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December 2017

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 03, 2017 20 Comments
Public health experts are warning that the upcoming flu season may a rough one in this country, as data from Australia indicate the vaccine selected for this year's strain isn't effective against the virus.
The flu vaccine used this year in Australia — which has the same composition as the vaccine used in the U.S. — was only 10 percent effective, according to a preliminary estimate, at preventing the strain of the virus that predominantly circulated during the country's flu season,an international team of medical experts wrote in a perspective published today in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 03, 2017 62 Comments
Michael Flynn pleaded guilty last week to lying to FBI investigators regarding conversations Flynn had with the Russian Ambassador in late December 2016, barely three weeks before the Trump administration was sworn into office. Such transitions contact with foreigners are routine, and took place during prior administrations, including the Obama administration. That makes perfect sense, since an incoming administration needs to hit the ground running with its foreign policy. Certainly there would have been howls of outrage from the media and Democrats had the incoming Trump administration waited until after the inauguration to make contact with our primary geo-political foes; it would have been portrayed as a sign of incompetence and amateurishness. There was nothing illegal about Flynn speaking with the Russian ambassador and others. But he ran afoul of the law when he lied about it to the FBI.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 03, 2017 33 Comments
Christmas is coming early for America's schoolchildren, as the Trump administration rolls back even more Obama-era lunacy. Chocolate milk will soon be back on public school lunch menus as new rules ease nutritional standards established by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act and championed by former first lady Michelle Obama.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 02, 2017 8 Comments
I'm a Yuge fan of the Talking Heads. Back in the day, when I did triathlons, I used to train to the Talking Heads live Stop Making Sense concert on my iPod. I've also run the Talking Heads as Video of the Day, the last time in September 2014 (which reminds me to re-up them early next year). One of their (many) best songs is Once in a Lifetime:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 02, 2017 34 Comments
The Senate voted early this morning to pass a Tax Reform bill. That bill is not yet law, because differences with the Tax Reform bill passed by the House need to be worked out in conference. Nonetheless, this procedural step forward was considered a big win for Trump and Republicans after Senate Republicans could not pass even a weak repeal and replace of Obamacare because of defections. But this time the caucus held together with just one defection, Bob Corker. How have liberals reacted?

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 02, 2017 35 Comments
It's hard not to feel sorry for Hillary Clinton at times.  Here she was the heir apparent to the White House, a long-time party go-along and malleable puff of air ready to say she believed whatever the driving trend of a given historical moment might be, and at the last minute, her turn was snatched away from her by the American people. She was left spinning, angry and bemused, and she's still not sure what happened. But it's not complicated.  At rock-bottom, it was Hillary's  go-along readiness to manifest Obama's third term and "protect" his legacy, that ever-shifting never-quite-real belief system that Americans rejected. Hillary was for DADT before she was against it, she was for military engagement in the Middle East before she was against it, she pilloried and destroyed women who alleged sexual assaults before she thought they should be believed, she was for more taxes before she was against—and then once more for—them, she supported single-payer healthcare before she didn't (and then did again), she wanted lower taxes before she wanted to gouge the "rich," she was a foreign policy hawk before she was a dove.  The list goes on.  And on.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 02, 2017 35 Comments
One of the only times I've ever seen my father, a career military man and Vietnam veteran, express genuine concern over the direction of our country was in the wake of the FBI's fall from grace under James Comey.  Generally, my dad is upbeat about the perseverance of Americans because of his extensive study of our nation's history and his belief in American exceptionalism.  His disappointment that the FBI, one of the last agencies to lose its good standing among the American people, had succumbed to blatant partisan politics and could no longer be trusted on points of law enforcement and investigation was palpable . . . and heart-breaking. I mention this only because the revelation that an FBI agent, Peter Strzok, who supervised both the Hillary email investigation and the Trump-Russia probe sent anti-Trump text messages to his alleged mistress, an FBI lawyer, goes straight to the heart of many Americans' sense that the FBI should be fair and impartial, working with an eye on the bigger historical and legal picture, above the petty politics of the day.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 02, 2017 51 Comments
Do not trust anti-Trump mainstream media reports based on anonymous sources. That's something we have learned time and again as the motive and pressure to generate headlines on supposed Russia campaign collusion is enormous. It's not just a matter of bad faith, although there's plenty of that. It's competition, and the desire to break news that will dominate news cycles.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on December 02, 2017 42 Comments
At 1:50 a.m. Eastern Saturday morning, December 2, 2017, the U.S. Senate passed a Tax Reform bill after hours of attempts by Democrats to scuttle the bill. Every Republican except for Bob Corker voted in favor, and all Democrats voted against. The Obamacare Mandate, which survived Supreme Court challenge thanks to Chief Justice John Roberts, was effectively repealed as part of the bill. The repeal takes place by virtue of the penalty being removed. If that provision stays in after conference with the House, the Tax Reform would be a double victory for Trump and Republicans.
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