Trump and McCain
U.S. senators have issued a bipartisan call to lower American flags in honor of John McCain after the White House raised its Stars and Stripes back up.
Top Democrat Chuck Schumer and top Republican Mitch McConnell said flags on all government buildings should be at half-staff for the late senator.
President Donald Trump has long feuded with McCain and is reportedly not invited to his funeral.
The Arizona Republican died on Saturday of brain cancer.
President Trump ordered the flags to fly at half-staff on Saturday evening. But they were flying at full-staff by Monday morning, even as the flags at the U.S. Capitol remained at half-staff. Some said the White House was simply following proper procedure because U.S. Flag Code states that flags be lowered "on the day of death and the following day for a Member of Congress."
However, others pointed out it is traditional to keep flags lowered to honor lawmakers and major public figures until their funerals.
On Monday, Schumer and McConnell asked for the flags to remain at half-staff until sunset on the day of McCain's funeral on Saturday.
The White House issued no formal statement over the weekend about McCain's death, though one was drafted, according to US media.
Instead, both the president and Vice President Mike Pence offered their condolences to the senator's family via Twitter.
NBC/WSJ Poll: Trump Approval 'Remarkably Stable' After a Stormy Week of Bad News
President Trump’s approval rating has held steady in a new survey, despite the conviction of his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, on eight counts and his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleading guilty to felony charges.
44 percent of Americans approve of the job the president is doing, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey, while 52 percent said they disapprove.
Another NBC/WSJ survey conducted largely before the news broke about Cohen and Manafort showed similar approval ratings.
While Trump’s approval rating held steady, 40 percent in the new poll say he may have been involved in wrongdoing. Voters are split along partisan lines on the question, with just over half of Republicans, 53 percent, saying Trump was not involved in wrongdoing while 71 percent of Democrats said he may have been.
U.S. & Mexico Strike New Trade Deal Which Will Overhaul NAFTA
President Trump said Monday the U.S. and Mexico have reached a new trade deal that could lead to a revision of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
In an Oval Office announcement, Trump said the new agreement would be called The United States México trade agreement, replacing the name NAFTA, which he said carried bad connotations. “It’s a big day for trade,” he said. “It’s a big day for our country.”
The announcement of a deal comes after five consecutive weeks of talks between the two nations to revise key parts of the NAFTA, the 24-year-old agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada that Trump has called the “worst trade deal ever.”
The fate of any NAFTA revisions will hinge on Canada, which has been on the sidelines during the latest round of negotiations but still must sign off on any changes to the agreement.
“We’ll see if Canada can be part of deal,” Trump said. He said it’s possible that a separate deal could be reached with Canada and that negotiations will start soon.
The U.S. and Mexico are hoping to get a final deal signed before Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto leaves office on December 1st. For that to happen, a trilateral agreement involving Canada will have to be struck before the end of the month in order for the Trump administration to give the required 90 days’ notice to Congress before a deal can be signed.
Negotiators for the U.S. and Mexico worked over the weekend to iron remaining differences and strike a deal between those two countries before Canada is brought back to the table.
One of the key sticking points in the talks has centered on the so-called auto rules of origin, which dictate that, to avoid tariffs, a certain percentage of an automobile must be built from parts that originated from countries within the NAFTA region.
Mexico’s share of vehicles manufactured in North America has grown from about 12 percent in 2007 to an estimated 23 percent in 2017, according to the Center for Automotive Research.
Other stumbling blocks have included the procedure used to settle disputes between corporations and governments and the Trump administration’s push for the inclusion of a sunset provision under which the revised NAFTA agreement would expire after five years unless all three countries take steps to extend it.
Florida Shooting
Police said they received a 911 call at 1:34 PM in Jacksonville, Florida. Police were alerted Sunday to a shooting at Chicago Pizza where the Madden 19 video game tournament was being held.
By Sunday night, two of the victims injured in the shooting remained in the University of Florida College of Medicine in Jacksonville, with one in serious condition. Four had been discharged from the university’s trauma center in good condition, and an additional four were in stable condition after being treated at local hospitals. Six shooting victims were treated at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Jacksonville, said Marie Crandall, the attending trauma surgeon.
Four victims were struck in their torsos, while the other two were shot in the extremities. One victim is in serious condition, but all are expected to survive. Three other shooting victims, now in stable condition, were treated at Memorial Hospital in southeast Jacksonville, hospital spokesman Peter Moberg said.
David Katz was identified as the shooter. He is a 24-year-old from Baltimore, Maryland. Katz was attending a tournament in Jacksonville on Sunday for competitive players of Madden, a football video game. He used a handgun in the shooting, according to a source close to the investigation. Police have not released a motive.
Mail Time!
- Bill, what are the chances of Hillary & her Democrat attorneys/associates being put under the same microscope that Trump & his attorneys/associates are being put under?
- Your attitude tonight was exactly like mine.........."is this America I am living in?" How do we take our country back when the majority now is against us?
- In your No Spin video on Aug 22nd during a part of the discussion about Geraldo, you mentioned an "open border policy where these people can be deported eight times and come back in again". This is my question: If an illegal alien is deported, is that alien "physically removed" from the U.S. or is the alien just ordered to leave on their own?
Word of the Day: Lemming |
