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Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

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President Donald Trump hasn't even signed the bill to pass new sanctions on Russia, but the Kremlin decided not to waste time. On Friday, Russian officials demanded that America reduce its number of diplomats to 455 by September 1 and shut down numerous American properties in the country. No one knows exactly how many people work at the U.S. Embassy, but Russian parliamentary vice-speaker Sergei Zheleznyak claims the move will kick out 700 people.

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Congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump's administration decided to abandon the controversial border adjustment tax (BAT) and concentrate more on corporate tax in their tax reform approach. The joint statement read:
While we have debated the pro-growth benefits of border adjustability, we appreciate that there are many unknowns associated with it and have decided to set this policy aside in order to advance tax reform.

Overnight the Senate failed to pass a so-called "skinny" repeal of Obamacare, when three Republican Senators (Collins, Murkowski and McCain) voted against the measure. Whether the "skinny" repeal was an actual repeal was doubtful. As unveiled late last night, it removed the mandate, the medical device tax, and defunded Planned Parenthood, but it was something of a charade. Several Senators voted for it only after Paul Ryan gave some assurance that the Senate bill could be subject to a conference with the House, and would not be passed by the House as is. But passing the "skinny" repeal kept hope alive that there might emerge some meaningful form of Obamacare repeal. The defeat of the bill killed any form of Obamacare repeal for the foreseeable future.

On May 22, 2012, we registered our 100,000th comment from Oregon Mike. Yesterday we registered our 500,000th comment. There is no prize. No money. No special access. Just bragging rights. And the bragging rights go to .....

Jeff Sessions' decision to recuse himself from all things Russia-related eventually led to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, with the intervening impetus of Trump firing FBI Director James Comey and Comey leaking memos to the press. That recusal is the defining event so far of the Trump administration because the Special Counsel investigation seems to have developed into a search for a crime, rather than an investigation into a crime. I addressed this morass in There’s no good way out for Trump from Special Counsel quicksand:

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News and CNN that the Senate Judiciary Committee learned from Bill Browder, the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital, that Fusion GPS, the firm behind the dossier that contained false information about President Donald Trump, also worked for the Russians. He said:
"What we learned today is that the Russians were behind the organization that tried to get dirt on Trump. The dossier against Donald Trump was created by Fusion GPS and their organization and, guess what, the Russians were helping them. This man said the Russians were behind Fusion GPS.

Marine Gen. Joe Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has announced that the military will not change its transgender policy until President Donald Trump sends the Pentagon direction on changes and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis implements it. From Politico:
“I know there are questions about yesterday's announcement on the transgender policy by the President,” Dunford wrote in the message, a copy of which was provided to POLITICO. “There will be no modifications to the current policy until the President's direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance.”

EU’s highest court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), may be set to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Hungary and Slovakia to challenge the EU’s migrant quota scheme, European media reports suggest.

The Advocate General for the European Court of Justice, Yves Bot, who is advising the judges on the case, proposed to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Hungary and Slovakia. His recommendations are not binding, but the top EU court usually follows the opinion presented by the advocate general. Earlier this year, Hungary and Slovakia approached the top EU court to challenge the Brussels’ decision to impose a continent-wide migrant relocation scheme. “Europe's top court looks set to throw out Eastern European objections to enforced migrant quotas,” reported the UK’s Daily Express. “EU strikes double blow against Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic over refugee quotas,” wrote the London-based Financial Times.

Is Mika Brzezinski predicting that President Trump won't serve out his term? Sounds like it, judging by her observation on today's Morning Joe.

"If you are losing Republicans every step of the way because you've proved to be not trustworthy, and you've failed them miserably on health care . . . [and] undermining someone who's been incredibly loyal to you . . . isn't he playing the person who ends up getting fired on The Apprentice, instead of being the person who says "you're fired?"

What's happening with Obamacare repeal, you ask? That is a fantastic question. But at this point, it's quite clear that Republicans who campaigned on repealing the ACA have zero intention of doing so now that the opportunity has presented itself. Seven Republican Senators voted against a so-called "clean repeal" bill Wednesday. Sens McCain, Murkowski, Capito, Lamar Alexander, Collins, Portman, and Heller are responsible for tanking the latest repeal effort. The bill offered no replacement but promised to delay full repeal, giving lawmakers time to figure out the rest.