The Eternal Fountain of Stupid in Washington

Republicans have been trolling so long that they no longer have a workable history of the United States from which to refer:

The justification for building a monument to black Confederate soldiers is crumbling as historians point out there’s no evidence such combatants ever existed.

State Rep. Bill Chumley (R-Woodruff) and state Rep. Mike Burns (R-Taylors) pre-filed a bill last month that would establish a commission to design an African-American Confederate veterans monument, reported The State.

The bill would also require public schools to teach the contributions of black people toward the Confederate cause, and Chumley said his proposal had already accomplished his goal even as historians undermine its intent.

“We are all learning a lot,” Chumley said. “The purpose of the bill is education.”

...“In all my years of research, I can say I have seen no documentation of black South Carolina soldiers fighting for the Confederacy,” said historian Walter Edgar, the longtime director of the University of South Carolina’s Institute for Southern Studies. “In fact, when secession came, the state turned down free (blacks) who wanted to volunteer because they didn’t want armed persons of color.

God help us in our time of need:

Bachmann appeared on Christian broadcaster Jim Bakker’s program and said that she has “had people contact me and urge me to run for that Senate seat” that will soon be vacated by outgoing Sen. Al Franken.

However, she told Bakker that she was wary about wading into the Senate race because she’s worried about paying a price that she described as “bigger than ever” because “the Swamp is so toxic.”

Bachmann lamented that she wasn’t a “billionaire” who had the funds to properly defend herself against attacks against her reputation, but she said that she would consider getting into the ring if God gave her the okay.

“I fulfilled the calling that God gave me,” Bachmann said of her unsuccessful 2012 presidential run. “So the question is, am I being called to do this now? I don’t know.”

This press release is astonishing. Steve Bannon makes a lot of mistakes, but he knows a winner when he sees one, so he's shifted allegiances to Robert Mueller. Strange times ahead:

From press secretary Sarah Sanders:

Statement from the President of the United States

Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my Presidency. When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind. Steve was a staffer who worked for me after I had already won the nomination by defeating seventeen candidates, often described as the most talented field ever assembled in the Republican party.

Now that he is on his own, Steve is learning that winning isn’t as easy as I make it look. Steve had very little to do with our historic victory, which was delivered by the forgotten men and women of this country. Yet Steve had everything to do with the loss of a Senate seat in Alabama held for more than thirty years by Republicans. Steve doesn’t represent my base—he’s only in it for himself.

Steve pretends to be at war with the media, which he calls the opposition party, yet he spent his time at the White House leaking false information to the media to make himself seem far more important than he was. It is the only thing he does well. Steve was rarely in a one-on-one meeting with me and only pretends to have had influence to fool a few people with no access and no clue, whom he helped write phony books.

We have many great Republican members of Congress and candidates who are very supportive of the Make America Great Again agenda. Like me, they love the United States of America and are helping to finally take our country back and build it up, rather than simply seeking to burn it all down.

Even though the marijuana industry employs three times as many people as the coal industry, the Trump Administration plans to shut it down, and throw thousands of otherwise law-abiding people into prison, likely starting in a few days:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday released a memo rescinding previous guidance on federal enforcement of marijuana prohibition, one which is couched in ambiguity and diffidence. It does not direct prosecutors to immediately crack down on the cannabis industry in states that have legalized pot, nor does it explain how the Justice Department plans to enforce the federal marijuana ban. But don’t be fooled by this hazy reticence. The Trump administration is going to go after cannabis. And unless Congress stops him, Sessions will use his authority to intimidate, harass, and imprison thousands of marijuana users, growers, and distributors.

Hmmm....

Nebraska State Senator Paul Schumacher [R-22] [(402) 471-2715] has proposed an amendment to the state constitution that would create 36-square-mile regions in the state where corporations would enjoy up to 99 years of sovereignty, with "no city or state taxes and no local or state regulations."

These states-within-a-state would be confined to sparsely populated regions with fewer than 10 people per square mile.

"Better Call Saul," anyone?

Come out, come out, wherever you are!

With international visitation to the U.S. continuing to decline, travel industry leaders say they plan to form a coalition of American businesses to send the message that the country welcomes foreign tourists.

In the first six months of the year, international visitors to the U.S. dropped 4% to 41 million visitors compared to the same period in 2016, according to the latest data from the National Travel and Tourism Office. It marks a change of direction for visitation numbers, which had been surging for a few years.