She's not down with the resistance
A Democratic senator up for re-election in a red state in 2018 sounded like reasonable senators used to in talking recently about working together and accomplishing things for the American people.
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., told the Greater North Dakota Chamber of Commerce that her party's resistance to anything President Donald Trump doesn't do anybody any good. Whether that's talk for the voters or whether she means it remains to be see.
One of the challenges, she said, "is the resist movement, which is nothing - just resist. Don't do anything. Just resist. I think that's a waste of my time. Why would I be there if that's all I'm there to do is to say no?"
Heitkamp's comments came after a question on health care and the Affordable Care Act replacement plan the Senate is currently pondering. She said while Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., are both against it because of some aspects of its cost benefit analysis, she thought at least five Democrats and an independent - Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, Sen. Angus King of Maine, Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia - might be persuaded to work together with Republicans.
The first-term senator won her 2012 election by less than 1 percent of the vote, so her words could be spin, but it gives one hope there is actual room for discussion on a health care bill.
A thought leader speaks
Chelsea Clinton allegedly hasn't taken up stand-up comedy, but many who heard about her words at the recent 2017 CARE National Conference wondered why not.
Whether serious or confused, she uttered the following: "Just listening to the concerns around education and climate change, and women's health, child marriage, access to technology - all of those are, of course, interconnected. We have to focus on each of them kind of in their interconnectedness, and also as individual outrages that do demand our attention."
We might have been interested in the interconnectedness of climate change and child marriage, among other things, but Clinton, who was introduced as an "activist, thought leader and change agent," wasn't saying more.
Twitter followers who saw the report in the Free Beacon had a field day.
"Please," said Harrison Bergeron. "Is there anything that isn't caused by climate change."
"Now you're just gluing bumper stickers together," said another."
"Maybe," said Anthony Bialy, "a second doctorate will make [her] smart."
We're not so sure.
I scream, you scream
By golly, Ben & Jerry's is serious about gay marriage. In Australia, in fact, they've forbidden customers to buy two scoops of the same ice cream flavor until gay marriage is approved by the government.
Their theory, of course, is that there is nothing wrong with two scoops of the same flavor, i.e. two people of the same sex in marriage. By keeping people from it, they're hoping people will make the connection to humans and marriage.
"[T]his doesn't even begin to compare to how furious you would be if you were told you were not allowed to marry the person you love," the company said in a news release. "So we are banning two scoops of the same flavor and encouraging our fans to contact their [parliament members] to tell them that the time has come - make same sex marriage legal! Love comes in all flavours!"
The sign announcing the ice cream campaign at its 26 locations in the country features two cows walking off into a rainbow sunset tail in tail. At each location, customers can conveniently write letters to their representatives making their wishes known.
"At Ben & Jerry's we love love, and we think most Australians do too," the news release continued. "More Australians than ever before believe everyone should have the right to love who they love - and marry them too, if that's what makes you happy."
The Vermont-based company celebrated the Supreme Court's 2015 decision to allow gay marriage in the United States by temporarily renaming its Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavor I Dough, I Dough.
What I did on my summer vacation
Black youth in Los Angeles have a new camp to attend if sports, crafts, computers, art and academics aren't their cup of tea.
"Youth Activist Camp," organized by a taxpayer supported professor of pan-African studies at California State University-Los Angeles and sponsored by the city's Black Lives Matter chapter, will be free for black youth ages 10-18.
A Facebook announcement said "in addition to learning strategies for organizing social justice campaigns and direct action tactics, the camp will focus on community building, skill-sharing, critical literacy [and] public speaking," There's also breakfast, snack, lunch and another snack, so they'll be fed well.
The tagline at the end of the Facebook announcement is "Educate, Agitate, Organize!!"
A YouCaring fundraiser to bankroll the camp, which is slated for June 12-16, was not going so well, though. Even its accompanying quote, "The young always inherit the revolution" by Black Panther revolutionist Huey Newton, wasn't helping. The $10,000 appeal, as of last week, had raised only $764.