Open Thread Dec. 2: Midnight for the Middle Class

Amid the furor of Mike Flynn’s guilty plea, the Republican Senate spent the day tweaking and re-tweaking its tax gut bill, finally scribbling together an acceptable compromise that passed in the dead of night. Now it just needs to go through the reconciliation process, where some differences have to be ironed out before it can go to Trump. This won’t be an easy trip, because that will coincide with people learning what’s actually in the bills.

As everyone knows, the GOP keeps insisting that unless they passed this bill they would get killed in the midterms. What they mean is that if they hadn’t passed it their funding would have dried up. Most voters won’t benefit from it, and many will get hurt, so it may be that they’re screwed in the midterms either way.

We’ll have a chance to see if dollars really determine the outcome of elections in Alabama, where Democrat Doug Jones has overwhelmed Moore in the money-raising race, $9.9 million to $1.7 million, and his ads are everywhere. If Moore wins despite the gap, will DINOs chalk it up to Moore’s free media? Because my other example of money not mattering is Christine O’Donnell, who spent $6 million and got tons of free media. Where is she now?

Jason330 isn’t alone in his concern that whatever Robert Mueller finds might not matter. Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick, one of the best Supreme Court reporters on the beat, worries that in a post-Trump, truth-elusive age like ours, it might be too late.

At this point, if the White House says water is wet reporters need to check it out before publishing it. Remember that border agent killed in Texas a couple of weeks ago? Trump claimed he was attacked, presumably by Mexicans, but it appears he was probably sideswiped by a tractor-trailer. Let no tragedy go unexploited.

With the holidays upon us, tradition demanded the lighting of the White House Christmas tree. This annual event was one of the hardest-to-get tickets in Washington, until this year. Like the inauguration, this year’s event played to a sea of empty seats. Is America great again yet?

Chip in anything else you find interesting.