Wondering on Wednesday (v94)

Happy July 5th, the day we put away our patriotic swimwear, outerwear, paradewear and, for all I know, underwear, for another year. (And to answer your question, no, I'm not wondering whether anyone I know is wearing any of those handmade items.)

Did you hear about those rascally folks at NPR, who tweeted the entire Declaration of Independence on Independence Day? And even better, did you hear about the reactions?  Oh yeah, people thought they were calling for revolution! They were drunk! No wonder they're being defunded! They were spreading propaganda! They're anti-Trump!

No, they're geniuses, plain and simple.

My favorite reaction:

I wonder how all of the people who complained are feeling today? Proud to be an American? Ready to #MAGA? Or, maybe, spending some time on Twitter reading our founding document?

We now know that North Korea can likely reach Alaska with their new ICBM, which they launched on Monday. And we know that we previously said that we would have a military response if they were to do so.  UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said so back in April:

If you see some sort of intercontinental ballistic missile, then obviously we're going to do that.

Haley's comments were more measured this time around.

(North Korea's) actions are quickly closing off the possibility of a diplomatic solution. The United States is prepared to use the full range of our capabilities to defend ourselves and our allies. One of our capabilities lies with our considerable military forces. We will use them if we must.

We're going to be proposing more sanctions, Haley said - on top of the last round of sanctions, which was on top of the round of sanctions before that...  We've lost patience with China, since they're not making any real headway with Kim, and now they've issued a joint statement with the Russians basically telling us to heel.  All of this makes me wonder, have we drawn a red line in the Korean peninsula, and if yes, has it been crossed with this latest missile test? Or are we just putting words out there, like the previous administration did (to wide criticism) about Syria?

And finally tonight, let's turn to California for a clear picture of what the Democrats are up against: each other, it seems.  Out there on the west coast, they've been talking about the Disclose Act for a while now.  From the article linked above

Who pays for all those political ads that bombard voters every election?

An effort to make the answer clearer is squeezing California Democrats between two liberal constituencies. On one side, they're facing pressure from progressive activists who decry the influence of dark money and want more disclosure. On the other, they're being lobbied by labor unions, which help fund their campaigns and are fighting a bill to bring more transparency.

It seems like a no brainer - get the money out, bring light to the darkness, let people know who is putting the positions in front of the voters, right?  And when the Republican party is the party of "corporations are people too" and massive Super PACs and DeVos money and all that evil Koch Brothers money, it would seem easy for Dems to align on the other side of this issue and collectively support transparency, right?  Wrong.

I wonder, if they can't unite around something as easy as this, in California  no less, how will Dems pull it together nationally?