| By Derek Caney
It was supposed to be a day of pomp and pageantry on Capitol Hill. The Republicans were supposed to celebrate their Election Day victories and lay out a vision for America that would dismantle Obamacare and implement a new conservative vision. Instead, the House Republicans descended into disarray, doubling back on their secret effort to end the independence of an ethics panel after President-elect Donald Trump blasted the timing of that effort. The Senate had more focus, as the New York Times noted: As Democrats in both chambers seethed, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, unveiled the legislative language that could decimate the Affordable Care Act before the crocuses start to bloom in the spring, even if any replacement of the law could take years. The Times went on to report that not only would the legislation lay waste to Obamacare, but under arcane budget procedures, it would be filibuster-proof and debate will begin today. The dismantling of the program could leave tens of millions of Americans without healthcare. Vice President-elect Mike Pence is slated to meet with Republican lawmakers today. President Barack Obama is expected to meet with Democrats to strategize how to protect the program.
I can see my house from here 
Austrian ski jumper Stefan Karft soars through the air in Innsbruck. REUTERS/Dominic Ebenbichle
Around the country - A police officer was videotaped slamming a black girl to the floor at a Rolesville, North Carolina school yesterday. The officer, identified as Ruben De Los Santos, was responding to a fight between two girls. The girl who was slammed into the floor was not a participant in the fight, but had tried to intervene, according to a spokeswoman at the Wake County Public School System.
- Police in Alabama arrested members of the NAACP staging a sit-in at Senator Jeff Sessions' office to protest his nomination for Attorney General, criticizing his record on voting rights and race relations. Sessions is, of course, the gentleman who called the NAACP and the ACLU "un-American."
- Dylann Roof will testify at his sentencing. He faces the death penalty for killing nine black parishioners at a South Carolina church in 2015.
Around the world - Trump's tweet that promised North Korea's ICBM test "won't happen" raises a serious question: Is the United States willing to take military action to stop it?
- The Mexican town of Ciudad Juarez is more ambivalent about a border wall than the rest of the country. They've had extensive fencing there since 2010. Some say the barrier has made life in Juarez better, diverting drug and human traffickers to more remote spots where crossing the border is easier. But the town's new mayor Armando Cabeda notes that the wall simply intensified the war between drug cartels, making the town the murder capital of the world.
- An Israeli soldier, Elor Azaria, was convicted of manslaughter for killing a wounded and incapacitated Palestinian assailant in the West Bank last March. He will be sentenced at a later date.
Around Wall Street - Wall Street lawyer Jay Clayton, who has worked on high-profile initial public offerings such as Alibaba Group, is a leading candidate to head the Securities and Exchange Commission under Trump. The position of SEC chair will be very important to Wall Street investors and executives at Fortune 500 companies at a time when Trump has promised to roll back regulation in a variety of areas.
- Big U.S. banks are set on getting Congress this year to loosen or eliminate the Volcker rule, a major part of the Dodd-Frank reforms passed in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-2008. The rule prohibits the use of money from customers' deposits for speculative bets on the bank's own account. The banks' effort will be an important barometer of the influence they'll have in the Trump administration.
Digits of the day: $182 million Exxon Mobil and its CEO Rex Tillerson plan to sever all ties to comply with conflict-of-interest requirements as the company's former chairman and chief executive awaits confirmation as secretary of state. If confirmed, Tillerson will move about $182 million worth of stock due to him over the next 10 years into a trust. He will also lost more than $4.1 million in cash bonuses he was due over the next three years. Today's reason to live John Prine – Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore |
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