Samuel Girod of Bath County, KY, is an Amish farmer who sold homemade herbal remedies. The FDA saw to it he would spend the next six years in federal prison.

​The 56-year-old man created a salve made of chickweed, rosemary, beeswax, and olive oil. The label said it was to treat skin disorders such as “dry skin, cuts, burns, draws, and poison ivy.” Girod also handed out pamphlets touting the product’s effectiveness in treating skin cancer, diaper rash, and fungal infections.

When a Missouri resident filed a complaint, the state health department demanded he remove the language. Girod changed the product’s name to “Healing Chickweed,” agents said the word “healing” was verboten, so he renamed it “Original Chickweed.”

While the rest of America was celebrating Independence Day, CNN kept digging its own grave.

Furious over a silly video President Donald Trump posted Sunday, the flailing network sicced Senior Editor Andrew Kaczynski on its creator. He tracked down an anonymous Reddit user who first posted the GIF of Trump tackling a wrestler whose head was replaced with a CNN logo. Kaczynski then found out the person’s real name and threatened to release it if he misbehaved again:

​After posting his apology, “HanA**holeSolo” called CNN’s KFile and confirmed his identity. In the interview, “HanA**holeSolo” sounded nervous about his identity being revealed and asked to not be named out of fear for his personal safety and for the public embarrassment it would bring to him and his family.

Bret Stephens doesn’t like Twitter, so he decided that you shouldn’t either.

​His reasoning is lax, but the New York Times columnist blames the social media platform for “pornifying” politics. “Twitter is the political pornography of our time,” Stephens claims, “revealing but distorting, exciting but dulling, debasing to its users, and, well, ejaculatory. It’s bad for the soul and, as Donald Trump proves daily, bad for the country.”

As someone who spends too much time on Twitter, I couldn’t disagree more. Twitter — as with books, television, podcasts, or any other medium — is what you make of it. You can visit the library to check out Dostoyevsky or Danielle Steele. Go on YouTube for the BBC’s “Civilisation” documentaries or to see skateboarders getting popped in their yam bags. Download podcasts from Ricochet, or from some horrible, lesser audio network.

The temperature just hit 115° F and my power went out. Welcome to summer in Phoenix. Today’s high is projected to be 117°, while tomorrow’s is 120°. Mercifully, a cold wave rolls in Wednesday and temps plummet to 118°. Hopefully the power will be up by then.

​The show “King of the Hill” best expressed non-Arizonans’ view of the Valley of the Sun.

President Donald Trump opened the first meeting of his full Cabinet with characteristic humility.

"Never has there been a president, with few exceptions,” he announced to the reporters assembled, “who has passed more legislation, done more things."

So, Trump sings his own praises on occasion, despite having few legislative accomplishments to boast of. But the event became more unnerving when he invited each member of his executive team to sing his praises.

Sarah Kliff loves Obamacare. Despite being a journalist for the Washington Post and now Vox, Kliff boosted the program harder than anyone not on the DNC payroll. For years she pushed headlines assuring voters that the ACA was on the brink of success:
​

• “Don’t believe the hype: Health insurers think Obamacare is going to be fine.“
• “How Obamacare could save Detroit.”
• “We’re in a health jobs slump. And it might be good news!“

​Alas, the longer we live with the Byzantine legislation, the harder it is to cheerlead for it. Since November, Kliff has abandoned her PR duties, unable to spin the increasingly dire news:

Everything is terrible and nothing works. Or so the reporting goes.

American politics has devolved into a war of all against all, some defending the president, others attacking him, and many who are content simply to attack his attackers. Republicans blame the dominant GOP for accomplishing little while Democrats blame them for turning America into a hybrid of “The Man in the High Castle” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

​Zoom out the camera lens to the wider world and the headlines are still worse. Russia is undermining democratic institutions in the U.S. and Europe, the Syrian civil war unleashes another atrocity every few days, and terror attacks continue to pile up their grisly body count.

D-list comic Kathy Griffin is transitioning to ISIS-inspired prop comedy. In a photo shoot, likely leaked to TMZ by Griffin herself, she is shown holding an effigy of President Donald Trump — in the form of his severed, bloody head.

Griffin’s attack on Trump is the latest in her desperate cries for attention. While hosting CNN’s New Year’s Eve with Anderson Cooper, she regularly drops the F-bomb live and once groped and pretended to fellate her co-host. She televised a public pap smear before a cheering crowd and mocked Jesus during an Emmy acceptance speech. Griffin has been banned from “Ellen,” “The Tonight Show,” and “The View,” among others.

“You see what Trump just did?!”

As I write this, he’s gotten himself into another jam; by the time you read this, there’ll have been several more.

Our president greets each day with a few odd tweets, puzzling statements or controversial actions, each sending the D.C. press corps into a new panic.

​At least until they’re distracted by the next crazy scoop out of the White House.