MORNING MESSAGE
House Democrats: New Leadership, New Energy
Rep.
Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) announced he would challenge [House Minority Leader Nancy]
Pelosi. Only one problem: Pelosi is virtually irreplaceable ... The obvious
course isn’t a futile attempt to dislodge Pelosi, but a concerted challenge to
Chief Whip Steny Hoyer, Pelosi’s number 2. Hoyer is everything young people hate
about Democrats.
TRUMP "WORKING-CLASS" AGenda MAY BUOY CEOS
Trump
may swap corporate tax cut for keeping Carrier plant in US. WSJ:
“Representatives for the incoming administration … have held wide-ranging policy
talks with top-ranking executives at Carrier’s parent company, United
Technologies Corp. … The discussions include the conglomerate’s plans to shift
more than 2,000 jobs from Indiana to Mexico, but have covered other issues,
including the company’s wishes for a tax overhaul … United Technologies … has
large reserves of cash overseas—profits that corporations are waiting to
repatriate to the U.S. until Congress cuts the level of tax they would pay…”
Union
members that backed Trump may get anti-labor laws in return. NYT: “Why,
after unions spent more than $100 million to defeat Donald J. Trump, did Mrs.
Clinton win only narrowly among voters from union households … With Mr. Trump’s
victory and with Republicans now controlling both houses of Congress, unions are
expecting a series of stinging blows … many Republicans are eager to repeal an
85-year-old law requiring that contractors pay union-level wages on federal
projects [and enact] ‘right-to-work’ legislation … Trump will most likely scrap
most of Mr. Obama’s executive orders on labor…”
Trump
will struggle to bring back coal jobs. NYT: “…even if Mr. Trump undoes Mr.
Obama’s policies, many of those plants … are not coming back. Analysts agree
that what Appalachia really needs is a diversified economy, a goal that has
eluded Mr. Obama and state and local politicians.”
Education
Secretary nominee Betsy Devos has the “worst record” of Trump’s possible
choices, says Tulane economics professor Douglas Harris in NYT oped: “As one
of the architects of Detroit’s charter school system, she is partly responsible
for what even charter advocates acknowledge is the biggest school reform
disaster in the country … The situation is so bad that national philanthropists
interested in school reform refuse to work in Detroit … The DeVos nomination is
a triumph of ideology over evidence…”
Barney
Frank argues Trump’s financial deregulation risks another market crash, in
Boston Globe oped: “The abolition of the law’s restrictions on granting
mortgages to borrowers who are highly unlikely to repay means we will see
successors to Countrywide, the mortgage-granting machine that gave us
countrywide defaults. The removal of the regulations governing trading in
derivatives means Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase, and others can return to the
unrestricted dissemination throughout the economy of securities composed of bad
mortgages … It will put Federal officials back to having to choose between
letting a company go bankrupt — Lehman — with its disruptive effect, or bailing
it out — AIG.”
Trump
may revamp Fed. The Hill: “The right has grown increasingly irritated by the
central bank’s policies since the financial crisis and may now be poised to
finally push through long-stalled changes to overhaul its operations … ranging
from tougher oversight to fundamental changes over how the Fed deploys its
powerful tools to steer the economy … [And] there are two openings on the
seven-member board of governors.”
NEW REVELATION OF STEVE BANNON'S RACISM
Steve
Bannon may literally be a white supremacist. NYT: “[Former film collaborator
Julia] Jones [said] Mr. Bannon occasionally talked about the genetic superiority
of some people and once mused about the desirability of limiting the vote to
property owners. ‘I said, “That would exclude a lot of African-Americans,”’ Ms.
Jones recalled. ‘He said, “Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”‘”
“In
Sotomayor Hearings, Jeff Sessions Was Fixated on Discrimination Against White
People” reports Mother Jones: “In that questioning, Sessions focused on two
specific incidents in Sotomayor’s 17-year record as a judge. The first was a
speech Sotomayor gave at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law,
where she said she hoped ‘a wise Latina woman with the richness of her
experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white
male.’ The second was a case in which, as a judge on the Second Circuit Court of
Appeals, she sided with the city of New Haven, Connecticut, which had thrown out
a promotion test for firefighters because few minorities did well on it.”
DEM MAYORS READY TO RESIST
“Cities
Vow to Fight Trump on Immigration, Even if They Lose Millions” reports NYT:
“…officials in sanctuary cities are gearing up to oppose President-elect Donald
J. Trump if he follows through on a campaign promise to deport millions of
illegal immigrants. They are promising to maintain their policies of limiting
local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration agents … Trump has
vowed to block all federal funding for cities where local law enforcement
agencies do not cooperate with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents …
Some believe Mr. Trump could go further than simply pulling federal funding,
perhaps fighting such policies in court or even prosecuting city leaders.”
Dem
senators are a different story. The Hill: “While outgoing Senate Democratic
Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) didn’t want Democrats to work with vulnerable
Republicans ahead of the 2016 elections, his heir apparent Sen. Charles Schumer
(D-N.Y.) is signaling a willingness to let his members do what they need to do
to survive in the next Congress.”
Senate
Republicans may not scrap filibuster. The Hill: “Sen. Lamar Alexander
(R-Tenn.), who led a task force to review potential rule changes, said there
isn’t ‘very much’ of an appetite to overhaul the filibuster … Sen. Orrin Hatch
(R-Utah), the chairman of the Finance Committee, argued the filibuster was one
of the few tools within the government to protect the rights of the minority …
GOP Sens. Bob Corker (Tenn.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Ron
Johnson (Wis.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) are [a;so] signaling they aren’t
inclined to overhaul Senate rules…”
HOUSE DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP ELECTION WEDNESDAY
Rep.
Tim Ryan says he has a “shot to win” House Minority Leader. AP: “Pelosi, a
76-year-old liberal from California who is known for her fundraising prowess,
says she has the support of two-thirds of her caucus … Tim Ryan said House
Democrats’ ‘failure as a caucus has been not to focus on economic issues.'”
TNR’s
Kyle Swenson presses Rep. Tim Ryan on his economic vision: “‘I think social
issues are always part of a presidential campaign,’ Ryan replies. ‘We don’t have
to run from our progressive social agenda because I think most Americans agree
with us on most of it, like on gay rights or even the choice issue. But if they
see you talking only about social issues, and their main issue is their
pocketbook, their job, their economic anxiety, you just look like you don’t
understand them.’ Asked for specifics on the economic message he’d like to see,
Ryan points back to his own district and other former industrial strongholds.
Ohioans have had to get creative about new industries…”
FEDS TRY TO SHUT DOWN PIPELINE PROTEST
Army
Corps of Engineers tries to shut down Dakota Access Pipeline protest. CNN:
“Protesters fighting pipeline construction must vacate property near the
Cannonball River … by December 5 or face arrest … On Sunday, the Corps issued a
new statement saying it wants a ‘peaceful and orderly transition to a safer
location, and has no plans for forcible removal.’ But, those who choose to stay
‘do so at their own risk…’…Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II issued a
statement blasting the Corps, but didn’t say exactly how the tribe would
respond.”
“Rapid”
melt of the Arctic. ABC: “‘While some changes, such as warming temperatures,
are gradual, others, such as the collapse of ice sheets, have the potential to
be not only abrupt, but also irreversible,’ says the Arctic Resilience Report …
Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, described the
phenomenon to Scientific American as being without a known precedent.”
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