Sidekick: As the result of an unusual negotiation, Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller will be accompanied during his congressional testimony today by a long-time aide who will act as his counsel. 

  Mueller had asked that Aaron Zebleybe sworn in as a co-witness, which would have fractured the time representatives have to ask questions of Mueller. Zebley will act instead as an unsworn counsel to Mueller, who will be asked to recall details from two years-worth of investigation.

  What the House gets from Mueller may be more a show than a revelation. Mueller has said he will not go beyond what he said in his report, and the Justice Department backed that up with an order saying basically the same thing.

   Here’s the primary question to which we may or may not get an answer: Would Mueller have indicted Donald Trump if he were not the President?

  Trump is wound up about the whole thing. He tweeted this morning, “So Democrats and others can illegally fabricate a crime, try pinning it on a very innocent President, and when he fights back against this illegal and treasonous attack on our Country, they call It Obstruction? Wrong! Why didn’t Robert Mueller investigate the investigators?”

Ultimate Response:Thousands of emergency workers who rushed to the rubble of the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 attacks will be granted health care and other compensation for the rest of their lives under a bill passed by Congress to give permanent care  to responders  made ill by exposure to toxins in the rubble of the World Trade Center.  

  It passed the Senate’s 97-2 vote to an eruption of applause. Comedian Jon Stewart, who has become a champion of 9/11 responders, broke into tears. President Trump still needs to sign the bill that would create a fund lasting 70 years at a cost of $10.2 billion over the next ten years, helping as many as 22,000 responders.

That’s One Big Settlement:The 2012 death of astronaut Neil Armstrong in a Cincinnati hospital resulted in a $6 million settlement with his family, according to documents anonymously dumped on the doorstep of The NY Times.

  The first man to walk on the moon was up and walking in the hospital after heart bypass surgery, but developed a fatal infection after the removal of wires for a temporary pacemaker. His sons blamed the hospital.

  The documents show that Armstrong’s daughter-in-law, who acted as an attorney for the family, threatened the hospital with devastating publicity that would fall on the 45^thanniversary of the first moon landing. Another lawyer representing Armstrong’s grandchildren wrote in a court filing, “No institution wants to be remotely associated with the death of one of America’s greatest heroes.”

Fatal Punch: Russian Junior Welterweight boxer Maxim Dadashev died yesterday morning of brain injuries suffered during a loss to Subriel Matias Friday night at the MGM National Harbor in Maryland. He was just 28.

   Dadashev had taken a terrible pounding before the fight was called by his own trainer in the 11^thround. The fighter collapsed before making it to the dressing room and was later found to be bleeding in his brain.

Penny Wise: The Trump administration, which has vastly inflated the national deficit, announced that it wants to save $2.5 billion a year by cutting food stamp benefits to as many as three million people. They say they are closing a loophole that allows the undeserving to get food stamps. Agriculture Secy. Sonny Perdue said in a regulatory filing, “This proposal will not only save money, but more importantly it preserves the integrity of the program while ensuring nutrition assistance programs serve those most in need.”

  The regulations in question are tough to describe, but what this gets down to is the old Republican trope that the poor are undeserving and have only themselves to blame.

The Obit Page:Li Peng, the former Chinese premier labelled the  “butcher of Beijing” for his role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre died Monday at age 90.

  Although his role has never been reliably pinned down, Li has been blamed for ordering the army’s attack on pro-democracy demonstrators the night of June 3, 1989. Tanks and troops moved into the square firing automatic rifles, killing hundreds.

  Li said the demonstrators were “enemies of the Communist Party who endangered “the fate and future of the People’s Republic of China, built by many revolutionary martyrs with their blood.”

I Tweet, Therefore I Am:More from the President of the United States, Donald Trump: “Newest Poll: Only 11% in favor of starting ridiculous impeachment hearings. Well, let’s see: We have the Best Economy in History, the Best Employment Numbers in History, Most People Working in History, Highest Stock Market in History, Biggest Tax and Regulation Cuts in History, Best and Newest Military (almost totally rebuilt from the depleted military I took over) in History, Best V.A. in History (Choice), and MUCH, MUCH MORE. Gee, let’s impeach the President. The “Squad” (AOC Plus 3) and other Dems suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Crazy!”

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