Sorry for the late post. This is a week behind because I got caught up in holiday merriment. I hope you all did too. And speaking of holidays, Trump declares victory in the war on Christmas, tweeting:

“People are proud to be saying Merry Christmas again… I am proud to have led the charge against the assault of our cherished and beautiful phrase. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!”

90% of Americans celebrate Christmas, so if there’s a war around it, it’s pretty one-sided.

Russia:

1. We learn that last summer, after Russians had already reached out to the Trump campaign, U.S. intelligence agencies warned both Trump and Clinton that foreign agents would try to infiltrate their campaigns and to be aware of any suspicious overtures. Both campaigns were told to alert the FBI immediately if any such overtures occurred.
2. In January 2017, White House counsel knew Michael Flynn had likely broken two federal laws. And then:

• • 1/24/17: Flynn lies to the FBI
  • 1/27/17: Sally Yates warns White House counsel that Flynn could be compromised
  • 1/27/17: Trump asks Comey for his loyalty
  • 2/13/17: Trump fires Flynn
  • 2/14/17: Trump asks Comey to see a way to let the Flynn thing go
  • 5/09/17: Trump fires Comey

3. The Senate Intelligence Committee brings Jill Stein into their Russia investigation with a request for documents about a trip to Russia in honor of Russian state media RT.
4. Kaspersky Labs sues the US government for banning its software on government computers.
5. The House Intelligence Committee interviews Andy McCabe, acting head of the FBI.
6. Andy McCabe says he’ll retire as soon as he’s eligible for full pension in March. He’s been fielding much criticism from Trump’s administration and congressional Republicans.
7. A small group of Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee, led by Devin Nunes, have been working in secret for weeks to build a case of corruption and conspiracy against senior officials in the DOJ and FBI. They think the Steele dossier was mishandled.

• • This small group thinks that the DOJ and FBI are working against Trump and for Hillary, even though actions by the FBI contributed to Clinton’s loss in 2016.
  • The group is expected to use their findings to discredit the investigation into Russian meddling in our election, and to discredit Mueller.
  • The group has kept Democrats on the committee in the dark about what they’re doing.

8. The House Intelligence Committee requests interviews with both Steve Bannon and Corey Lewandowsky.
9. Republicans in the House Intelligence Committee want to wrap up their investigation by the end of the year, though Democrats have several unanswered requests for more interviews. Also there are still interviews scheduled for January.
10. Carter Page blamed his failure to complete his Ph.D. on “anti-Russian bias.” He failed it twice and finally obtained it on the third try. His advisors said his thesis was verbose and vague.

Courts/Justice:

1. Jeff Sessions asks the FBI to look into the Uranium One deal again, likely at congressional Republicans’ behest.

Healthcare:

1. Trump admits that the tax plan is basically a repeal of the ACA. The GOP couldn’t get rid of the ACA on its own, but after the ANWR bribe to Lisa Murkowski, the false promises to Susan Collins, and the major windfall for Bob Corker, they managed to slip it by in the tax bill.
2. Bragging that he managed to get tax reform passed and the ACA repealed, Trump says that repealing the mandate in the tax bill is essentially the same as repealing the ACA. But he told Republicans not to talk about that part of the bill before it was passed. He didn’t want the “fake media” talking about it too much.
3. The day after the tax bill passes, Susan Collins concedes that she won’t be getting the healthcare fixes she demanded in return for her yes vote on the tax bill this year.
4. More and more states warn that some of their children’s health programs will be terminated soon if CHIP is not fully funded.

International:

1. The U.S. blocks a UN Security Council vote calling on nations to not build diplomatic offices in Jerusalem. Nikki Haley uses our veto power for the first time in over six years.
2. Trump threatens to cut off U.S. aid to any country that voted for the above resolution.
3. And then, in a largely symbolic vote and an act of defiance, a vast majority of countries rebuke Trump and denounce his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. 128 nations vote for a resolution demanding that Trump reverse the Jerusalem decision, 9 vote against it, and 35 abstain.
4. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says Palestinians will never accept a peace plan from America because of Trump recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
5. Trump reveals his “America First” foreign policy and security strategy. He paints Russia and China as powers who want to reshape the world in a way that goes against our interests and values (they’re our rivals).
6. The strategy focuses on regaining economic competitiveness across the globe.
7. Despite agreement among top brass in the military that climate change remains one of our biggest global security threats, Trump drops it from the list of global threats.
8. The top threats according to the strategy are rogue regimes, terrorism, and cyber attacks.
9. The strategy has four main principles:

• • Protect the U.S. homeland
  • Protect U.S. prosperity
  • Preserve peace through strength
  • Advance U.S. influence around the world

10. The strategy calls for a wall between us and our neighbors to the south.
11. Mike Pence pays a surprise visit to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
12. North Korea says the latest UN sanctions, written by the U.S., are an act of war.

Legislation/Congress:

1. Four Senators say the calls for Al Franken to resign were premature and they urge him to reconsider. Franken has said he’ll officially resign in January.
2. As a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Elijah Cummings calls on Trump to release his downsizing plans for the government’s workforce. Trump is overseeing the biggest government reorganization in decades with no Congressional oversight and very little transparency.
3. Rumors swirl around that Paul Ryan will retire in 2018.

Travel Ban/Immigration/Discrimination:

1. A jury in Washington D.C. dismiss charges against the first six inauguration day protestors to be tried. A journalist was among those defendants. There are still 188 people facing trial, and this initial court result could affect how or if these cases move forward.

