Home of the Whopper: In a White House meeting yesterday, President Trump used a scatological term for some of the countries from which he’d rather not accept immigrants. According to multiple witnesses, Trump was in an Oval Office meeting with legislators when someone mentioned Haiti and Africa and the President asked, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” He then said he would prefer immigrants from countries like Norway.

The impact of the word he used is so major that news outlets like The NY Times  are repeating it without asterisks.

The meeting was to discuss a plan for illegal immigrants brought to the US as children, the so-called “Dreamers.” When someone mentioned Haiti, Trump asked, “Why do we want people from Haiti here?”

The President was quickly condemned by Republicans, Democrats, and civil rights groups. Chicago Democratic Rep. Rep. Luis Gutierrez said, “We can now we say with 100% confidence that the President is a racist who does not share the values enshrined in our Constitution or Declaration of Independence.”

Trump was desperately defending himself on Twitter this morning saying ,“I want a merit based system of immigration and people who will help take our country to the next level. I want safety and security for our people. I want to stop the massive inflow of drugs.”

He did not acknowledge what he said yesterday, or apologize.

Foreign to Intelligence: The House voted yesterday to renew the warrantless electronic search clause in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) without providing protections for American citizens.

They almost balked after a morning tweet from the President put Capitol Hill in a spin. Trump said, “House votes on controversial FISA ACT today. This is the act that may have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?”

He apparently reacted after seeing something on Fox News, signaling that he was against a bill he previously supported.

After a flurry of phone calls, Trump updated and said, “With that being said, I have personally directed the fix to the unmasking process since taking office and today’s vote is about foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land. We need it! Get smart!”

Yes, get smart.

Work for Healthcare: The Trump administration announced that it will allow the states to impose work requirements for receiving Medicaid, a major policy shift in the health program for low-income people. The administration wants able-bodied adults to work or be involved in “community engagement activities” as a condition of eligibility.

Geography 101: Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway said on CNN Wednesday that the President has “discovered” that a physical wall across the entire U.S.-Mexico border is not entirely possible because of difficult terrain.

“What’s true is that after conferring with the experts who are involved in this process … the President has discovered that part of it will be, he knows, part of it will be the physical wall, part of it is better technology, part of it is also fencing,” Conway said. “There are rivers involved, I’m told. There are mountains involved, there’s terrain that isn’t conducive to building an actual physical structure in some places.”

It’s like health care. Who knew it could be so complicated?

The Obit Page: Thomas Bopp, an amateur astronomer who shared credit for discovering the Hale-Bopp Comet, died Jan. 5. at age 68. On the night of July 22, 1995, Bopp was in the Arizona desert with a friend looking at a prominent cluster of stars when he noticed a fuzzy glow. He later told an interviewer, “I thought I had a faint galaxy or something.”

Also that night, astronomer Alan Hale, then 37, saw what is officially titled C/1995 O1, a dirty snowball of dust, rock and ice that became known as the Hale-Bopp Comet. Both men raced to register their discovery, ending up sharing the credit.

As the comet made its closest approach to Earth in 1997, providing spectacular pictures, a previously unknown California cult called Heaven’s Gate committed mass suicide, believing they could hitch a ride to heaven aboard Hale-Bopp. They never sent back word on whether they made it.

Disappearing Winter: The NY Times has a threatening story that says nine of 21 places that have hosted the Winter Olympics since 1924 might not be cold and snowy enough to host the games again by 2070.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, reached the conclusion applying climate-change models to predict future winter weather at former Olympic sites. The research was updated this month to include the Pyeongchang Olympics, which begin Feb. 9, and the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.

Listed as “unlikely” are Sochi, Russia (2014), Garmisch-Parternkirchen, Germany (1936), and Vancouver, Canada, 2010.

Among those noted as “higher risk” are some of the great winter sports cities of the world, including Chamonix, and Grenoble in France; and Innsbruck, Austria.

One Angry Man: Facing possible protests over his “shithole” comment, the President announced he’s cancelling a planned trip to London. He tweeted,  “Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for ‘peanuts,’ only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars. Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon-NO!”

The decision to move the embassy was made under the administration of George W. Bush.

-30-