There are two months left in hurricane season and we just lost our NOAA hurricane tracker airplane.

With more than two months of the Atlantic hurricane season left, NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters have grounded the Gulfstream IV aircraft that flies over storms at high altitudes to gather data.

“Unbelievably, there is no backup,” Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) told the Palm Beach Post. “I’ve sounded the alarm on this until I’m blue in the face. The administration simply must act.”

The airplane, nicknamed Gonzo, has suffered three malfunctions in a period of eight days.  It’s the only high altitude aircraft that NOAA has.  There is no backup.

So, ya think Tom Price would loan us his airplane?  Or maybe Mexico has one we can borrow?

But Donald Trump and the Koch brothers need a tax cut.  When Trump finds out that Texas and Mexico are bordered by a really, really big ocean, we are all pretty much on our own.

Thanks to AlanInAustin for the heads up.

Okay, I have no idea what the hell Cuba is doing, but I made a trip to Costco for some heavy duty hat making supplies.

A string of bizarre injuries to U.S. diplomats and their families in Cuba has left at least 21 people with a variety of ills including permanent hearing loss, fatigue, dizziness, visual and balance problems and sleeping difficulties, and is now being called an “attack” by the U.S. government. It’s unclear who is behind all of this.

Now, here’s the weird part – US diplomats think pulling out is a real bad idea.  They say —

A major US drawdown, or the closure of the recently reopened US embassy, would be a blow to Obama-era policies seeking to increase engagement between the Cold War adversaries.

Trump has repeatedly attacked his predecessor’s agreement with the Castro regime to bring down barriers between the two countries, calling it a “terrible and misguided deal.” While Trump has chipped away at some of the Obama-era policy changes, many components of it remain in place.

So, is the weirdness limited to Trump and his mission to destroy anything that President Obama ever touched?

Oh hell, Trump just found another place to start a war.

They will screw you every chance they get and try to make you think they’re doing you a favor.

Tom Price.

“Today, I will write a personal check to the U.S. Treasury for the expenses of my travel on private charter planes,” Price said in a statement. “The taxpayers won’t pay a dime for my seat on those planes.”

“… for my seat …” Cute, huh?

He pays for his seat and we pay for the rest of the airplane because … well, we are suckers.  Price did not charter a seat.  He chartered an airplane.  So next time he can charter an airplane seat, a mess of helium balloons, and a sack lunch.

And while we’re doing this, let’s talk about another damn reason I hate Republicans.

In Puerto Rico we are having what Sanjay Gupta called a “humanitarian crisis.”  Humanitarian crisis happens in third world countries, not the United States of Damn America.

And amid his talk of of restoring the Paris Hilton/Ivanka Trump inherited tax credit, Trump tweeted this morning.

We can’t afford to rebuild the homes of American citizens?  We have to stop and think about that because … well hell, they’re in an ocean, a really, really big ocean.

What the damn tarnation hell is wrong with Republicans?

In Texas, we have Governor Greg Abbott, and the minute the cameras left town he put his grubby fist around Texas’ Rainy Day Fund and refuse to help rebuild the Gulf Coast.  Good Lord, J J Watts and Deshaun Watson did more to help than my own state government.

Okay, I’m gonna go find something to laugh about now.  It’s Friday!

Thanks to everybody for the heads up. 

Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press

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Okay, so we just found out why there’s a picture of Jill Stein having dinner with Putin.  Russia was buying Facebook ads for her.

So how does she respond … ?

She Twitters.

Hey, I do not feel threatened.  Nauseous, yes.  Threatened? No.

No, seriously, she tweeted that.  And 1,500 people loved it.  We are so damn doomed.

CNN says their polling shows that …

Asked whether “most members of Congress” deserve re-election, just 22% of Americans say they do while 68% think they don’t. Among registered voters, only 20% want most members re-elected while 70% would rather the majority of members not return to Congress.

What’s even more striking is how low those “yes, deserves re-election” numbers are among Republicans and self-identified conservatives who, presumably, should be pleased with the Republican majorities in Congress.

Now, of course, those numbers skew when asked about their own personal congressman.  People tend to hate congress but like their congressman. However, these numbers are the lowest ever recorded, going all the way back to 1991.

There is other good news for sane people.

Inside Elections, a non-partisan political handicapping site, lists 48 Republican held-seats in jeopardy as compared to just 14 Democratic seats. In addition, there are 23 Republicans who hold seats that Hillary Clinton carried over Donald Trump in 2016.