Today’s comic by Ruben Bolling is Where the Wild Trumps Are:
• Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran may be headed for the exit:
To the extent that Cochran weighs in on any issue, it's in the form of an official statement from his office or the appropriations panel. He has stopped meeting with anyone about substantive committee business, including other senators or House members, according to several sources familiar with his activities. Cochran’s aides deny this is the case.
The 80-year-old’s feeble performance has fueled expectations — among senators and aides who’ve witnessed his physical and mental decline firsthand — that Cochran will step down from the Appropriations chairmanship early next year, or resign from the Senate altogether.
• Pope’s role in funeral of cardinal who covered up priests’ sex abuse up sparks fury.
• ‘Sesame Street’ gets $100 Million grant to create programming for refugee children:
The nonprofit organization behind “Sesame Street” has been awarded a $100 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation, the largest of its kind, to create programming for children displaced by Syria’s civil war.
Sesame Workshop, in partnership with International Rescue Committee, was selected for the foundation’s coveted 100&Change grant on Wednesday for a proposal to bring early education programming to refugee children. The effort promises to create a scalable, measurable model that can be replicated to educate refugee children around the world.
MIDDAY TWEET
• Memphis moves at night to remove statue of vile Rebel Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest:
When the city of Memphis found itself legally unable to take down two decades-old Confederate statues, lawmakers didn’t give up: They found a loophole.
After months of legal wrangling — including passing new city ordinances — Memphis finally removed its monuments to Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest on Wednesday night.
“The statues no longer represent who we are as a modern, diverse city with momentum,” Memphis Mayor Tim Strickland said in a statement. “So I want you to hear me loud and clear: Though some of our city’s past is painful, we are all in charge of our city’s future. Black and white, young and old — every single one of us. That’s the symbolism for which I want this day to be remembered.”
• Union leaders $1,000 AT&T bonus a drop in the bucket compared with what GOP promised.
• Are U.S.-Saudi nuclear talks a barometer for whither the Middle East?
Talks aimed at transferring US nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia serve as an indicator of where the Saudi-Iranian rivalry is heading as well as the strength of the informal Saudi-Israeli alliance against Iran. The possible transfer could spark a new arms race in the Middle East and constitutes one explanation why Saudi responses to President Donald J. Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel were muted and limited to rhetorical statements.
Mr. Trump’s decision was perhaps most challenging for the Saudis, who as custodians of Islam’s two holiest cities, would have been expected to play a leading role in protecting the status of the city that is home to the faith’s third holiest site. Saudi Arabia was represented at this week’s summit of Islamic countries in Istanbul that recognized East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine by its foreign minister, Adel al Jubeir, rather than the king, crown prince or another senior member of the ruling family.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Shortest day, shortest presidential fingers. Why & how Gop TaxScam might get slow-walked. Congress screws up other urgent year-end business & some of it’s OK. The VA House tie may get untied. When does life begin? Whenever you feel it’s convenient, man.
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