* I might have more to say about this tomorrow, but for now, if you haven’t already listened to Sen. Al Franken’s speech today, here it is:
* It looks like Republicans will give themselves a two-week hiatus from the possibility of a government shut-down.
The House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly passed a stop-gap spending measure to continue funding the federal government through December 22. The bill prevents a shut-down that would be triggered if Congress fails to pass a spending bill before a deadline of midnight Friday.
The final tally was 235 yes votes, and 193 votes against. Thirty-two members bucked their respective parties: 18 Republicans voted no on the overwhelmingly GOP-backed bill, and 14 Democrats voted to pass the measure.
The spending bill will now move to the Senate, where lawmakers said it could be passed as early as Thursday evening, and sent to the president’s desk for signature.
* Dear Donald Jr.,
This kind of thing won’t fly with Mueller.
Sincerely,
#TiredOfLies
Donald Trump Jr. on Wednesday cited attorney-client privilege to avoid telling lawmakers about a conversation he had with his father, President Donald Trump, after news broke this summer that the younger Trump — and top campaign brass — had met with Russia-connected individuals in Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign.
Though neither Trump Jr. nor the president is an attorney, Trump Jr. told the House Intelligence Committee that there was a lawyer in the room during the discussion, according to the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California. Schiff said he didn’t think it was a legitimate invocation of attorney-client privilege…
Trump Jr.’s meeting in June 2016 at Trump Tower — and the president’s response after it became public earlier this year through a New York Times story — has become a central focus of investigators probing whether any Trump associates cooperated with Russian efforts to interfere in the presidential election.
* Kerry Eleveld did some great reporting.
When Alabama Democratic Senate candidate Doug Jones said Tuesday that he “damn sure” did his job “to ensure that men who hurt little girls should go to jail,” he wasn’t bluffing. A quick Nexis search of his years working as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 1997 to 2001 turned up at least a dozen instances in which Jones worked to put men accused of exploiting children behind bars.
Click on the link to see the list of cases Jones prosecuted against pedophiles.
* This rarely happens. So it is important to notice when it does.
Former South Carolina police officer Michael Slager will be sentenced to 19 to 24 years in prison for the deadly shooting of Walter Scott, an unarmed 50-year-old black man. And Slager might have gotten away with it were it not for the bystander video. https://t.co/n1cEA0i6QX pic.twitter.com/Yl21Y08iO9
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) December 7, 2017
* Finally, here’s a cool video of Australian legislators celebrating after they passed marriage equality.
Lawmakers in Australia’s parliament burst into song- literally- after passing a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. pic.twitter.com/lAuQgPSnC7
— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 7, 2017
