7. Maybe Trump wants to be a rocketman
- During President Donald Trump’s visit with the prime minister of Japan, the president dismissed new missile tests by North Korea and echoed North Korea’s insults towards the Democratic Party’s frontrunner, former Vice President Joe Biden, who declared Kim Jong-un has a low IQ.
- While in Japan, President Trump said on Monday that a trip to Mars is in the near future and the U.S. will be working with Japan to send humans to space, although no timetable for when astronauts would be sent to Mars was given.
6. No, Mike Pence did not signal there will be a war in Iran
- Headlines and pundits declared that Vice President Mike Pence was implying the United States was headed towards war in the Middle East as he spoke to graduates at West Point, even though that is hardly what he was saying.
- Pence told the graduates, “Some of you will join the fight against radical Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq” and it “is a virtual certainty that you will fight on a battlefield for America at some point in your life,” which is a pretty safe bet when speaking to career officers as they graduate from a military academy.
5. Bernie Sanders tries to weaken Joe Biden
- U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) continued to hammer away on Joe Biden’s track record, hitting him on his support for the Iraq War while warning that military confrontation between the United States and Iran would be more disastrous than the Iraq war and unconstitutional.
- Polls have already indicated that Biden’s support for the war was a liability with younger voters in the Democratic Party primary, but his position is well known and he is still far and away the leader of the field even though Sanders is tied with Biden in Iowa.
4. Busy week for the legislature
- With an abortion ban and failed lottery behind the legislature, attention turns to education as the Alabama legislature prepares to eliminate the state school board, replacing it with the appointed Alabama Commission on Elementary and Secondary Education and replace the superintendent with a cabinet-level appointment.
- Also expected to attract attention is the debate over medical marijuana. The chances of the bill being a pure legalization vehicle have morphed into a measure that would allow medical marijuana to be studied; a commission will then propose future laws.
3. An abortion “dystopia”
- The fear of restrictive abortion laws, like Alabama’s, has led to people in other states to offer up their homes as places people can stay if they need to get an abortion. Some 2,000 women have joined a Facebook page dedicated to the cause.
- Many of the laws passed have been challenged, some have “stayed” and none of them have actually become law yet, but that won’t stop the histrionics and it won’t stop new battles over the issue either.
2. Auburn loses its voice
- On Saturday night, Rod Bramblett, the “Voice of the Auburn Tigers,” and his wife Paula passed away in a fatal car accident, leaving behind their daughter Shelby and son Joshua.
- A GoFundMe page was set up to help the Bramblett children move forward with life’s expenses as Shelby is a sophomore at Auburn University and Joshua is a 10th grader at Auburn High School. Some are donating $109 to pay homage to Bramblett’s Kick Six call and one donated $5,000.
1. Impeachment is coming
- According to Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) the House of Representatives is close to gaining the support that would be needed to bring impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.
- Even if House Democrats can cobble together enough support to start impeachment proceedings, it is very clear that these go nowhere in the Senate with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) saying, “If it’s based on the Mueller report, or anything like that, it would be quickly disposed of.”
