What In The World?

So.... what in the world is going on?  

• Houston, Texas continues to be devastated by flooding in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. The White House has prepared a request to Congress for an initial $5.9 billion package in Harvey recovery aid, a first down payment to make sure recovery efforts over the next few weeks are adequately funded. The Trump proposal, which is being finalized pending White House consultations with key Republicans, promises to represent just a fraction of an eventual Harvey recovery package that could rival the $100-billion-plus in taxpayer-financed help for victims of 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

There's  some hub-bub in Washington about tying aid to Texas to current budget negotiations. Not really sure how that will or will not work but leave it Washington to complicate things.  

• Trump has decided to end the Obama-era program that grants work permits to undocumented immigrants who arrived in the country as children. 

This should not come as a surprise. Whatever "will he or won't he" drama may have existed on whether or not Trump would end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), the odds were always in favor of Trump revoking it simply because it was an "Obama-era program". 

• North Korea carried out its sixth and most powerful nuclear test early Sunday in an extraordinary show of defiance. Trump responded by declaring the country “hostile and dangerous to the United States” and criticizing an American ally, South Korea, for “talk of appeasement.” The underground blast, which caused tremors that were felt in both South Korea and China, was the first by the North to clearly surpass the destructive power of the bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. The government said it had tested a hydrogen bomb that could be mounted on an intercontinental ballistic missile. 

Yes, Trump talked tough towards North Korea while throwing some barbs towards our ally in the region, South Korea. So business as usual for Li'l Donnie.  

Under the heading of "I'm getting old and life sucks"....

• Walter Becker, guitarist, bassist and co-writer for the sophisticated, dark-humored band Steely Dan, has died. He was 67.

Click here for this link on You Tube for Steely Dan album, Aja. Steely Dan was long time favorite from my youth. The passing of Becker marks another loss from that youth.