PBC News & Comment: Welcome to the New Dark Ages

Corruption defines Trump and GOP, as brutal tax plan is approved same day Flynn pleads guilty to lying to FBI….--the Flynn deal reveals that the collusion was with Israel, as “Russiagate” morphs into obstruction of justice case embraced by Sen. Feinstein
--Trump’s tweets and comments in defense of Flynn appear self-incriminating,
--Robert Parry notes that Flynn’s take-down is the product of a trap set by Sally Yates and St. James Comey
--also at ConsortiumNews, Joe Lauria recaps the HuffPost censorship of his article that undercut Russiagate narrative
--after GOP lawmakers get their tax cuts, will they turn on Trump and impeach him?
--the radical Republican Senate passed a dirty tax bill in a dirty process
--now that they’ve run up the deficit, Republicans will argue for entitlement cuts
--McConnell asserts there will be no government shutdown, but he needs votes from Dems who were just steamrolled
MidEast Roundup:
--Saudis promote plan that crams “peace” down on Palestinians
--our crown prince, Jared Kushner, appeared at Haim Saban forum, and offered no details of his plan
--Trump tries to appease Zionists with plan to acknowledge Jerusalem as capital of Israel, without moving US embassy there, yet
in NY Times op-ed, former Israeli prime minister and defense minister Ehud Barak issues call to “save Israel” from Netanyahu government
--Netanyahu was exposed, trying to sneak legislation through to stifle investigations into bribes and corruption--of himself!
--Pentagon boss Mattis drops into Egypt on heels of new deal between Cairo and Moscow
--in Yemen, longtime leader Saleh dies within days of announcing he had switched sides, again
--Yemeni Houthis launched a second international missile attack aimed at nuke power plant in UAE
--the previous attack in November against Ryadh was not affected by launch of Patriot missiles, as Trump had falsely bragged; read the report here
--former NSA contractor, now identified as Nghia Pho, gets gentle plea deal
--Trump formally endorses fellow accused sex predator, Roy Moore