By Jon Bauer
Herald staff
The nation paid its respects last week to the 41st president, George H.W. Bush. No, we have no parting shots for President Bush. Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.
As to the rest of the week that wasn’t:
500 Arabian nights: Lobbyists representing the government of Saudi Arabia rented 500 rooms at President Trump’s Washington, D.C., luxury hotel in the months following his election in 2016, drawing criticism from those who said the booking of hotel rooms violates the Constitution’s prohibition against foreign emoluments.
Five-hundred rooms? So, is that one for each wife? And don’t the little bottles of lotion in fancy hotel bathrooms come with their own nourishing emoluments?
If I knew you were coming, I’d have baked a cake: Following a two-year chase, the NASA spacecraft Osiris-Rex caught up with an ancient asteroid, Bennu, and will attempt to gather samples of the asteroid and return them to earth. The Associated Press reported that Osiris-Rex was Bennu’s “first visitor in billions of years.”
One again, the AP buries the lede; couldn’t they have told us first about the visitors Bennu had billions of years ago?
“I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”: President Trump has nominated a State Department spokeswoman and former Fox News “Fox & Friends” host, Heather Nauert, to follow Nikki Haley as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Nauert, in June, talked about the strong relationship the U.S. has with Germany, one that, she noted, went back to the D-Day landings.
OK, yes, technically Germany was already in France at the time — and shooting at our troops — but kudos to Nauert for recognizing the start of something good.
Out like Flynn: Special counsel Robert Mueller, investigating possible collusion between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government, released a sentencing document that recommends little to no time behind bars for Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser. Flynn has pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI, but has been cooperating with Mueller’s team.
We don’t understand why this is upsetting to Trump. Didn’t Trump ask then-FBI Director James Comey to “see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.”
Feeling a little parched? Questions are being raised about the secrecy regarding a report on how a catastrophic earthquake would affect Seattle’s water supply. Just a 13-page summary of the 722-page study has been released by Seattle Public Utilities. The report says Seattle would lose all water pressure within a day of a big quake and service wouldn’t be restored for two months or longer.
“Not to worry,” said Seattlites. “We’ll can just make a quick trip to Starbucks when we get thirsty.”
Someone tell Betsy DeVos her order of Bear-B-Gon will be delayed: A robot at an Amazon warehouse in New Jersey is being blamed for the release of a cloud of bear spray after it struck a case of the repellent.
Concerned for the safety of its valued workers, Amazon evacuated the robots from the warehouse and sent a team of human workers into the noxious cloud of pepper spray to clean up the mess.
Who are these guys? A poll of Herald readers found that a majority believe the Seattle Mariners front office has made a “good call” by trading many of its best-performing veteran players for prospects in an effort to tear down and rebuild a team that has made only four playoff appearances in its 41-year history.
About 41 percent said it was a good call but Seattle wasn’t getting enough in return for the trades; 33 percent said the Mariners got value in return for the veterans; and 25 percent asked, “So what should Seattle’s new NHL team be named?”
Can’t. Stop. Scrolling: Internal Facebook documents released by a committee of the United Kingdom’s Parliament provide clear evidence that the ocial network has used the personal data of its users as a competitive weapon, often using it to keep Facebook users in the dark.
The committee accused Facebook of cutting deals with app developers to give developers even more of its users’ personal information and … hey, look, “15 Photos that Prove Cows are Just Large Dogs.”
Jon Bauer: jbauer@heraldnet.com.
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