The ad battle revs up — in January?! “The American Action Network, a 501 organization aligned with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), has started a $10 million promotional campaign to sell the tax cuts to voters in congressional swing districts. Now the progressive Not One Penny coalition is starting a counterattack, starting with a six-figure buy in Iowa’s 1st District, represented since 2015 by Rep. Rod Blum (R).”
The special prosecutors must struggle to contain their glee. President Trump invites obstruction: “Trump says GOP should ‘finally take control’ of Russia investigation.”
The GOP crusade to give tax breaks to the rich did nothing for working-class wages. “The significant pay premium that Americans used to receive for working at large companies has shrunk rapidly in recent decades, especially for lower-wage workers, a new study finds. For the last century, economists have noted that similar workers tend to earn significantly more at large firms than at small ones — a premium that worked out to nearly 50 percent higher pay in the early 1980s for an employee who went from a company employing fewer than 100 people to one employing 10,000 or more.”
Even if Trump won’t fight for human rights, local governments can make a contribution. “City Council members in Washington, D.C., voted Tuesday to rename the street in front of the Russian embassy after a slain critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The council voted unanimously to pass, on an ’emergency basis,’ renaming a portion of Wisconsin Avenue in honor of Boris Nemtsov, pending passage of permanent legislation.” Fabulous.
As he brawls with critics over his metal capacity claiming memory failure could be problematic. “[T]he depositions [from past lawsuits] show that Trump is also experienced in the favorite tactic of people being asked uncomfortable questions under oath: Profess having no recollection. Time and again, Trump told attorneys that he didn’t remember certain incidents or facts. Judgments on just how credible this will depend on who’s making the judgment, though as the opposing counsel in the Trump University case pointed out, Trump has in the past bragged that he has one of the best memories in the world.”
Waging war against convenience-store clerks. “Immigration agents on Wednesday targeted about a hundred 7-Eleven stores in a sweep to interview workers, open employment audits, and arrest 21 people suspected of being in the country illegally. According to the Associated Press, the action was aimed at management conducting illegal hiring practices more than at undocumented workers.”
Imagine an ally trying to grapple with his constant about-faces. “Fresh off comparing the size of his ‘nuclear button’ to that of Kim Jong Un, President Donald Trump told reporters at Camp David on Saturday that he would be willing to speak with the North Korean leader by phone, a gambit that he claimed doesn’t include an offer to enter talks without preconditions. ‘I always believe in talking,’ Trump said, when asked whether he would take a call from Kim.” But didn’t he tell Secretary of State Rex . . . oh never mind.