SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET:

GOOD FOR HIM – FROM AMERICAN MIRROR:  Donald Trump is making America exceptional once again.  It’s coming in small, yet proud ways, as evidenced at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.  As leaders were gathering for a photo op, most were sporting a G20 pin on their lapel.  Not Trump. He was wearing an American flag.  A little thing, but it's important to us.  The G20 is not a fraternity, and you don't have to wear your pledge pin.  The American flag is better.

SOMETIMES IT'S JUST OVER – FROM THE HILL:   Hillary Clinton wants to play a role in next year’s midterm elections. It’s just not clear yet what that role will be.   Clinton has already launched a PAC aimed at helping congressional Democratic candidates in 2018, signaling the former first lady, senator and secretary of State is ready to help her party with fundraising.   She also is looking at the House districts she won in last year’s presidential contest against Donald Trump as part of an autopsy of her failed campaign, according to two sources who have spoken to the former Secretary of State.  Sometimes it's wise to just get off the stage.  The Democratic Party is in a bad place, and doesn't appear to be in any mood to welcome Clinton back.    

AUNTIE MAXINE SPEAKS – FROM THE HILL:  Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has decided to take “the gloves off” to encourage others to see President Trump's the way she does, the House Democrat said in a New York Times profile published on Friday.   “Trump was just so outrageous, so disrespectful, such a bully and dangerous for this country, I decided, ‘You know what? I’m taking the gloves off and I’m going to step out,’” Waters told the Times, explaining her bombastic rhetoric toward the president. She has called for his impeachment.  “I was going to not only challenge him but encourage others to see him for what he is: basically a bully, an egotistical maniac, a liar and someone who did not need to be president,” she continued.  Most people think she took the gloves off years ago.  But maybe these are new gloves.  Her constituents might remind her of why she was sent to Congress.

July 8, 2017