decamping in more recent years for the Hamptons.

George H.W. Bush retreated to his family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, while his son George W. Bush preferred to clear his head by fishing and clearing cedar on his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

But as recent presidential aspirants go, Donald Trump appears to be the guy least interested in taking time off, even among this workaholic set. Outside of promoting himself and his golf courses, the New York real estate mogul turned Republican presidential nominee sees little benefit to vacations.

W Bush a workaholic?

“It would bore and perhaps scare him. He needs constant activity and gratification,” said Abe Wallach, the Trump Organization’s former executive vice president of acquisitions and finance for nearly a dozen years, who has known Trump since 1990.

Asked when was the last time Trump took a vacation, his campaign spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, responded with a terse e-mail: “Mr. Trump prefers to work.”

Indeed. In previous media interviews and writings, Trump professes to shunning vacation.

“Don’t take vacations. What’s the point?” he tweeted in 2012, quoting his own book “Think Like a Billionaire.” “If you’re not enjoying your work, you’re in the wrong job.”

Or, as he once put it in another post, “If you want to succeed, you cannot relax.”

And Trump had no qualms about interrupting his employees’ vacations.

UH-OH!

Barbara Res, the project manager for the construction of Trump Tower in the early 1980s, said she took only two vacations during the first four years she worked for Trump, the longest of which was a 10-day solo trip to the Canyon Ranch spa in Tucson in 1983.

“I remember him calling me when I was in Arizona. He had a problem with a union thing, and I said, ‘What the hell can I do from here?’ ” Res recalled in an interview. “He said, ‘How long are you going to be there? When are you coming back?’ ”

Res got the point. When she eventually left the job, she ended up with seven weeks of back pay for unused vacation time. (Neither Wallack nor Res is supporting Trump’s candidacy.)

Look who the Globe talks to! 

Trump has long criticized President Obama for his yearly summer and winter breaks.

“He takes more vacations than any human being I’ve ever seen,” Trump told Fox News host Greta Van Susteren in 2011. “It sends a bad message. Here we have a country that really is going to hell in a handbasket. . . . And we have a president that’s constantly, whether it’s Martha’s Vineyard or someplace else, constantly on vacation.”

Trump slammed Obama again Friday for remaining on the Vineyard as Trump and his running mate, Governor Mike Pence of Indiana, visited Louisiana in the wake of devastating floods. The state’s largest daily newspaper also called upon Obama to cut short his vacation and pay a personal visit. (The White House announced shortly afterward that Obama plans to visit the flood zone on Tuesday.)

Trump may have inherited his disdain for idleness from his father, Fred, who would spend Saturdays driving his children around as he checked in on his various buildings and construction sites. Trump’s own children, though, do not seem to have the same attitude about taking time off.

His daughter Ivanka made headlines last week for vacationing in Croatia with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rumored girlfriend and was photographed with her husband aboard Clinton donor David Geffen’s $200 million yacht. Trump’s sons have drawn criticism for their big game hunting excursions in Africa.

It's all big show, isn't it?

But the closest Trump comes to taking a vacation is playing golf. He owns myriad golf courses and resorts around the world, from Miami, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles to Scotland, Ireland, and Dubai. Visiting them, he says, is his way of recharging. “I’m always finding ways to improve them,” Trump told Forbes in 2009.

“Even when I’m playing golf, I’m doing business,” Trump wrote in his 2005 book. “I never stop, and I’m usually having fun. Now that my kids are joining the family business, I’m closer to them than I’ve ever been, and I’m finding out that I love relating to them just the way my father related to me — through a passion for work well done.”

Trump turns up his nose at the notion of visiting other world-class golf resorts.

“I only like to go to places that I own, because, you know, I don’t have enough time. What do I want to sit in somebody else’s resort for?” Trump said in a 2015 interview with The Daily Caller, a Washington-based conservative news site.

He was not always vacation averse. Many, many years ago, Trump did take regular non-golf-related holidays, his associates said. Each Christmas, he would go skiing in Aspen with his then-wife, Ivana, and their children.

“He only went for that one week. It was always a slow week,” Res recalled. “He was always miserable around Christmas time. We could never figure it out. Maybe because he had to go away.”

It was in Aspen in December 1989 when Trump’s mistress Marla Maples famously confronted Ivana Trump and their affair became public.

“I think that was the last year he went on vacation,” Res said.

But come November, Trump says, he’s prepared to take a “very, very nice, long vacation” if he loses the White House.

Res immediately dismissed his newly expressed desire as a “silly” idea.

“He would never take a nice, long vacation. He’s not that type,” she said. “He needs to be around people feeding his ego.”

