Welcome to Monday, September 16th, flora and fauna...

President Donald Trump said Sunday that the U.S. is "locked and loaded" after an attack on the world's largest oil-processing facility in Saudi Arabia.

"Saudi Arabia oil supply was attacked," Trump tweeted. "There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed!"

Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility, but U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran, saying "there is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen."

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in a statement the U.S. accusations were "blind, incomprehensible and meaningless."

Should the U.S. condemn Iran?

On the Radar

Teen E-Cigarette Use #s

President Trump announced Wednesday that his administration will move to ban the sale of flavored e-cigarettes to discourage youth vaping and follow the path laid by several cities and the state of Michigan, which have already banned them in response to a wave of illnesses under investigation.

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) tracks the use of cigarettes and e-cigarettes by teens and found that in 2018, 25% of 6th through 12th graders reported that they had used an e-cigarette at least once in their life, while 14% vaped within in the last 30 days.

This chart from USAFacts compares use of e-cigarettes and cigarettes by middle & high schoolers in the last 30 days and in their lifetime:

Should flavored vaping products be banned?

Under the Radar

California Bans Private Prisons

California lawmakers have passed a bill banning all for-profit prisons and immigrant detention facilities from operating in the state.

If Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signs the legislation, it would go into effect "on or after January 1, 2020" and would prohibit California's government from "entering into or renewing a contract with a private, for-profit prison to incarcerate state inmates."

CoreCivic and Geo Group – the nation’s two largest for-profit prison companies - spent $130,000 during the first six months of 2019 lobbying against the bill.

Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Oakland), who authored AB-32, celebrated its passage on Twitter: "We are on the verge of creating historic and needed reform to end the use of for-profit, private prisons and for-profit, private civil detention centers in CA. People are not commodities!"

Brandon Bissell, a CoreCivic spokesperson, argued that "[w]hen California’s prison system capacity was at 200% and conditions were so challenging as to be deemed unconstitutional, companies like ours were one of the solutions the state turned to."

Do you support banning private prisons?

Uyghur Protections Unanimously Pass Senate

The Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed a bill to develop a federal strategy to address China’s persecution of the 13 million Uyghur Muslims who reside in the western region of Xinjiang.

Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act (S. 178) passed after Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) made a unanimous consent request that wasn’t objected to at the end of the day's business. The bill has the support of 44 bipartisan cosponsors — including 25 Democrats, 17 Republicans, and two Independents — and now heads to the House for possible consideration.

Human rights experts say that between 800,000 to 2 million Muslims have been detained indefinitely in reeducation camps since April 2017 because the Chinese Communist Party views them as a potential extremist or separatist threat. 

Should the House pass the bill to counteract China's persecution of Uyghurs?

What You're Saying

Here's how you're answering Should Sanctuary Cities Not Receive Federal Law Enforcement Grants if They Don’t Assist Federal Immigration Enforcement?