No Organized Party: The comedian Will Rogers famously said, “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” He died in 1935.

 Democratic congressional leaders appear to be headed toward an intraparty  clash over bringing impeachment proceedings against President Trump. House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler said on CNN, “We are launching an inquiry now, and whether we’ll launch an impeachment inquiry, it may come to that.” That’s out of step with the tune called by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who knows the House may impeach but the Senate is not likely to convict, actually strengthening the President going into the 2020 election.

  Pelosi said this week, “I don’t want to see him impeached. I want to see him in prison.”

  That’s a stunning thing for a member of Congress to say about the President. Gunning for jail is a big gamble that assumes Trump will not win in 2020. Impeachment after his re-election would look like a political coup, and it would stall criminal indictment for another four years.

Border War: Both the US and Mexico say they are making progress on an agreement that would avert President Trump’s threatened tariffs on Mexican imports to bully the country into controlling migration to the southern border. In the agreement under consideration, rather than seek asylum in the US, migrants would be required to seek asylum in the first foreign country they enter after leaving their homes. Mexico would also expand an arrangement under which some migrants seeking asylum in the US would have to wait in Mexico for their cases to be decided.

Death in Training: One West Point cadet was killed and 21 other people were injured when a troop-carrying truck rolled over early yesterday during a summer training operation. Two of the injured were active duty soldiers.

  All of the cadets are between their junior and senior years at the academy. Most of the injures were cuts and broken bones. West Point officers said the truck was travelling in rough terrain, but they didn’t know the cause of the accident.

FlipFlop:Under pressure from his party and nearly two-dozen presidential candidates, former Vice President Joe Biden announced that he no longer supports the Hyde Amendment, the law that forbids federal money being spent on abortions.

  “If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment that makes that right dependent on someone’s ZIP code,” Biden said.

  The Hyde Amendment is a forty-year-old ban on federal money being used for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or when the mother’s life is in danger.

  Biden said he struggled with his decision but, “I can’t justify leaving millions of women without access to the care they need and the ability to … exercise their constitutionally protected right.”

From the Tailpipe: The world’s largest auto makers warned President Trump yesterday that his plan to roll back emission standards set by the Obama administration will cause chaos in the car market and cost them a lot of money. What will happen, they say, is that California and 13 other states will continue to enforce their own, stricter rules, splitting the US auto market in two. The manufacturers might have to build two different kinds of cars.

  Obama targeted a standard of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, and Trump would leave it at 37.

The Anti-Trump:Billionaire and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has pledged $500 million to a campaign aimed at closing every coal-fired power plant in the US and stopping the proliferation of natural gas plants.

  The campaign is called Beyond Carbon. “We’re in a race against time with climate change, and yet there is virtually no hope of bold federal action on this issue for at least another two years,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “Mother Nature is not waiting on our political calendar, and neither can we.”

 President Trump has touted the return of “clean” coal, but there is no such thing. It was an industry misinformation slogan.

Catholic Charities:In the years before he was ejected for accusations of sexual harassment and financial irregularities, the Catholic Bishop of West Virginia handed out cash gifts totaling $350,000 to fellow clergy, including young priests he is accused of mistreating, and more than a dozen cardinals in the US and the Vatican, The Washington Post reports.

  During his 13 years as bishop, Michael Bransfield spent $2.4 million of the church’s money on travel, much of it personal, which included flying in chartered jets and staying in luxury hotels, according to the report. 

  For the gifts, Bransfield wrote checks from his personal account and was reimbursed by the West Virginia diocese, the paper reports. 

 The gifts as much as $15,000 were listed in the draft of a confidential report to the Vatican. The names of 11 powerful clerics who accepted money were edited out of the final report at the request of the of the archbishop of Baltimore.

The Obit Page:Six-time Grammy winner Dr. John, whose big hit “Right Place Wrong Time,” was in the Top 10 in 1973, has died at age 77. Dr. John was a fixture in the New Orleans music scene. He started out as a songwriter and guitarist in the 1950s before playing with Aretha Franklin and the Rolling Stones.

On Ice:After beating Boston 2-1 last night, The St. Louis Blues are one game away from winning their first Stanley Cup Championship. They lead the series 3-2. The final game is Sunday night.

This Call is Important:The FCC has voted to allow wireless phone companies to block robocalls automatically without customers having to ask for protection. Americans get about 5 billion robocalls a month, one industry estimate says. We’re going to miss hearing from the Resort Rewards Center.

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