Wallach, too, scoffed at the thought. Trump, he is certain, would instead occupy his postcampaign time with other business.

“He could be very busy suing people and various organizations as a result of his loss,” he said. “He has to be in the press every minute every single day. You can’t do that if you’re on vacation.”

I post everyday, thus I never take a much-needed vacation.

--more--"

Whatever you do, don't go paragliding in Utah

"Paraglider dies after crashing into roof of Utah church" AP  August 21, 2016

DRAPER, Utah — A paraglider died after plunging through the roof of a Utah church Sunday morning.

Police and fire crews said the man was operating a motorized paraglider when he crashed. Firefighters pronounced him dead at the scene.

Police and fire crews say 57-year-old Jim Petersen of Bluffdale died in the accident.

Witnesses in the Mormon chapel told fire officials he appeared to be spiraling downward and out of control.

The church was evacuated and Sunday services were canceled. No other injuries were reported.

Investigators are trying to determine the crash cause.

--more--"

"Mormons’ distaste for Trump puts Utah up for grabs" by Alan Rappeport New York Times  August 09, 2016

SALT LAKE CITY — Voters in some of the country’s most conservative strongholds are considering a radical idea: supporting Hillary Clinton.

The dilemma posed by this year’s choice of candidates is perhaps most apparent here in Utah, the mountain state that has not backed a Democrat for president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. More than 50 years later, a large Mormon population with a strong distaste for Trump has left the state up for grabs, and with a substantial Mormon presence spilling into places such as Arizona, Idaho, and Nevada, what would normally be a Republican safe zone could be surprisingly competitive.

They are trying to sell us a landslide of an electoral map.

With the Clinton campaign looking to put Republican-leaning states in play, the decision for many Mormon voters in Utah has become agonizing as they digest Trump’s stances toward Muslims in light of their own history as an oft-maligned religion, and as his “America First” message repels well-educated Mormons who travel the world on missions and who welcome refugees.

“People who normally vote Republican are in a terrible state of ambivalence right now,” said Tim Chambless, a political scientist at the University of Utah. “They are so undecided. They want to vote, but they aren’t sure how to vote.”

The first signs of Trump’s troubles in Utah date to early March, when Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and a Mormon who is beloved in the state, gave a speech here warning that Americans were being duped by Trump. Later that month, Trump was throttled by Texas Senator Ted Cruz in the state’s caucuses, winning a paltry 14 percent of the vote. In June, two polls showed Trump and Clinton deadlocked in Utah, making it increasingly plausible that its six electoral votes are really in play.

With three months until the election, the Clinton campaign is now considering a possible upset in Utah, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson is aggressively wooing disenchanted Republicans, and on Monday word came that Evan McMullin, a Mormon who is a former CIA official opposed to Trump, was also entering the race.

That's to help rig the voting machines, and are you kidding?

Voters such as Angie Melton, who has never voted for a Democrat, are feeling deeply torn.

“I’m upset by this turn of events,” Melton, 41, said as she sat in the shade with her family next to the towering Salt Lake Temple, the center of Mormonism. “I’ve always voted Republican, but my thought has been that she would be less damaging in terms of world politics,” she said, referring to Clinton.

I've never voted Republican for president in a general election.

“It doesn’t mean that I agree with much of anything she says or her as a person,” Melton added, “but I would rather that she win.”

Such hand-wringing is common as trepidations about Trump grow by the day. On both substance and style, he evokes an antipathy among many Mormons that is rooted in culture, religion, and history. For a religious group that was driven to Utah during the 19th century in the face of persecution, Trump’s calls for religious tests and a ban on Muslim migration echo a painful past, leaving some wondering if they will be next.

“The issue of religious liberty is an important one in the state, and the notion of a religious test for immigration raises deep concerns,” said Chris Karpowitz, a codirector of Brigham Young University’s Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy. “Mormons are sensitive to issues like this because of their own history.”

Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in upstate New York in 1830. Converts, however, were often targeted as heretics for practicing polygamy, believing in scriptures exclusive to Mormonism, and claiming that their faith was the true restoration of Christianity.

Most Mormons were Democrats in the 19th century, Karpowitz notes, because of Republican opposition to polygamy, but they started to move to the right in the 20th century. By the time the 2012 presidential election came around, with Romney as the candidate, 90 percent of Utah’s Mormons voted Republican.

That number is expected to drop significantly this year with Trump atop the ticket. His shifting positions on social issues, his hard-line views on immigration and his flashy lifestyle clash with Mormon sensibilities that prize humility and charity.

And there is his stance against taking in refugees from abroad.

