GOP tax plan: Lawrence O'Donnell explains final bill
AM Joy 12/16/17
The GOP tax bill will likely be passed including many details that ultimately benefit the rich, and negatively impact the poor and middle class. Lawrence O'Donnell and Joy Reid discuss. Duration: 11:17
Mueller: GOP leaders attack Russia probe prosecutor
AM Joy 12/16/17
Mueller: GOP leaders attack Russia probe prosecutor Republicans accuse special prosecutor Robert Mueller and his team investigating Russia’s election interference of bias. Joy Reid and her panel discuss what experts call this threat to our republic. Duration: 11:39
Black voters, activists huge factors in Doug Jones win
AM Joy 12/16/17
African-American voters, particularly black women, have been given much-deserved credit for helping Doug Jones beat Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race. Joy Reid meets an activist who helped make it happen. Duration: 11:14
Trump attacks Sen. Gillibrand after she calls for his resignation
AM Joy 12/16/17
Sen. Gillibrand called for Donald Trump to resign after being part of a group of senators who called for Al Franken to resign. Can Democrats wield this moral high ground to investigate Trump’s misconduct allegations? Duration: 11:44
Omarosa Manigault might tell all about Trump’s White House
AM Joy 12/16/17
Omarosa Manigault’s exit from Donald Trump’s White House is leading many to speculate: will she attack Trump? Joy Reid and her panel discuss. Duration: 10:20
Trump news: Do FBI attacks show authoritarian leanings?
AM Joy 12/16/17
Donald Trump’s ghost writer for ‘The Art of the Deal,’ Tony Schwartz, says the president wants to create a world which, ‘he controls completely.’ Will the Democrats fight back? Duration: 7:27
War lingers in the landscape. The Secret War is one of America's dark chapters. But as the name implies, it is a chapter rarely read. We take a short look at a war that continues to define the country more than a generation later.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, including Doug Jones defeating Roy Moore to win the Alabama Senate race. Omarosa Manigault Newman (Leslie Jones) stops by to address her firing from the White House.
Weekend Update on the FCC Repealing Net Neutrality - SNL
Published on Dec 16, 2017 by Saturday Night Live
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, including the FCC repealing net neutrality. Guy Who Just Bought a Boat (Alex Moffat) stops by to share holiday dating tips.
CDC gets list of forbidden words: fetus, transgender, diversity The Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the nation’s top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases — including “fetus” and “transgender” — in any official documents being prepared for next year’s budget. Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden words at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing. The forbidden words are “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.” In some instances, the analysts were given alternative phrases. Instead of “science-based” or “evidence-based,” the suggested phrase is “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes,” the person said. In other cases, no replacement words were immediately offered. The question of how to address such issues as sexual orientation, gender identity and abortion rights — all of which received significant visibility under the Obama administration — has surfaced repeatedly in federal agencies since President Trump took office. Several key departments — including Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, as well as Justice, Education, and Housing and Urban Development — have changed some federal policies and how they collect government information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. [...] https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/cdc-gets-list-of-forbidden-words-fetus-transgender-diversity/2017/12/15/f503837a-e1cf-11e7-89e8-edec16379010_story.html
Austrian far-right joins coalition led by PM Sebastian Kurz Austria's president has approved a coalition government between the conservative People's Party and the far-right Freedom Party. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42374693
A bombshell letter charges that Uber hacked into competitors' networks and wiretapped people at a hotel A letter has been made public that alleges Uber "fraudulently impersonates riders and drivers on competitor platforms, hacks into competitor networks, and conducts unlawful wiretapping." The letter was written by a lawyer for a former Uber employee, who claims he was "unlawfully demoted" and later fired by the company. The letter includes copious details about a group within Uber that was allegedly set up to spy on competitors and collect their trade secrets. http://www.businessinsider.com/employee-letter-says-uber-hacked-into-networks-illegally-wiretapped-2017-12
These Schools Get Millions Of Tax Dollars To Discriminate Against LGBTQ Students You might not even know you’re helping. LYNCHBURG, Va. - Sunnie Kahle used to think that if she promised to be good, she could go back to her old school. She’d plead with her great-grandmother to let her enroll again at Timberlake Christian Schools, where she had gone since she was 3 years old. Even if teachers were mean to her, even if other kids said bad things about her, she wouldn’t be mad. She just wanted her old life back. Her great-grandmother and guardian, Doris Thompson, 74, didn’t know how to tell Sunnie she wasn’t allowed back at the school. Administrators didn’t want her there. In a 2014 letter to Thompson that essentially expelled Sunnie, the school referenced several passages from the Bible as to why they wouldn’t take her back. They suggested Sunnie wasn’t acting “Christlike” by wearing her hair short and preferring pants to skirts. Sunnie was 8 years old. She wasn’t traditionally feminine enough for them. Timberlake Christian Schools in Virginia is one of over at least 700 religious schools in America currently receiving public money while openly advertising and practicing anti-LGBTQ policies, HuffPost has found in a new investigation. HuffPost has been examining private schools that receive taxpayer dollars through voucher or tax credit programs. We created a database of more than 7,000 schools in 25 states and the District of Columbia with private school choice programs that give public money to private religious schools. [...] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/discrimination-lgbt-private-religious-schools_us_5a32a45de4b00dbbcb5ba0be
