Day 60: Congressional Testimony

The big ticket item today was the head of the FBI James Comey presenting testimony to a House Committee on the FBI's investigation of links between Russia and Trump. It wasn't very nice to the administration, with at least one journalist describing today as the worst day for the Trump administration so far.

• Here are the highlights from the NY Times. The two big items: No, nobody was wiretapping the Trump campaign. And yes, the Trump campaign (now administration) was and remains under a criminal investigation into its ties with Russia.
• That's big. Here it is again: The Trump campaign was under criminal investigation during the campaign and voters were never told. Apparently Clinton's emails were worthy of public notification, even though they were a non-issue. Can I say I am profoundly angry that Comey chose to influence the election in this way?
• The revelations of the hearing were pretty bad for the administration, which started tweeting out selectively edited clips that they claimed victory from. However, those tweets were brought up in the hearing, and were shot down by Comey time and time again.
• The week-long senate session on confirming Gorsuch to the Supreme Court bench started today. I note with a particular bitterness the following quote from Ted Cruz: "the American people played a very direct role in choosing this nominee". Yes, and a convincing majority of those who voted wanted things the other way.
• Could you guess? Gorsuch has pretty terrible views on women.
• Paul Ryan has tweaked his healthcare bill. Hint: it's still terrible. Most of the changes push it even more strongly towards "repeal".
• And why do Republicans like this bill? Because it gives massive (read $200K+) tax cuts to the top earners in the country. Excuse me while I vomit.