National

Anne Marie Cox thinks the GOP is now destroyed as an option for the Millennial Generation.

Late last week, the Reason Foundation released the results of a poll about that generation, the millennials; its signature finding was the confirmation of a mass abandonment of social conservatism and the GOP. This comes at a time when the conservative movement is increasingly synonymous with mean-spirited, prank-like and combative activism and self-important grand gestures. The millennial generation has repeatedly defined itself as the most socially tolerant of the modern era, but one thing it really can't stand is drama.

Which probably explains why Millennial approve of No Drama Obama.

This is the latest from the Congressional brain rust -- this time trying to find money for the Transportation Trust Fund. This time, it is Hoouse Republicans who are looking to use this trick to look like they are paying for the extension to the Transportation Trust fund. Instead of looking at rational ways of raising revenue (taxes, closing tax loopholes), they've decided that undermining America's already hemorrhaging pension system is the right place to get money to pay for our roads. But this is apparently not the first time this accounting gimmick has been floated to actually fund something. The Democrats tried using this mess into a bill to extend unemployment insurance and it was part of the funding mechanism for the last temporary Transportation Bill. Which means that this bit of business is available for some appalling bit of bipartisanship. (Even though the GOP looked at the pension smoothing plan to pay for unemployment benefits and said that it paid for nothing. Now they are all for it.) So what is Pension Smoothing?

(...except, not really.) A man shoots his son, then is subsequently shot and killed by his grandson. FREEDOM!! Also, this...

VALDOSTA — On the first day of the new Georgia Safe Carry Protection Act, a misunderstanding between two armed men in a convenience store Tuesday led to a drawn firearm and a man’s arrest. “Essentially, it involved one customer with a gun on his hip when a second customer entered with a gun on his hip,” said Valdosta Police Chief Brian Childress. At approximately 3 p.m. Tuesday, police responded to a call regarding a customer dispute at the Enmark on the corner of Park Avenue and North Lee Street. A man carrying a holstered firearm entered the store to make a purchase. Another customer, also with a holstered firearm, approached him and demanded to see his identification and firearms license, according to the Valdosta Police Department report. The customer making demands for ID pulled his firearm from its holster but never pointed it at the other customer, who said he was not obligated to show any permits or identification.

The GOP decided yesterday that they will hold their 2016 convention in Cleveland. Some say it is smart and may help the Republicans win Ohio, which they have to do in order to win the Presidency. I say the reverse is true: it will give Ohioans, especially those in the Cleveland collar counties that may think about voting GOP, a close up and personal look at the freak show that is a GOP convention, especially when you consider that the most likely nominee will either be Rand Paul or Ted Cruz. Meanwhile, Politico tells us that the Cleveland convention for the GOP will be held much earlier that usual this time, like at the end of July or beginning of August. Well, actually, that is the way it used to be. Conventions were not held back to back at the end of August or beginning of September. The person who started that tradition was none other than George W. Bush, who wanted to move the 2004 convention to the week of September 11 so that he could fully and cravenly politicize the terrorist attack that he allowed to happen on his watch. Such a late convention for the GOP forced the Dems to move theirs up to late August so that it would not be three months since their convention. And that pattern stuck around in 2008 and 2012. Normally, the opposition party held its convention in July, and the incumbent party held theirs in mid August.