Last Call For More DACA Please

As expected, several states are suing the Trump regime over ending DACA but the biggest state of them all -- California -- has now entered the fray this week.

California and three other states on Monday added to a barrage of states challenging President Donald Trump’s decision to rescind protections for undocumented people brought to the United States illegally as children.

The lawsuit, in which California was joined by Minnesota, Maryland and Maine, comes five days after 15 states and the District of Columbia first filed suit to defend the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Flanked by two DACA recipients in Sacramento, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra called Trump’s order “unlawful and mean-spirited,” arguing it violates due process provisions of the Constitution and would hurt the economy in the nation’s most populous state.

“You don’t become the sixth-largest economy in the world just because,” Becerra said. “It just so happens that one of every four of the DACA recipients in this country — some 200,000 — live and work and call California their home, and they’ve been helping California become the sixth-largest economy in the world.”

He said repealing DACA would unfairly punish productive, law-abiding young people and that the economic cost of deporting them “would be felt by California businesses, California local governments who have depended on the economic success of the DACA program.”

Again, this is one of those matters that was always going to go before the Supreme Court. Trump pulled the trigger on his six-month time bomb last week because otherwise he was going to be sued by dozens of red states, now he's being sued by blue ones. We'll see where SCOTUS stands but a 5-4 Kennedy Special seems like the most likely outcome.

Meanwhile Trump's only doing this to keep his base loyal and to piss off Mexico, and considering Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto may be one of the few world leaders with a worse approval rating than Trump, it's actually a safe bet for Donny to keep that up for the foreseeable future.

But that's what he does, lie and piss people off.

Mitt-igating Circumstances

America's favorite binder-keeping loser is back.  Well, he's sort of back, maybe.  Possibly.  I dunno.  There's caveats and such, conditions, factors even to Mitt Romney's return.

Sources tell UtahPolicy.com that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is preparing to run for Senate in 2018 if Sen. Orrin Hatch decides to retire. 

Sources close to Romney say the two-time presidential candidate will jump into the 2018 Utah Senate scrum if Hatch opts not to. 

So far, Hatch has not made up his mind as to whether he'll run for an eighth term in 2018. He has previously said he was planning on running as long as his and his wife's health holds up.

Dave Hansen, a longtime political advisor to Hatch, told UtahPolicy.com last month that he didn't expect Hatch to decide on his political future until October. However, sources now tell UtahPolicy.com that Hatch may not make up his mind until December. 

Hatch's reticence to make a definitive announcement is presenting other candidates from getting in the race, but Romney has the financial resources to mount a campaign no matter when Hatch decides. 

Rep. Chris Stewart also has said he would like to jump into the race if Hatch decides against running for an eighth term next year.

Isn't that cute.  Mitt is waiting for Orrin to retire in order to run, Orrin is waiting for Mitt to run in order to retire.  You would think they would call each other and work it out, but Utah or something.

Anyway, I thought presidential losing candidates had to shut up and go away so gosh why is Mitt allowed to do this when Hillary has to eject herself screaming into the burning heart of the sun?

It's weird I guess.  I mean it's not like Mitt isn't going to prostrate himself and vote for Trump's position 90%+ of the time like all the other Republicans in the Senate, but whatever.  Orrin Hatch's 538 Trump Score finds him taking The Donald's position nearly 96% of the time as of today, so really Mitt *might* be an improvement on a vote or two and end up in the low 90's or something.

Who knew?

Irma Was A Terrible Tourist

Hurricane Irma will weaken into a tropical storm as it crossed the Florida panhandle into Georgia today, but late last week the storm was a monster category 5 force of nature that annihilated the Caribbean and wrecked multiple islands, the damage will take years to recover from.

From Cuba to Antigua, Caribbean islanders began counting the cost of Hurricane Irma on Sunday after the brutal storm left a trail of death, destruction and chaos from which the tourist-dependent region could take years to recover.

The Category 5 storm, which killed at least 28 people across the region, devastated housing, power supplies and communications, leaving some small islands almost cut off from the world. European nations sent military reinforcements to keep order amid looting, while the damage was expected to total billions of dollars.

Ex-pat billionaires and poor islanders alike were forced to take cover as Irma tore roofs off buildings, flipped cars and killed livestock, raging from the Leeward Islands across Puerto Rico and Hispaniola then into Cuba before turning on Florida.

Waves of up to 36 feet (11 meters) smashed businesses along the Cuban capital Havana’s sea-side drive on Sunday morning. Further east, high winds whipped Varadero, the island’s most important tourist resort.

“It’s a complete disaster and it will take a great deal of work to get Varadero back on its feet,” said Osmel de Armas, 53, an aquatic photographer who works on the beach at the battered resort.

Sea-front hotels were evacuated in Havana and relief workers spent the night rescuing people from homes in the city center as the sea penetrated to historic depths in the flood-prone area.

U.S President Donald Trump issued a disaster declaration on Sunday for Puerto Rico, where Irma killed at least 3 people and left hundreds of thousands without electricity. Trump also expanded federal funds available to the U.S. Virgin Islands, which suffered extensive damage to homes and infrastructure.

Further east in the Caribbean, battered islands such as St. Martin and Barbuda were taking stock of the damage as people began emerging from shelters to scenes of devastation.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the death toll on the Dutch part of St. Martin had doubled to four, and that 70 percent of homes had been damaged or destroyed.

Puerto Rico was already in the middle of a financial hurricane, the territory was locked in a battle with Congress over the island's bankruptcy declaration last year and what impact Irma will have on that restructuring of the island's $120 billion in debt and pension liabilities is unknown.

As bad as Irma's assessments will be for Florida as nearly five million are without power, remember that in Puerto Rico residents there could be facing that situation for months.

It's been a pretty rough couple of weeks weather-wise for North America...and with flooding still continuing in India, Nepal and Bangladesh, the world.

StupidiNews!

• At least 4 million are without power this morning as Hurricane Irma ripped up Florida's western coastline and continues into southern Georgia this morning as a Category 1 storm.
• North Dakota native Cara Mund became the first Miss America pageant winner from that state, crowned last night Mund said she disagreed with Donald Trump's stance on climate change.
• Norwegians go to the polls today to elect a government in a close race, PM Erna Solberg's Conservatives are looking for re-election against the opposition Labour Party. 
• North Korea is warning that the US will face the "greatest pain" as the UN Security Council votes on strict new oil import and asset freeze sanctions against Pyongyang on Monday.
• California lawmakers are banning autonomous drone delivery of marijuana ahead of the state legalizing recreational use of the drug on January 1.