PBC News & Comment: Dems Are Losing Control of Russiagate Narrative

With admission that Clinton campaign paid for Steele dossier and release of informant on Uranium One deal, Trump allies gain ground…--Assange confirms approach from Cambridge Analytica, says he rejected collaboration
--Cambridge Analytica has bragged about its microtargeting, but now TrumpCo says it used GOP databases instead
--Senate Judiciary probe into obstruction by Trump falls into partisan squabbles as GOP chair pursues financial info
--Trump pays lip service to opioid crisis—which killed 59,000 last year—declaring public health emergency with no new funding
--billionaire founder of Insys, John Kapoor, is charged with racketeering related to Subsys, a fentanyl-based pain spray
--Jeff Sessions reverts to Reefer Madness and Just Say No, showing his ignorance about drugs
--as expected, GOP-controlled House approves Senate’s bogus budget with lingo to grease tax cuts, but with only a 4-vote margin
--in poll, 69% of Republicans says tax cuts will favor corporations
--Trump’s FCC chairman is eliminating regulations for minimal local service by radio and TV stations, as Lee Fang reports
--Puerto Rico’s recovery is marred by disaster capitalists who want to privatize the utility PREPA and protect vulture bondholders; Kate Aranoff explains it well
--Democrats introduce bill to prevent Trump from launching pre-emptive strike on North Korea
--China’s party congress elevates Xi Jinping to Mao status in advance of Trump visit
--defiant Catalans make confusing moves as Madrid readies takeover
--Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s philanthropy tops Bill Gates, and Zuck will not use foundations to avoid taxes, reports Vice
--George H. W. Bush is a serial groper, and a dirty old man