Mike Ludwig at TruthOut explains "How Net Neutrality Can Survive the Trump Administration." Senate Democrats will force a vote this week on their "resolution of disapproval" that would begin the process of reversing the FCC's repeal, plus the OMB is still reviewing parts of the repeal, and several lawsuits are coming, all of which may give us a bit of breathing room until the midterms, when we might get a more net neutrality-positive Congress. If we stay on them, that is.
Ho hum, Utah prosecutor charges six animal rights activists with felony theft stemming from their exposure of rampant animal abuse at a Utah factory farm. Specifically, the activists took three turkeys who were so abused they were going to die anyway, as about a quarter or turkeys "raised" at factory farms do. Faced with the loss of their ag-gag law, "theft" of dying birds is what they come up with! I hope this prosecutorial effort dies the same death the ag-gag law did in federal court.
Also ho hum, the Tax Policy Center informs us that the Republican tax "reform" has not, in fact, "supercharged" our economy. We see no dramatic increases in GDP growth and job creation since the end of December, for example. And if the economy does wind up cratering, Republican apologists will just say it would have been a lot worse without the tax "reform" bill. Or perhaps they'll bust out that "nobody could have predicted" line, although TPC does suggest that the increase in Treasury bond yields could be a harbinger of increased inflation.
Even more ho hum, our Administration is suddenly unable to produce any evidence it considered any of the public input it solicited over reorganizing federal agencies -- or, indeed, any evidence that it received public input, though OMB claimed to have received 100,000 submissions. They keep moving the deadline back for releasing their plan to reorganize federal agencies, too. Well, that's our "law and order" Administration for us.
Our President apparently hired an Israeli intelligence firm to dig up dirt on the Obama Administration officials who negotiated the Iran nuclear deal. And why are they looking for information that doesn't actually have anything to do with Iranian behavior under the nuclear deal? Because they already know they're not going to find that kind of info (just as Mr. Netanyahu's drama from the other night didn't find that info), and when you can't win the argument on the merits, you resort to personal attacks.
Finally, a poll of New Hampshire Democrats puts Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in third place out of eight possible 2020 Presidential contenders, but that news isn't nearly as "bad" "for Bernie" as the headline says. Elizabeth Warren, who's less likely to run in 2020 than Mr. Sanders, is in first with 26%; if the poll hadn't asked about her, where do you think those votes would have gone? I'll tell you where most of them wouldn't have gone: to second-place finisher and two-term Vice President Joe Biden, also less likely to run in 2020. If anything, this poll is bad news for Deval Patrick (who just served two terms as Governor right next door in Massachusetts) and Terry McAuliffe (whose extensive ties within the Democratic establishment haven't resulted in a groundswell of voter support what a shock).
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