Climate/EPA:

1. After they spoke out or raised concerns about the EPA, at least three EPA employees found themselves being investigated. Specifically they were requested to turn over any emails they wrote that mention Scott Pruitt or Trump along with any communications with Congress that are critical of the EPA.
2. Scott Pruitt puts his red-team/blue-team debate on climate change on hold the same week that a slew of scientific data confirms anthropomorphic climate change. (Of note, the red-team/blue-team idea comes from the Heartland Institute.)
3. The latest climate change reports show that the question is no longer how much people affect the climate. The questions scientists are interested in now are how much the climate has changed and what we can do at this point to mitigate it.
4. Some key findings in the reports include:

• • Climate change set the stage for the extreme weather events we’ve seen in recent years.
  • The Arctic permafrost is melting at a faster rate than originally thought.
  • There is still time to prevent the worst impacts of climate change if we act now.
  • But we don’t have time to continue debating this.

5. China announces the creation of a carbon market to help curb greenhouse gas emissions.
6. A federal court upholds a 20-year ban on new uranium mining claims on a million acres of public land next to the Grand Canyon. The ban was put in place by the Department of the Interior, and the court rules that the ban is constitutional. The ban protects waterways to the Colorado River.
7. On the flip side, the court says that Energy Fuels Inc. can operate a uranium mine in Kaibab National Forest without consulting with the affected Indian tribe.
8. One of the worlds largest coal companies, B.H.P. Billiton, plans to withdraw from the World Coal Association over differences in climate policies. They’ll also review their association with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce because of Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord.
9. Since Trump took office, over 200 scientists have left the EPA. Over 700 people have left the EPA overall.
10. Last week we learned that Scott Pruitt had hired a right-leaning opposition research and media monitoring group for the EPA. This week, depending on who you believe, either the group quits or Pruitt fires them.
11. France passes a law banning gas and oil production by 2040.

Budget/Economy:

1. The House passes the reconciled tax plan on Tuesday, but then the Senate parliamentarian rejects it which means they have to vote again on Wednesday.
2. Here’s a simple calculator showing what the tax plan means for you.
3. Experts in the Treasury Office of Tax Policy say they were mostly shut out of the process for analyzing the tax bill, though Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin previously said he had 100 experts working on it. 100 experts to deliver a 1-page analysis.
4. After criticizing constituent and media reactions to her healthcare deal with Mitch McConnell in return for her yes vote on the tax bill, Susan Collins concedes that there will be no vote this year to fix healthcare, as McConnell promised.
5. In fairness, the Senate puts forth two measures to help stabilize the ACA, but not enough Republicans in the House support it, so they get pushed to next year.
6. The GOP rushed the bill through quickly and didn’t include a standard delay, which is typically included in bills like this in order to give agencies, businesses, and people who provide financial services time to figure things out. For example, the IRS (which is being cut, BTW) has to figure out new withholding amounts for people’s paychecks and reconfigure their tax forms, and ADP has to reprogram their paycheck system.
7. There’s talk that Trump will wait until January to sign the tax bill into law to put off triggering automatic cuts to Medicare and other programs until 2019. To work around this, the GOP adds last-minute wording to the spending bill. Otherwise, they would’ve had to explain these cuts during an election year. I hope they put more and better planning into the rest of the bill.
8. Trump signs the tax bill into law; his first major piece of legislation in his first year in office.
9. Trump says that the biggest part of the tax bill is corporate tax savings, not middle-class tax breaks as promised.
10. Trump’s been asking people how their 401k is doing as a selling point for his policies, but most Americans don’t have a 401k.
11. The Koch brothers plan to launch a multi-million dollar campaign through their super PAC in 2018 to help make the tax plan more popular.
12. The House passes a temporary funding bill to prevent a government shutdown. The bill is not associated with a clean Dream Act and CHIP is only extended to March. The bill passes in the Senate as well.
13. Congressional Democrats back off their promises not to sign a funding bill without a clean Dream Act.
14. Trump signs the temporary funding bill, keeping the government running through January 19, 2018.
15. Carrier Corp. lays off more than 600 employees from their Indianapolis factory just before Christmas. Trump got lots of kudos earlier this year for supposedly working out a deal where Carrier would keep jobs in the U.S.
16. Analyses of the tax plans show that four states—New York, New Jersey, California, and Maryland—will subsidize most of the tax breaks for the rest of the states.
17. The number of people who itemize their deductions on their taxes is expected to drop from 30% to 10%.
18. The House proposes another $80 billion in disaster relief.
19. The Senate Banking Committee rejects Trump’s pick to head the Import-Export Bank, Scott Garret, mostly because of his previous efforts to get the bank shut down.

Elections:

1. The Virginia elections are still up in the air after weeks of recounts. For a moment it looked like the House of Delegates was going to change from Republican control to Democrat, but a court challenge to one ballot leaves two candidates tied and the balance left up to a coin toss. But then the Democratic candidate challenges the Republican’s court challenge.

Miscellaneous:

1. The Trump administration takes down the ‘We The People’ petition site (they say it’s just temporary). The site was instituted under Obama as a way for all Americans to make their voices heard. The White House under Obama would respond to every petition that got 100,000 signatures.
2. Trump’s new presidential coin replaces the phrase “E pluribus unum” with “Make America Great Again” – his campaign slogan. Trump includes his name three times on the coin, removes the presidential seal, and removes the 13 arrows that represented the 13 original states. Also, the coin is very gold.

Polls:

1. A CNN poll has Trump’s approval at 35%, a historic low in that poll for a president in their first year.
2. 55% of Americans oppose the tax bill. 66% say it helps the wealthy more than the middle class.