Trump lawyer: Mueller improperly obtained transition documents in Russia probe Exclusive — A lawyer for the Trump presidential transition team is accusing Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office of inappropriately obtaining transition documents as part of its Russia probe, including confidential attorney-client communications, privileged communications and thousands of emails. In a letter obtained by Fox News and sent to House and Senate committees on Saturday, the transition team’s attorney alleges “unlawful conduct” by the career staff at the General Services Administration in handing over transition documents to the special counsel’s office. The transition legal team argues it could be a violation of the 4th Amendment – which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. Kory Langhofer, the counsel to Trump for America, wrote in Saturday's letter that the GSA “did not own or control the records in question.” Langhofer said the special counsel’s office received “tens of thousands of emails” from the GSA as well as certain laptops and cell phones containing privileged materials. The transition attorney said they discovered the “unauthorized disclosures” by the GSA on December 12th and 13th and raised concerns with the special counsel’s office. “We understand that the special counsel’s office has subsequently made extensive use of the materials it obtained from the GSA, including materials that are susceptible to privilege claims,” Langhofer writes. Trump for America is the nonprofit organization that facilitated the transition between former President Barack Obama to President Trump. The GSA, an agency of the United States government, provided the transition team with office space and hosted its email servers. “We continue to cooperate fully with the special counsel and expect this process to wrap up soon,” Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, said Saturday. The special counsel’s office declined to comment Saturday. Langhofer wrote that some of the records obtained by the special counsel’s office from the GSA “have been leaked to the press by unknown persons.” The Trump transition team lawyer also argued the actions “impair the ability of future presidential transition teams to candidly discuss policy and internal matters that benefit the country as a whole.” Langhofer requests in the letter that Congress “act immediately to protect future presidential transitions from having their private records misappropriated by government agencies, particularly in the context of sensitive investigations intersecting with political motives.” The letter was sent to the Senate Homeland Security and House Oversight Committees. The committees did not immediately return a request for comment. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/12/16/trump-lawyer-mueller-improperly-obtained-transition-documents-in-russia-probe.html
Rep. Speier: ‘Rumor on the Hill’ is Trump to Fire Mueller Before Christmas
( https://youtu.be/VPUJD9HR-Xg ) Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo) told KQED Newsroom on Friday that she believes Republicans are trying to shut down the House Intelligence Committee’s probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 elections. Speier also said, “The rumor on the Hill when I left yesterday was that the president was going to make a significant speech at the end of next week. And on Dec. 22nd, when we are out of D.C., he was going to fire Robert Mueller.” If this were to happen, Speier said, it would cause a constitutional crisis. “That is Saturday massacre 2.0,” she said. “Without a doubt there would be an impeachment effort.” Fellow California representative, Adam Schiff (D-Los Angeles), voiced similar concerns on Twitter on Friday. [...] https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/12/15/congresswoman-speier-says-republicans-trying-to-shut-down-russia-probe/
Russia could cut off internet to NATO countries, British military chief warns LONDON — Russia could try to sever global underwater communications cables, potentially triggering catastrophic repercussions for the economy and way of life in the West, the head of Britain’s military has warned. The vast majority of global internet and telephone traffic relied on by Western governments, economies and civilians is carried by cables that crisscross the world's seabeds, according to analysts. NATO has prioritized missions to protect these undersea lines of communication and is working "to match and understand Russian fleet modernization," Chief Marshall Stuart Peach told the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a defense think tank in London. “Russia, in addition to new ships and submarines, continues to perfect both unconventional capabilities and information warfare,” Peach said last week. The cables transport 97 percent of global communications and more than $10 trillion in daily financial transactions, according to a report published earlier this month by British think tank Policy Exchange. “Your emails, what you order on Amazon, your phone calls, online banking, it’s all done through undersea cables not through satellites,” said Peter Roberts, director of military sciences at RUSI. Security experts welcomed Peach's comments, saying the risk of Russian interference was not only real, but had been overlooked for too long. [...] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russia-could-cut-internet-nato-countries-british-military-chief-warns-n830371
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