“His rhetoric and the church’s rhetoric on refugees could not be more different,” said J. Quin Monson, a coauthor of “Seeking the Promised Land: Mormons and American Politics.”

Democrats are taking Utah seriously. While they realize that their improved chances in the state are not because their nominee has suddenly surged in popularity, the party would be happy to break its losing streak.

“This is the first time since the mid-1960s that a Democratic presidential candidate could win in Utah,” said Peter Corroon, the party’s chairman in the state. “Unfortunately, it’s not because of the Democrat, it’s because of the Republican.”

Young Republican Mormons such as Mary Weidman give Democrats hope. Sitting outside a soda shop in Provo, Weidman explained that after supporting Romney four years ago, she would vote for Clinton in November.

“I think it’s the lesser of two evils,” Weidman, 27, said, expressing dismay over how Trump talks about women. “When you think of a leader, he lacks every trait.”

Despite such sentiments, it is risky to count Republicans out. While the Trump campaign had no comment about its strategy, the state Republican Party said that Trump’s team is up and running in Utah. Longtime conservatives who say they are thinking about voting for Clinton could have second thoughts on Election Day.

“Republicans at this point are a little unhappy with Trump, but they’re going to vote for him,” said James Evans, the chairman of the state party.

That appeared to be the case for Nathan Alder, a 21-year-old Republican Mormon who goes to Utah Valley University in Orem. With his skateboard in one hand and his dog by his side, he said that when it came down to it, he would most likely hold his nose and vote for Trump.

“I don’t like Trump, but I probably will vote for him,” Alder said, explaining that his worries about Clinton’s liberal views narrowly outweighed his fears about Trump’s temperament. “I am pretty torn. I’m not going to lie.”

Unlike, you know....

--more--"

"In an unusual election, even Utah could be up for grabs" by James Pindell Globe Staff  August 17, 2016

In Utah, Trump is ahead of Clinton by just 12 percentage points in the latest poll.

This is smaller than Clinton’s leads over Trump in swing states such as New Hampshire, where a poll shows she leads by 15 percent.

Further, the 12-point margin was before Utah native son Evan McMullin, who has been a respected Republican staffer, launched an independent bid and qualified for the Utah ballot on Monday.

So the Mormon cult is tied up with CIA mind control, 'eh? 

Jeffs must have strayed.

“For a lot of Utah Republicans, Donald Trump is just not their cup of tea,” said Chuck Warren, a longtime Utah Republican consultant. “There is a certain decorum that is expected, and a lot of people consider Trump to be uncouth if not vulgar.”

A big part of Trump’s Utah problem is his relationship with the Mormon community.

So what will Utah Republican voters do in November?

Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson is polling at 16 percent, better than in any other state. Yet Johnson is out of step with many Utah Republicans. He supports abortion rights, gay marriage, and the legalization of marijuana.

There is McMullin, the independent candidate, who may attract GOP voters as a protest candidate — but he just announced his campaign this month.

“I still believe that at the end of the day enough Republicans will hold their nose, and Trump will pull out a win here,” said Matthew Burbank, a political science professor at the University of Utah.

In interviews Democrats are holding onto a chance that Clinton could, maybe, win in Utah if third-party candidates over-perform, siphoning votes away from Trump.

“It is interesting that there are so many here upset with Trump at the top of the ticket that it is overriding the decades-long antipathy for the Clintons here,” said Utah state Representative Patrice Arent, who recently stepped down as the longtime state Democratic National committeewoman. “If anything it has started a conversation.”

However, Warren, the GOP consultant, said the first thing he will be looking for in election returns is how many people in Utah leave the presidential spot blank....

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Also see: In 2016 race, women experts still cited less often than men

Related: If you’re a black Christian, it’s likely your pastor has told you who they’re voting for

Isn't that against the law?

"The Republican National Committee is trying to strengthen its outreach to black voters by hiring a new national director of African-American engagement and bringing on new advisers and strategists to bolster its efforts to bring in more minority voters. Ashley Bell, who was one of the 18 black delegates at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland."

Hey, what do you have to lose?

NDUs:

"President Obama is expected to visit Baton Rouge on Tuesday. Republican nominee Donald Trump visited the state Friday, and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton said she will visit when ‘‘the presence of a political campaign will not disrupt the response.’’

Hope he applies some Deet:

"Texas and Louisiana could be next for Zika, ‘‘particularly now where you have the situation with flooding in Louisiana.’’ US Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida asked for more federal resources Monday. President Obama requested $1.9 billion in emergency funds...."

I hope he doesn't need to use the bathroom.