Government Could Shut Down in Just Over Four Hours

Here is the latest on this Friday afternoon January 19, 2018.   The Republicans don’t even have the votes to pass their proposed bill even if the Democrats in the senate don’t filibuster.  John Mc Cain is in the hospital with complications on his brain cancer and is unable to vote.  This makes the count fifty and fifty.  But Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul aren’t going to vote for this bill either.  This bill was one to extend the government one month and is nothing to hoot about to begin with.  It contains the CHIPS bill, or children’s health insurance policy or whatever, which affects either eight or sixteen million children.  I’ve heard both figures.  But there is no DACA provision to help out the dreamers, the children of illegal aliens.  And the President wants approval of “The Wall” before he’ll sign anything related to DACA, which is delayed action on children- - something.  Hence it looks as though the government will shot down at nine o clock tonight regardless of what Gary of KFI thinks.  I don’t think a government shut-down is a good idea even if it’s my party sponsoring it.  It means people can’t get passports approved and government monuments and national parks won’t be open.  Some government workers will stay on the job but they won’t get paid till later.

Median approval of U.S. leadership across the 134 countries surveyed in 2017 reached 30%, the lowest point since Gallup began tracking this measure annually in 2007. Disapproval of U.S. leadership increased almost as much as approval declined. The 43% median disapproval, up 15 points from the previous year, was a new record as well, not only for the U.S. but for any other major global power[there were three others — Germany, Russia, and China — that] Gallup asked [this question] about in the past decade.  The map showing country-by-country results indicates declining approval of U.S. leadership in all countries in the Western Hemisphere, except no change in Jamaica and Trinidad-&-Tobago. There were 9% decline of approval of America’s leadership in Venezuela, and declines ranging from 14% to 40% in all other countries throughout the Western Hemisphere. The biggest decline in the Hemisphere, 40%, occurred in Canada.  In Europe, there were declines in all countries except improvements (increased approval) in Macedonia 15%, Belarus 11%, Poland 8%, Slovakia and Montenegro 7%, Russia 6%, and Ukraine 4%. The biggest change was the 42% decline in approval of U.S. leadership in Norway, but close behind that was the 38% decline in Netherlands. Norway, Canada and Netherlands exhibited the biggest of all the declines in approval of U.S. leadership, among all the 134 nations surveyed.  We just thought you’d like to know. 

Last night Paul called me at twenty after five to go to the hospital.  He picked me up out front in ten minutes.  He asked me if I knew where we were going.  I knew it was Roundtree in another unit.  As it happens we had passed by this building many times going up the south walk to Mom’s place.  I think she was in room thirteen.  They had just eaten dinner.  Tim and Marie were there and Marie gave me a bear hug both at the beginning of the session and also when we were leaving.  I got a change to see Mom with her hair combed and dressed and in a more lucid frame of mind.  She said very few things that were off the wall.  We had a nice conversation.  She was watching TV from her wheel chair.  I sat on the bed and there were folding chairs Tim and Marie brought out.  We met the assistant Laurie.  But then Mom had to go to the bathroom and me and Tim and Marie went out to the hall and talked.  We were right by the nurses’ station and they had Shawn Hannity and Larry Elder and another guy on FOX TV and Tim remarked that everyone who watches FOX news is brainwashed.  Who is going to tell them?   Tim had been planning to get Mom some exercise.  Once before Tim had Mom standing up and pushing her wheel chair down the hall.  That’s more progress than I knew she’d made.  But the never got around to doing that this evening at least while I was there.  It was now a little past 6:35 and Paul was tired and hadn’t eaten dinner.  Paul told me about this one good place for Mom “just across Brookhurst” that would be perfect for Mom and her room would be a short walk from the dining area.  He mentioned other places they had visited.  Mom claimed she had never seen my aqua jacket before when I got it Christmas 2013.  Paul and I left and Paul wanted to show me this other house in a tract area that was a board and care place.  But then his memory failed him and he couldn’t remember where it was down Dale.  Paul mentioned that there is too much stuff about Trump personally in the news, and I would have to agree with that. 

 [Thursday] on Days of our Lives we understand how Andre could be murdered.  Anna has a motive because she is obsessed with vengeance for Tony’s death and carries around his ashes everywhere and has broken off her relation with Roman over it.  That’s sad.  Gabriel is a suspect because Andre just called her in and fired her and intends to steal all of her business profits.  I suspect that’s breaking several criminal laws.  Vivian has a self professed motive.  And Chad has the clearest motive because he just deduced from talking to John Black that Andre had to be the one to organize that phony warehouse break-in thing to take them off the trail.  Also Kate is a possible suspect, though a more distant one.   But he hasn’t been murdered yet.  Otherwise, I would say that Abigail has been both uppity and shrill in her objection to Stephen asking Gabriel for a date.  She seems to equate it in her mind to Bill Cosby drugging women or something.  She was almost threatening.  But I thought her “role” was to play the nice submissive, cooperative employee.  I thought that’s what she and Chad decided on to get Stephen to hire them both back.