INSULT EXCHANGE After President Trump called North Korea’s dictator “Rocket Man,” Kim Jong Un volleyed an insult back at Trump calling him a dotard. And North Korea didn’t stop with insults. He threatened a hydrogen bomb test in the Pacific Ocean. http://cvote.it/2hjlzhp
THE HEALTH CARE PUSH What’s motivating Senate Republicans to take one more stab at replacing Obamacare? Liberals claim it’s because of billionaire donors like the Koch brothers. The real answer? Republicans got confronted by local long-time supporters who said it was time to get something done after seven years of promises. http://cvote.it/2hjMQAb
DEMS CAUGHT FLAT FOOTED A liberal confesses: Democrats felt so triumphant over “saving Obamacare” when the skinny repeal went down in defeat in late July. So confident, in fact, that they decided to roll out support for Bernie Sanders’ socialist takeover plan. Democrats and their friends in the media largely discounted the efforts by Senate Republicans to plug along with the Graham-Cassidy bill. http://cvote.it/2hnkWzE
FACTS ON HEALTH CARE BILL Here’s a quick and very readable summary of what the Graham-Cassidy health care bill would do — everything from defunding Planned Parenthood to expanding HSAs. http://cvote.it/2hndftr
THE TRUMP EFFECT Donald Trump has the uncanny effect of controlling his opponents’ views. Tim Carney writes: “Simply by taking a position, Trump can send most of the Left and half of the U.S. media sprinting to the opposite position.” http://cvote.it/2hl5A2i
TRUMP POLL BOUNCE After months of historic low poll numbers, a new NBC/WSJ poll showed the president at 43% approval. According to the poll, the American people approved of Trump’s bipartisan deal with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown. http://cvote.it/2hmS7as
CORRUPTION TRIAL The news networks have devoted little if any time to the corruption trial of Senator Bob Menendez. According to the Media Research Center, CNN spent a little over 14 minutes, with ABC spending less than two minutes. CBS? Just 22 seconds. NBC had zero seconds. http://cvote.it/2hn4i3d
DIGITAL TRUST BUSTING? A free-market conservative says that maybe it’s time to rein in companies like Google and Facebook who accumulate considerable power by harvesting massive amount of private data. http://cvote.it/2hn5weP
CHRISTIANITY AND THE MARKET Remember that article by Rusty Reno in First Things that suggested Catholics should rethink their generally uncritically positive view of the market economy? Well, this response by Samuel Gregg is worth reading as well. http://cvote.it/2hkFBbm
CIVILITY AND CHURCH LIFE “We live at a time when civility is universally longed for and just as universally (and too often gleefully) violated. In many ways, our time resembles the widespread unrest on the brink of the Reformation…” writes Archbishop Charles Chaput about the controversy surrounding Fr. James Martin’s new book on the LGBT community. http://cvote.it/2hjkBlh
SAINT OF THE DAY Saint Lorenzo Ruiz – http://cvote.it/dailysaint
DAILY MASS READINGS “Blessed the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs!” (Ps 49:6) – http://cvote.it/Daily-Readings