How about this for a law: any citizen purged from voter rolls cannot be forced to pay any taxes until the next Federal Election in which they are allowed to vote.

Otherwise - it seems like "taxation without representation" - and I think we are supposed to be against that. Yes, I think we even had a war at one point where that was one of the issues.

In June of 2018, Trump announced the creation of a sixth branch of the military, to be called the "space force". After his announcement, he directed Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, to work out the details. The Air Force did not immediately have a statement in response to the announcement, and directed all questions to the office of the secretary of defense. Since the resignation of "mad dog" Mattis in December of 2018, we have had TWO acting secretaries of defense, one of whom (Mark Spencer) just got confirmed on July 23.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/06/18/its-official-trump-announces-space-force-6th-military-branch.html

Trump seems to forget, though, there is one BIG problem with "the space force".

It's illegal.

In 1967, 109 countries signed the Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits military apparatus in space. Eventually, Trump will become aware of this - and he is not going to be happy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty

Once this hare-brained idea is killed, what's the next step?

The "ice force", of course.

Since he can't buy Greenland (where we actually DO have an airbase), he'll want to establish a military presence in Antarctica, which ALSO was mad illegal by the Arctic Treaty System of 1959. Prior to that time, we actually DID have a military presence in Antarctica. It was called Project High Jump.It started on August 26, 1946, and it ended in February, 1947.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Highjump

Since Trump has pulled out of the Trans Pacific agreement, the Iran treaty, NAFTA, and the Intermediate Defense Treaty, he likely is not too concerned the fact that his "space force" is illegal. As long as the adults are in charge in the House, though, he is not going to get any funding for it.

If he REALLY wants a "space force", he' going to have to hire Darth Vader.

What's turnabout is fair play.

Iceland's Prime Minister, Katrin Jakobsdottir just announced that she is NOT meeting with Mike Pence on September 4 during his planned visit. She claims that she had a "prior commitment"that prevented her from attending. She underscored that the arrangement was “absolutely not” about snubbing the Trump administration and that she had earlier this year met with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The decision was made before President Donald Trump announced that he would cancel a visit to another Nordic nation, Denmark.

On the other hand ..

“This is unprecedented for an Icelandic prime minister,” historian Thor Whitehead told The Associated Press. “I doubt any other Western leader would decide to address a friendly conference abroad instead of welcoming a major foreign ally.”

Since Pence has said that he won't meet alone with a woman without his wife present, that means that "mother" won't need to take a leave of absence from her teaching job.

https://time.com/5658037/iceland-pm-skipping-pence-visit/

In the nearly two months that she has been the new press secretary, Stephanie Grisham has not held a single on-camera briefing. She has most recently been in the news for suspending a Playboy reporter’s White House pass for a month.

The only interview she has granted was with Eric Bolling of the ultra conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group. Bolling, incidentally, was fired by FOX for sending unsolicited lewd photographs and text messages to three female colleagues several years previously.

Her career history contains red flags that most administrations might deem troubling. They include losing a private-sector job after being accused of cheating on expense reports, a later job loss over plagiarism charges and two arrests for driving under the influence, the second while working on Mr. Trump’s campaign.

Bolling, incidentally, used to work for FOX, but was fired for

Her career history contains red flags that most administrations might deem troubling. They include losing a private-sector job after being accused of cheating on expense reports, a later job loss over plagiarism charges and two arrests for driving under the influence, the second while working on Mr. Trump’s campaign.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/22/us/politics/stephanie-grisham-press-secretary.html

Stan Laurel used to say, " that's another fine mess you get me into, Ollie".

The modern version of Oliver Hardy is Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whose current ideas could get a LOT of people (mostly the people of Afghanistan) into a lot of trouble.

Although he was a hawk when he was congressman from Kansas, he has now going completely the other direction. He is advocating pulling ALL of our troops out of the country by October, 2020 (conveniently, a month before the election).

The basic outline is this: a complete withdrawal of America’s 14,000 troops from Afghanistan within 14 months — that is, by October 2020 — in exchange for a promise from the Taliban not to attack our forces on the way out, along with some kind of vague assurance from them that Afghanistan will not again become a base for global terrorism. A source familiar with the deal says there is no explicit requirement for the Taliban to renounce its ties to Al Qaeda.

Critics of his plan should be dismayed by the idea that we are doing so in plain indifference to Afghanistan’s government, which wasn’t invited to the talks because the Taliban won’t deign to speak to what it considers a puppet government.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/22/opinion/mike-pompeo-afghanistan.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Dock:

He actually IS more than a little nuts.

Last November, I read, "The dangerous case of Donald Trump". The author is Bandy Lee. It's a compilation of opinions by 27 mental health experts. All of them conclude that Trump is dangerously ill.

Bernie just shot himself in the foot.

He just announced a $16 trillion climate change plan. Although he may well have good intentions, a lot of people are going to think that he is REALLY off his rocker, since this program is nearly equal to the national debt.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/22/climate/bernie-sanders-climate-change.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share

Schmidt Wrote: Mother Jones, October 25, 2013: CHARTS: The Hidden Benefits of Food Stamps

As the Senate and House start negotiating a budget for 2014, Food Stamps are a favorite target for the Republicans. This is not a new story. It goes back as far as Reagan's fictitious "welfare queen" that was a factor in turning out the votes for Reagan and against the poor.

Here are a few facts from Mother Jones to keep in mind as we follow the negotiations:

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The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, commonly known as food stamps) not only helps families below the poverty line, it also is a stimulus effect on the economy.

Eighty-three percent of food stamps go to households with children, seniors, and nonelderly people with disabilities.

In 2012, the average recipient got $133.41 in food stamps per month—that works out to $1.48 per meal.

SNAP lifted a record 4 million people out of poverty in 2012.

Every $5 of food stamps spent generates up to $9 in economic activity. Food stamp spending generates local economic activity, jobs in the farm and retail sectors and beyond.

Each $1 billion spent on retail food by SNAP recipients generates 3,300 farm jobs.

In 2012 more than 65 million Americans received food stamps for at least one month.

In September, just two days after a Census Bureau report showed that food stamps helped keep 4 million Americans out of poverty last year, the US House of Representatives approved a $39 billion cut to the program. [These cuts are reminiscent of the Reagan cutbacks to the Food Stamp program in the early 1980s.]

However, if these huge cuts were to ever pass the Senate, President Obama has vowed to veto them.

Nevertheless, the food stamp program will be slashed by $5 billion on November 1st as the temporary additional funding from the 2009 Stimulus package runs out.

Here we go again ...

Last month the White House issued a proposal to severely limit the number of people who would qualify for food stamps (SNAP – Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).

Seventy mayors across America offered the president “strong opposition” to program changes that could easily cut off approximately three million people. It is doubtful that Trump has ever gone hungry.

The new ruling would halt people from getting food assistance from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) automatically. Instead, they would have to go through an eligibility review to qualify for SNAP.

https://bipartisanreport.com/2019/08/22/nearly-100-u-s-mayors-stand-up-to-trumps-migrant-attacks/

A talented photoshop guy posted this on Twitter, and it went viral. It even got noticed by Trump, who claims (on Twitter) that he would "never do that ".