Are You Now or Have You Ever Been: While the Justice Department tries to gin up a good reason for putting a citizenship question on the 2020 census form, President Trump is considering installing the question by executive order, The NY Times reports.

  Originally the Commerce department said the question was necessary to help enforce the Voting Rights Act, which is a laugh because the Republicans have been trying to destroy it.  The Supreme Court already ruled that the administration’s rationale was “contrived,” but gave them another chance. A federal judge in Maryland gave them until 2 pm yesterday to come up with something good, but all they ended up saying is that they plan to push forward.

  “We could also add an addition on,” Trump told reporters at the White House.  “So we could start the printing now and maybe do an addendum after we get a positive decision. So we’re working on a lot of things including an executive order.”

  What that means is that he would attempt by executive order what the Supreme Court has already said he may not do.

   Asked by a reporter why a citizenship question is necessary, Trump said, “You need it for Congress for districting, you need it for appropriations, where are the funds going, how many people are there, are they citizens or not citizens? You need it for many reasons.”

  In fact, Congressional districts are drawn according to total population, not the number of actual citizens living in an area.

The Know-Nothing Party:Speaking with reporters before departing for his golf club in New Jersey, President Trump said didn’t know about the dozens of undocumented workers employed at his golf courses over many years because he no longer runs his business.

 Trump did run his business before he became President and his eldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric, run it now.

 Although Trump has made a crusade of illegal immigration and undocumented workers, he said, “I would say this, probably every club in the United States has that, because it seems to me, from what I understand, a way that people did business.”

  Including himself.

Econ 101: Despite predictions of an inevitable recession, the economy added224,000 jobs last month, an indication that a downturn isn’t coming quite yet and President Trump’s trade wars have not discouraged employers. 

Quake News: A second and more powerful earthquake struck in the California desert yesterday  100 miles north of Los Angeles just 36 hours after the strongest quake to hit in 20 years. The latest was a magnitude 7.1, preceded by a 6.4 on Thursday. It caused fires, power outages, and some injuries. The aftershocks are coming every few minutes.

Dropped:The young man who accused actor Kevin Spacey of groping him in a Nantucket bar in 2016 has dropped his civil lawsuit. No reason was given, but it could be an indication that a private settlement has been reached, or the decision was made to focus on the  criminal charges still pending against Spacey.

Chopper Down:An influential West Virginia coal billionaire, his daughter, and a group of her friends were killed in the crash of a helicopter in the Bahamas. Chris Cline, 61, and his daughter Kameron, 22, were among the seven dead. Kline was known as a generous philanthropist and an active conservative Republican. 

Historic Speech: When President Trump spoke on the 4^thof July he committed his usual quota of errors and conflagration of facts. Oh wait, make that “conflation,”  but then again, maybe it was a conflagration.

  In one passage he committed historic errors of history:

  “In June of 1775, the Continental Congress created a unified army out of the revolutionary forces encamped around Boston and New York and named after the great George Washington (1), commander in chief. The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown (2). Our army manned the [unclear], it [unclear] the ramparts, it took over the airports (3), it did everything it had to do. And at Fort McHenry (4), under ‘the rockets red glare,’ it had nothing but victory. And when dawn came, their star-spangled banner waved defiant.”

  1.The army was not named after Washington.

  2. Cornwallis was defeated at Yorktown, but came from London.

  3. There were no airports during the Revolution. Or even 100 years later.

  4. That’s a battle fought during the War of 1812, not the Revolution.

  Trump claims he had trouble with his teleprompter delivering simple facts everyone else masters in grade school.

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